What is a RFI?
Definition
Request for Information - a preliminary document gathering basic vendor capabilities and qualifications before the formal RFP. RFIs help shortlist vendors, understand market options, and refine requirements for the RFP phase without commitment."
Why This Matters
A Request for Information helps you efficiently shortlist qualified vendors before investing time in full RFP evaluation. An RFI enables you to narrow your field to the most qualified candidates, ensuring your detailed evaluation focuses on viable options. This preliminary step prevents wasted effort on vendors who can't meet your basic requirements.
Related Terms
Showing semantically related terms from our RFP knowledge graph. Priority connections are highlighted.
Essential Connections
Vendor Qualification
Vendor Management & Evaluation
The process of verifying vendors meet minimum requirements for financial stability, industry experience, customer references, security certifications, and regulatory compliance before allowing RFP participation.
Procurement Process
RFP Fundamentals
The end-to-end process of identifying needs, evaluating vendors, negotiating contracts, and procuring software or services for an organization.
Vendor Assessment
Vendor Management & Evaluation
Systematic review of vendor capabilities including product demos, reference checks, security audits, financial stability analysis, and roadmap evaluation.
RFP Process
RFP Fundamentals
The systematic workflow for soliciting and evaluating vendor proposals including planning, document creation, vendor outreach, response collection, evaluation, and final selection.
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