Prioritising requirements and evaluating suppliers

Prioritising requirements and evaluating suppliers sits at the heart of AC 2.1 in the FREE02 People Professional Technologies unit, which asks learners to explain the key steps in selecting appropriate people technology. This video addresses how to move from a raw, unfiltered list of stakeholder requirements and user needs towards a structured set of priorities that can genuinely drive a procurement decision. Central to that process is the distinction between must-have and nice-to-have requirements, alongside consideration of integration needs with existing systems such as payroll, finance, and identity management.

The video introduces the MoSCoW method as a prioritisation framework, covering its four categories — Must have, Should have, Could have, and Won't have — as a structured way to sort requirements and manage stakeholder expectations. Supplier due diligence is examined as a discipline in its own right, with the video covering financial stability, track record, references, and security practices as distinct areas of scrutiny. Data and security requirements receive specific attention given the sensitivity of people data, including questions around where data is stored and what evidence of security audits a supplier should be expected to provide.

Total cost of ownership (TCO) is presented as a financial evaluation method that goes beyond headline subscription or licence fees to account for implementation costs, data migration, configuration, training, and less visible charges that organisations frequently overlook during supplier selection. The video also addresses how to construct evaluation criteria and scoring approaches so that supplier comparisons are made systematically against the prioritised requirements rather than on impression alone. Accessibility and the practical realities of integration architecture, including APIs, custom development, and middleware, are among the further topics covered within the supplier evaluation discussion.