Application: Interfacing with Vendors During Systems Acquisition

Establishing and maintaining open and active communication—both internally with stakeholders and externally with vendors—is a critical component of the system selection process, and an organization’s failure to do so can seriously compromise the acquisition of a new information system. This holds particularly true for (and can be especially challenging with) vendor-related communications, which involve conveying and eliciting a complexity of technical, organizational, and contractual information to and from the vendor as a part of the acquisition process.

To preparefor this Application Assignment, select a specific type of health information system, research the major vendors that offer software applications of this system, and review the specific details of each vendor’s system offering.

To completethis Application Assignment,write a 1- to 2-page paperbased on your findings in which you explain—from the perspective of the member of a team charged with acquiring this specific type of health system for your organization—whether you would opt to use a request for proposal (RFP), a request for information (RFI), or another (nontraditional) approach to communicating with the vendors that offer software applications of this system. Then, detail the specific information that you would include in your acquisitions-related communications with these vendors to optimize the solicitation of information from them in return.