ARC Advisory Group announced the release of its global service provider (GSP) selection guide, which includes both selection criteria and guided workflow steps for choosing a service company. Its attributes are designed to help industrial organizations involved in GSP selection make quicker, more informed decisions. The selection criteria cover both corporate IT and manufacturing IT, including communications with control systems.

ARC says GSP has become mission critical as companies have become more complex and decision making involves both managing specific technologies and major programs. Industrial organizations require application and IT infrastructure development, roll-out and maintenance that conforms to the specific needs of their business. Suppliers have specific subject area expertise, geographic presence and knowledge of certain industry’s dynamics, making proper supplier selection critical.

ARC’s Solutions That Accelerate Results (STAR) supplier evaluation and selection service aims to help users evaluate and select potential service providers against specific technology, application and industry requirements. These include project and team definition; reviewing and editing ARC-provided selection criteria and supplier questions; weighing selection criteria; developing a supplier request for information (RFI) list; evaluating supplier responses; and developing a final ranking of RFI results. ARC STAR then documents the process for management to review.

For more information on ARC’s supplier evaluation and selection guide, click here.