When outsourcing services and selecting potential vendors and suppliers, what is most critical to the selection process and establishing the shortlist of providers? From experience, what are the specific non-negotiables that you are looking for?

There are certain qualifiers we use when selecting suppliers for services.  These are not in order of importance; they are all must have. 
1. Cyber security
2. Verification of financial stability
3. Safety - When selecting subcontractors that will be on site or customers sites. 
4. Compliance with our ethics policies

On the commercial side we look at:
1. Qualification / ability to meet the terms of the requirements or SOW.
2. Agreement to our standard T's & C's
3. Competitive on price and agreement on year over year productivity improvements
4. Agreement to our standard pay terms
5. Are they diverse or women owned

6. Leadership team and if their strategic outlook aligns with our requirements

A few of the important areas to check and analyze are-

1. Maturity of the IT systems of vendor, especially for the data protection, and cyber security

2. Quality of the human resources, reviewing the team that will be assigned to my work. Do they have the right technical and process skills, and how do they collaborate with-in their teams

3. Ability to promise the service quality and willingness to share the risks and business impact if there will be an avoidable failure 

4. Ability of the vendor to understand and empathize with my customers, organization's teams, and culture

5. Does the vendor have a growth mindset and will they be able to aim for a continuous improvement, instead of just supporting the current applications

6. In last, the hygiene factor of vendor's financial, and personnel stability, market reputation, and willingness to run that extra mile for delivering the required service quality

Some non-negotiable are such as:

1. Social sustainability & labour practices
2. Financial stability & related checks
3. Production Scalability in shorter time periods
4. Net Zero commitments & Scope 3 data
5. Global support & coverage for services & parts.