RFP Checklist for NDT Company ERP Software: 40 Questions to Ask Every Vendor

Why NDT Companies Need a Different Kind of RFP

Most ERP request-for-proposal templates in circulation were written for distribution warehouses or general field service contractors, and they ask the wrong questions for an inspection company. They'll ask a vendor about inventory management and invoicing, which matter, but they won't ask whether the system can block a job dispatch when a technician's Level II UT certification has lapsed, or whether it can produce a calibration traceability chain for a report a client is disputing from eighteen months ago. Running a generic RFP process against NDT-specific software vendors produces vague, hard-to-compare answers, because the questions don't touch the parts of the system that actually determine whether it will work for inspection operations.

This checklist is built specifically for companies evaluating ERP software for NDT, calibration, or technical inspection services. It's organized into eight categories with forty concrete questions — send it to every vendor on your shortlist verbatim, and score the answers side by side rather than relying on a sales deck. A vendor who can answer these specifically, with a live demo, is a very different proposition from one who answers "yes, the platform is fully configurable" to everything.

Category 1: Personnel Certification Management

• Can the system track certification by individual NDT method (UT, RT, MT, PT, VT, ET, PAUT, TOFD) and qualification level separately, not as a single blanket "certified" flag?
• Does it track recertification cycles and automatically flag technicians approaching expiration, with configurable lead time (30/60/90 days)?
• Can it track vision test currency (near and color vision per SNT-TC-1A recommended practice) as a distinct data point from certification level?
• Does the system store the full certification history for each technician, not just current status, so past qualification on a given job date can be proven later?
• Can it block or flag dispatch of a technician to a job requiring a method or level they aren't currently qualified for?

Category 2: Equipment and Calibration Management

• Can the system track calibration due dates by individual instrument serial number, with automatic alerts before a unit goes out of tolerance?
• Does it store calibration certificates and traceability documentation (NIST-traceable standards) attached to each calibration event?
• Can it flag a scheduling conflict if an instrument due for calibration is assigned to a job before that calibration is completed?
• Does it support tracking of consumables with expiration dates — penetrant, developer, magnetic particle ink batches — separately from capital equipment?
• For companies running radiography, can it track licensed source inventory, device serial numbers, and source utilization logs as required for NRC or Agreement State license compliance?

Category 3: Job Scheduling and Dispatch

• Does the scheduling module cross-reference technician certification and equipment calibration status automatically before confirming an assignment?
• Can it handle multi-day turnaround/outage scheduling with shift-based crew rotation, not just single-visit service calls?
• Is there GPS or location tracking for field crews, and does it integrate with the dispatch calendar?
• Can dispatchers see real-time crew status (en route, on-site, delayed) without a phone call?
• Does the system support on-call rotation management for emergency callout work?

Category 4: Mobile Field Reporting

• Does the mobile app function fully offline, including data entry, sketch/diagram tools, and photo capture, with reliable sync once connectivity returns?
• Can field technicians complete a full method-specific technique sheet (UT thickness map, MT/PT indication log, RT exposure record) on a phone or tablet in the field?
• Does the app support digital signatures with a timestamped audit trail, including Level III review sign-off where required?
• Can photos be geotagged and linked directly to specific indications or readings within the report?
• How is data loss prevented if a device is dropped, damaged, or loses battery mid-shift?

Category 5: Reporting and Compliance

• Can the system generate reports formatted to specific code requirements (API 510/570/653, ASME Section V, AWS D1.1) without manual reformatting?
• Is there an audit trail showing every edit to a report after initial submission, with who made the change and when?
• Can it produce a complete calibration and certification traceability package for a specific historical report on demand, for a client or code-authority audit?
• Does it support customer-specific report templates for clients who require their own format?
• How does the reporting module relate to dedicated NDT reporting software — is it built in, or does it require a separate integrated product?

Category 6: Financials and Job Costing

• Can the system track job costing in real time (labor, equipment, consumables, per diem) rather than only at month-end reconciliation?
• Does it support both day-rate and footage/unit-rate billing models, common in pipeline and turnaround work?
• Can it integrate with existing accounting software (QuickBooks, Sage, Xero) without requiring a full accounting migration?
• Does it handle multi-entity billing for companies operating under more than one brand or subsidiary?
• Can it track per-client contract terms (rates, payment terms, insurance requirements) and flag violations before a job is scheduled?

Category 7: Data Migration and Implementation

• What is the vendor's process for migrating existing spreadsheet or legacy-system data, and who does the data cleaning — the vendor or your team?
• Is there a parallel-run period supported, where old and new systems operate simultaneously before full cutover?
• What is the realistic implementation timeline for a company of your size and service mix, based on comparable past implementations?
• Who owns the data if the relationship ends — can you export a complete, usable copy of your historical records?
• What training is included, and is it role-specific (dispatcher, field technician, office admin, Level III reviewer) or generic?

Category 8: Vendor Viability and Support

• How long has the vendor specifically served NDT or inspection-industry clients, versus adapting a generic ERP?
• What is the support model — dedicated account contact, ticket queue, phone support — and what are realistic response times during an active outage?
• How often is the platform updated, and how are updates tested against existing customizations before deployment?
• Can the vendor provide references from companies of comparable size and service mix (not just their largest client)?
• What happens to system access and support continuity if the vendor is acquired or changes ownership?

How to Score the Responses

Resist the temptation to score every question equally. Weight Categories 1, 2, and 5 — certification tracking, calibration management, and compliance reporting — most heavily, because these are the categories where a gap creates real regulatory and contractual risk, not just operational friction. A vendor that's weak on job costing dashboards but airtight on certification and calibration traceability is a safer bet for an NDT company than the reverse. Build a simple scoring matrix — 1 to 5 per question, organized by category — and have more than one person score each vendor's demo independently before comparing notes; a single evaluator tends to be swayed by whichever feature was demoed most smoothly, which isn't always the feature that matters most day to day.

Red Flags to Watch For During Demos

• A vendor who can't answer a specific certification-tracking or calibration-traceability question without "checking with engineering" during a sales call — this usually means the feature exists on paper but hasn't been built out for real-world use.
• Mobile offline capability that's demoed only with wifi on, or with a caveat about "most areas having signal" — insist on a demo with airplane mode enabled.
• No clear answer on data ownership and export rights — this is a contract term to nail down in writing before signing, not something to take on faith.
• Reference clients who are all significantly larger or smaller than your company, or none in the same service mix (RT/UT-heavy vs. visual/MT-heavy operations have different real-world needs).

Beyond the RFP: What Happens After Selection

An RFP process that surfaces the right vendor is only the first half of the decision — the second half is a realistic implementation plan, ideally with outside ASNT Level III consulting input on how your specific quality procedures and code requirements should be encoded into the new system's workflows, since that's the part generic implementation teams tend to get wrong. Companies that skip this step often end up with software that's technically installed but doesn't actually reflect how a Level III would structure the qualification and traceability rules that keep the operation audit-ready.

How to Structure the RFP Process Itself

Set a Realistic Vendor Shortlist

Sending this checklist to a dozen vendors dilutes evaluation effort across too many options and usually results in a shallow review of each. A shortlist of three to five vendors — narrowed by an initial screening call confirming they have genuine NDT-industry experience, not just a generic ERP platform with an inspection module bolted on — lets an evaluation team go deep on the questions that matter most rather than spreading thin across many.

Require a Live Demo Against Your Own Scenarios

A canned vendor demo is built to show the platform's best features in the best light. A far more revealing exercise is handing the vendor two or three of your company's actual, real job scenarios in advance — a turnaround scheduling conflict, a technician certification edge case, a multi-currency invoice if relevant — and asking them to demo how the system handles those specific situations live. Vendors who can do this fluently know their product deeply; vendors who struggle or need to "follow up separately" are revealing something important about how well the platform actually fits inspection-industry workflows versus how well it was positioned in the sales pitch.

Involve the People Who Will Actually Use It

RFP evaluation run entirely by ownership or office management, without input from the dispatchers, field technicians, and accounting staff who will use the system daily, tends to weight the wrong factors — a system that looks impressive in a boardroom demo can be genuinely frustrating for a technician trying to complete a report one-handed in a tank. Include at least one field technician and one dispatcher in the demo review process, and weight their feedback seriously; they'll catch usability problems that a purely management-level evaluation will miss entirely.

What a Strong Vendor Proposal Actually Looks Like

Beyond the forty questions above, a genuinely strong proposal from an NDT-experienced vendor will typically include: specific examples of how the certification and calibration gating logic has been configured for other inspection companies (without naming confidential client details, but with enough specificity to show real prior implementation, not theoretical capability); a realistic, phased implementation timeline rather than a vague promise of "quick onboarding"; a clear, written data ownership and export policy included in the contract terms, not just a verbal assurance during the sales process; and named, specific support contacts rather than a generic ticket-queue email address as the only point of contact during initial rollout.

After the RFP: Turning the Winning Proposal Into a Contract

Once a vendor is selected, make sure the specific commitments made during the RFP process — response times, data export rights, included training scope, implementation timeline — are written into the actual contract or statement of work, not left as things "the sales rep said." Verbal assurances during a competitive sales process have a way of softening once the contract is signed and the account moves to a different team. A brief internal review of the final contract against the RFP responses, comparing what was promised to what's actually written down, catches this gap before signature rather than after a company discovers a promised feature was never contractually guaranteed.

Companies without in-house procurement expertise for specialized inspection software sometimes bring in outside ASNT Level III consulting support specifically for this contract review stage — someone who understands both the technical requirements of NDT operations and the practical realities of software implementation can catch gaps between what was demoed and what's actually contractually committed, which is exactly the kind of detail that's expensive to discover after the fact.

Why This Checklist Skews Toward Compliance Over Convenience Features

Readers evaluating multiple ERP vendors will notice this checklist devotes far more of its forty questions to certification tracking, calibration management, and compliance reporting than to features like dashboard aesthetics, third-party integrations, or general usability polish. That weighting is deliberate. A beautifully designed interface with a weak certification-gating engine still lets an under-qualified technician get dispatched to a job — the software just makes the mistake look modern while it happens. An NDT company's software failure modes are fundamentally different from a typical small-business software failure mode: a scheduling glitch at a landscaping company costs a missed appointment, while a certification-tracking gap at an inspection company can cost a client's confidence in years of prior reports, or worse, contribute to a missed flaw on an asset still in service. Evaluators who keep this asymmetry in mind during vendor demos tend to ask sharper follow-up questions and are less likely to be swayed by a polished interface built around a weaker compliance core.

Atlantis NDT Products & Services

Atlantis NDT pairs field expertise with software: NDT inspection management software — Atlantis ERP, a digital twin platform for asset integrity, and NDT reporting software. Build your team with NDT training & certification (ASNT SNT-TC-1A) and ASNT certification pathways, or bring in ASNT Level III consulting. Affordable, accessible, fully customizable — book a free consultation.