Vendor evaluation criteria must reflect Australian market realities while maintaining global best practices. Local support availability during Australian business hours, understanding of GST implications, and familiarity with Australian business practices significantly impact implementation success. Requirements should specify expected support response times, escalation procedures, and preferences for local account management.
Prioritisation frameworks help manage competing stakeholder demands while maintaining project focus. The MoSCoW method (Must have, Should have, Could have, Won't have) provides clear categorisation that vendors understand. Each requirement category should include specific acceptance criteria, enabling objective vendor assessment and reducing ambiguity during contract negotiations.
Data migration requirements often determine project success yet receive insufficient attention during initial analysis. Australian businesses must consider data quality, format conversions, and historical data retention requirements under various regulations. Requirements should specify data volumes, transformation rules, and validation procedures to ensure smooth transitions.
Requirements analysis for Australian SaaS solutions must address data residency and sovereignty concerns that European or American frameworks often overlook. Australian government contractors face explicit requirements under the Protective Security Policy Framework (PSPF) to maintain data within Australian jurisdiction, while healthcare organisations must comply with My Health Records legislation and state-based health privacy frameworks. Requirements documents should explicitly specify whether Sydney or Melbourne datacenter residency is mandatory, whether disaster recovery must remain within Australia, and how vendor access from offshore locations will be managed. The analysis must also address Australian-specific integration requirements—connecting with MYOB or Xero for financial data, integrating with Medicare or Centrelink for government services, or supporting Australian banking rails like BECS/NPP for payments.