Field Note

What a senior CIO actually reads in a software RFP response.

Field notes from forty enterprise procurement cycles we participated in over the last three years. What gets read, what gets skipped and what disqualifies a vendor in the first ten minutes.

Editorial Desk 9 min read

A senior CIO reads an RFP response the way a senior investor reads a pitch deck — the first two pages decide whether the rest gets read.

  • Skipped: the "about us" section and every logo wall
  • Read: the reference-customer list, especially the ones they have not heard of
  • Read carefully: the security section, but for what is missing more than what is claimed
  • Disqualifying: an implementation timeline that does not name a lead engineer
I do not care how many customers you have. I care whether one of them will pick up the phone when I call.
— CIO, national bank

Bring us the problem

Tell us where the system is breaking.

The first call is with an architect, not a salesperson. Send a brief and we'll bring a working example to the second call.

Start a project Talk to engineering