The offshore drafting vendor checklist.
A 14-page due-diligence guide every Engineering Manager, BIM Lead, and Procurement Officer should run before awarding an offshore drafting contract. Free. No sales sequence.
Nine gates. Seven red flags. One scoring rubric.
The checklist is what we use internally when auditing competitor vendors for clients who want a second opinion. Battle-tested across 300+ engagements and 12 client-requested vendor reviews in the last 18 months.
- Nine-gate technical due-diligence process
- Seven red flags that signal an under-resourced vendor
- Code & standards verification questions
- Security, NDA, and IP-handling red flags
- Benchmark pricing by drawing type (2026 data)
- Sample SOW & vendor scoring rubric template
- Reference-check conversation script
Offshore Drafting Vendor Checklist
Send us your work email and we'll deliver the PDF within 5 minutes. No marketing sequence, no sales calls.
Every vendor should pass all nine before a contract.
Sample Deliverable
A redacted sample of recent work in your specific discipline. If they can't provide one under NDA, they don't have one.
Free Pilot
Any legitimate vendor will deliver the first drawing free. This is the only real test of production quality.
Named Senior Engineer
Who is the senior engineer owning your account? LinkedIn verifiable. Available for a kickoff call before contract.
Reference Call
30-minute call with a current client in a comparable discipline. Not a testimonial, not a case study — a live call.
Standards Verification
Test them on your internal templates and jurisdiction-specific code knowledge. Ask specific-version questions.
Security Review
NDA terms, data handling, encrypted storage, access controls, incident-response protocol. All documented.
Revision SLA & QA
Written revision SLA, multi-stage QA process, deliverable retention, and escalation path.
Pricing Benchmark
Benchmark against industry ranges. Savings above 70% vs onshore often indicate quality shortcuts.
Transition Plan
Does the engagement support your internal capability-building? Template libraries and knowledge transfer?
Walk away if you see any one of these.
- No named senior engineer. Delivery quality reflects who owns your account — if only sales is named, plan for problems.
- "Yes" to every scoping question. Good vendors push back on unclear scope. Unqualified "yes" means they haven't understood.
- Unclear QA process. If you ask how drawings are checked and get vague answers, there's no QA process.
- Refusal of pilot or sample. Every legitimate vendor does a free or low-cost pilot. Refusal signals something to hide.
- Testimonials without names. "Engineering Director, Major Mining Company" is fabricated until proven otherwise.
- No written security documentation. A vendor without a one-page security summary isn't procurement-ready.
- Rates 70%+ below onshore. Unsustainable pricing means corners being cut. Find out which corners before signing.
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