Vendor Evaluation
Score what matters: must-haves, weighted wants, risks, and total cost — not demo polish alone.
Workflow
- Decision, constraints, must-haves vs nice-to-haves.
- Criteria + weights (security, cost, UX, ops, lock-in).
- Candidate list and disqualify early misses.
- Evidence: docs, trials, references — not brochure claims.
- Scorecard + recommendation + risks.
- Pilot plan if close.
Output format
## Evaluation: <category>
### Must-haves
### Scorecard
| Criterion | Weight | Vendor A | Vendor B | Notes |
### TCO notes
### Risks / lock-in
### Recommendation
### Pilot plan
Rules
- Never invent SOC2/pricing; mark unknown.
- Weight security for sensitive data.
- Include exit cost / data portability.
- Separate build option when relevant.
- Document who scored and when.
Edge cases
- Incumbent bias: re-score fairly.
- Open source + support vendor: split product vs support.
- Multi-year contracts: renegotiation leverage notes.