What should procurement ask an agency or software vendor about its team?

Evaluate the people assigned to your work, not the titles displayed on a careers page. Use these questions in the GEO proposal review:

• Who is accountable for strategy, collection quality, technical changes and editorial approval?
• Which named people will deliver the work, and what happens if they leave?
• How many accounts does each delivery person support?
• Is onboarding individual, group-based or self-service?
• Does a strategist publish changes, or only recommend them?
• Are advisory staff also responsible for renewals or expansion?
• Who can challenge the chosen prompts and the interpretation of reported improvement?
• Can we export raw observations, prompts, classifications and change logs?
• Which deliverables remain ours after termination?
• What activities require additional fees or internal engineering time?

Also require rules for external advocacy and reviews. FTC guidance addresses fake reviews and prohibits incentives conditioned on a particular review sentiment; incentives can also require disclosure. A search-visibility objective does not remove those obligations. Have legal review any proposed review or endorsement programme. (ftc.gov)