Most WMS RFPs fail at the same thing — they count features instead of asking the questions that separate capable vendors from marketing language. This template is the ten sections we wish every mid-market 3PL would send us, including the hard questions we sometimes have to answer "no" to. Use it with every vendor on your shortlist.
Copy the sections below into your own document. Drop anything that does not apply to your operation. Add a scope section at the end that describes your facility count, user count, integration list, master data volumes, and target go-live date. Send the same RFP to every vendor on your shortlist and ask them to reply in writing by a specific date. Score the answers as a team, not by one person.
Score each section on a simple 1–5 scale against how specific and verifiable the vendor's answer is. Marketing language scores 1. A specific workflow walk-through with screenshots and a customer reference scores 5. Add up the scores, then ignore the total and read the low-scoring sections again. Those are the workflows that will hurt on day 90 of go-live.
No. The template is inline on this page in its full form. If you want a Word version with a cover page and scoring rubric to hand to your team, there is an optional request form at the bottom of the page — but the content is free to read and copy directly.
Long enough to cover your operation and short enough that vendors actually answer every question. 10 to 15 pages of questions plus your scope section is a realistic upper bound. An RFP that is 80 pages and takes six months to score is a signal the evaluation process itself needs fixing.
Follow up with the same question one more time in writing and ask for specifics. If the second answer is still marketing language, that is a data point about how the vendor will respond when you open a support ticket two years from now.
Only if you are a mid-market 3PL or manufacturer and our strengths (native TBMS, embedded CODI AI assistant, 24/7 US-based human support, 20-year average customer tenure) match your decision drivers. If your decision driver is Gartner MQ presence, Manhattan or Softeon will score better on that dimension. Use this RFP with every vendor on your shortlist, including us.
The SC Codeworks team, drawing on patterns we see across mid-market 3PL evaluations. The questions are the ones we wish every prospect would ask us — including the hard ones we sometimes have to answer "no" to.
