Start an HRIS Selection and RFP Advisory Practice

1. 1

   Commit to vendor neutrality and say so loudly

   Your entire value is that you do not sell software and take no vendor commissions. Put it in writing on every proposal. The moment a client suspects you are steering them to a platform that pays you, the advice is worthless. Neutrality is the product, and it is what separates you from a reseller or a lead-gen site.

2. 2

   Build a reusable requirements workbook

   Most bad HRIS purchases start with a fuzzy sense of what the company needs. Create a structured requirements process: current-state pain, must-have versus nice-to-have modules (core HR, payroll, benefits, time, performance, learning), integration needs, headcount and multi-state or multi-country footprint, and a realistic budget band. This workbook is the asset you reuse on every engagement.

3. 3

   Turn requirements into a scored RFP

   Translate the requirements into a weighted scorecard and a written RFP the vendors respond to, so you are comparing on the same criteria instead of on demo polish. Script the demos to the client's real scenarios (run our actual multi-state payroll, show our open-enrollment flow) rather than letting each vendor run their canned highlight reel. Scoring is what makes the recommendation defensible.

4. 4

   Decode the opaque pricing

   Enterprise HRIS pricing is quote-based and ranges widely, roughly $15 to $100+ per employee per month depending on vendor, tier, and modules, with implementation fees on top. Part of your job is normalizing quotes into a true total-cost-of-ownership comparison over three to five years, including implementation, integrations, and the modules the client will actually turn on. Buyers cannot do this alone, which is why they pay you.

5. 5

   Run references and pressure-test the shortlist

   Call real customers of the finalist platforms who match the client's size and industry, ask the questions vendors hope nobody asks (what broke at go-live, what does support actually respond like, what did the second-year bill look like), and fold the answers into the score. Reference checks routinely flip a shortlist, and they are where your independence pays off.

6. 6

   Deliver a decision, not a menu

   End every engagement with a clear written recommendation: the platform, the reasoning tied to the scorecard, the negotiated pricing position, and the risks to manage in implementation. Buyers hire you to reduce a scary decision to a confident one. A crisp recommendation with the evidence behind it is the deliverable they remember and refer.

7. 7

   Extend into negotiation and implementation oversight

   The natural next sale is helping the client negotiate the contract (pricing, module bundling, implementation terms) and then providing vendor-side oversight during the deployment as an independent client advocate. This turns a one-time selection fee into a longer engagement and pairs cleanly with, but stays independent from, any implementation partner.

Do not take our word for the money. Put your own numbers in and see what this idea has to earn before it works. Free, instant, no account needed.

Best for: HR leaders, HRIS pros, and procurement-minded consultants who have bought or run these systems

Not for: Not for anyone who wants to resell software or collect vendor kickbacks; that is the opposite business and it destroys the neutrality this one is built on. Not for people who cannot sit with a client's ambiguity long enough to define real requirements. And not for someone unwilling to make a call, because a recommendation that hedges everything gives the buyer nothing to act on.