nerdexam
CompTIA

CAS-001 · Question #480

The sales team is considering the deployment of a new CRM solution within the enterprise. The IT and Security teams are members of the project; however, neither team has expertise or experience with…

The correct answer is D. Research the market, select the top vendors and solicit RFPs from those vendors. When teams lack expertise with a proposed system, the correct first step in a formal procurement process is to research the market and issue RFPs to qualified vendors before engaging any single vendor.

Integration of Computing, Communications and Business Disciplines

Question

The sales team is considering the deployment of a new CRM solution within the enterprise. The IT and Security teams are members of the project; however, neither team has expertise or experience with the proposed system. Which of the following activities should be performed FIRST?

Options

  • AVisit a company who already has the technology, sign an NDA, and read their latest risk
  • BContact the top vendor, assign IT and Security to work together to implement a demo and pen
  • CWork with Finance to do a second ROI calculation before continuing further with the project.
  • DResearch the market, select the top vendors and solicit RFPs from those vendors.

How the community answered

(51 responses)
  • A
    12% (6)
  • B
    2% (1)
  • C
    4% (2)
  • D
    82% (42)

Why each option

When teams lack expertise with a proposed system, the correct first step in a formal procurement process is to research the market and issue RFPs to qualified vendors before engaging any single vendor.

AVisit a company who already has the technology, sign an NDA, and read their latest risk

Visiting an existing customer and signing an NDA is a valid due-diligence activity but assumes a vendor has already been shortlisted, which first requires market research to have been completed.

BContact the top vendor, assign IT and Security to work together to implement a demo and pen

Contacting a single top vendor and conducting a demo bypasses competitive evaluation and presupposes a vendor selection without the market research needed to justify that choice.

CWork with Finance to do a second ROI calculation before continuing further with the project.

Performing a secondary ROI calculation is premature because solution scope, vendor pricing, and capabilities are still unknown, making any ROI figure speculative and unreliable at this stage.

DResearch the market, select the top vendors and solicit RFPs from those vendors.Correct

Researching the market and soliciting RFPs from top vendors is the mandatory first step in a structured procurement process, as it establishes an objective baseline of available solutions and allows the organization to define requirements before any vendor is engaged. RFPs enable competitive evaluation so that multiple vendors can be compared on equal terms. Without this step, the organization risks committing resources before understanding the full solution space or vendor landscape.

Concept tested: IT procurement process and RFP-based vendor selection

Source: https://csrc.nist.gov/publications/detail/sp/800-161/rev-1/final

Topics

#vendor selection#RFP process#project management#due diligence

Community Discussion

No community discussion yet for this question.

Sign up to join the discussion
Full CAS-001 Practice