Article:
Selecting the Right Vendor for Your Mobile App
Categories
The best vendors aren’t just software providers, but partners who build inclusive, efficient tools with long-term value for customers.
But how do you ensure your vendor suits these goals? Use a human-centered, data-informed procurement approach to transform services, enhance customer experience, and ensure technology investments meet real-world needs.
Common Challenges in Vendor Selection
Many organizations make the mistake of choosing vendors based on surface-level impressions—focusing on visual appeal or flashy demos instead of usability, compliance, and long-term functionality. For public agencies, additional requirements such as accessibility, public accountability, and regulations add complexity.
Without a clear roadmap, procurement can become risky and time-consuming. And when serving large, diverse audiences, the stakes are even higher.
A Human-Centered Approach to Vendor Selection
A structured, human-centered approach turns vendor selection into a clear and effective process. By prioritizing user and staff needs during procurement, you can make informed decisions that lead to long-term success.
How to Build a Rigorous Vendor Evaluation Process
1. Define What Success Looks Like
Before inviting vendor proposals, start by describing what a successful solution looks like. This should include functional requirements (the tasks the app must perform) as well as user-centered criteria like accessibility, design quality, and ease of use.
Ask questions like:
- Who will use this app, and what do they need it to do?
- What issues are we solving for users and staff?
- How will we measure success?
These answers are the foundation for your vendor evaluation.
2. Create Detailed, Transparent Scoring Criteria
Clear, documented criteria will ensure vendor selection is fair, consistent, and evidence-based. Examples include:
- Usability: Ease of use for completing key user tasks
- Accessibility: Compliance with standards like Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
- Compatibility: Compatibility with existing systems and infrastructure
- Support: Strength of the vendor’s maintenance and support plan
Your scoring criteria will be a shared reference, keeping the evaluation focused and avoiding personal biases.
3. Engage Stakeholders Early and Often
Procurement isn’t just an IT effort—it’s an organization-wide initiative. Include key stakeholders in your process, such as:
- Leaders, to ensure strategic alignment
- IT professionals, for their technical expertise on integration and security
- Users, whose feedback reveals usability issues
For example, the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department included over 80 staff members in their vendor evaluation process, This ensured their final selection represented broad perspectives and met real-world needs.
4. Prioritize Real-World Testing Over Promises
Many vendors look good during demos but struggle to deliver once their product is in use. Testing is key to seeing more than just the sales pitch. Best practices for testing include:
- Testing usability: Measure vendor performance by observing users complete tasks critical to your operations
- Checking accessibility: Use expert audits or feedback from people with disabilities to find problems
- Reviewing against standards: Identify usability issues by comparing a product to design principles
These methods provide useful data, helping you select a solution that performs—not just promises. Our team applies rigorous technical evaluations to assess COTS and custom solutions—ensuring they deliver beyond the demo and meet the real-world demands of public service.
5. Future-Proof Your Decision
Vendor selection isn’t just about today’s needs. It’s also about how long a solution will last. Consider:
- Scalability to grow with your users and services
- A stable vendor with a history of success and credible strategies for innovation
- Easy integration with business tools like identity management or analytics platforms
By checking for these factors, you can avoid selecting a vendor who loses their usefulness—or worse, disappears entirely.
Closing Thoughts
Selecting a mobile app vendor is more than procurement—it’s an opportunity to invest in solutions your customers will enjoy. With a human-centered approach, your process can be clear, collaborative, and focused on effective results.
Every decision-maker faces tough choices, but you don’t have to make them alone. We specialize in helping organizations create structured, human-centered procurement processes that remove guesswork and deliver long-term value.