Free Template for Dealers

Dealership IT RFP Template: Questions to Ask a Managed IT Provider

Twenty-six numbered questions and a scorecard that puts three providers’ answers side by side.

Or download the RFP and scorecard as an editable Word file or a printable PDF.

Dealer principal at a wooden desk comparing three printed IT proposals side by side, with the showroom visible through the window behind her

A dealership IT RFP template is one document you send to every managed IT provider on your list, with the same numbered questions, so their written answers can be scored side by side. This one covers DMS experience, help desk hours, security, FTC Safeguards evidence and contract terms.

Last updated: October 26, 2026

Provider A’s answers

Provider B’s answers

Provider C’s answers

One scorecard

Three proposals you can’t compare aren’t a decision. They’re three sales pitches.

Most dealers pick an IT company by asking around at a 20 Group meeting and sitting through a couple of demos. Then the proposals arrive. One prices per user, one per device and one per rooftop, one lists security as an add-on while another tucks it inside a tier name, and none of them says when a person actually picks up the phone. You can’t lay those next to each other. An RFP fixes that by making every provider answer the same questions, in the same order, in writing.

This template is written for dealerships. It asks which DMS platforms the technicians have worked in, whether the help desk is open whenever your stores are, what Safeguards evidence you’ll get each year and how the provider handles a second or tenth rooftop. It’s the same list we’d expect to answer for our own managed IT for dealerships, and it works whether you’re replacing a provider, moving off a solo IT hire or still weighing the options in our in-house vs managed vs co-managed IT comparison. It’s free. Change anything you like.

One rule before you send it. Ask for written answers, numbered to match your questions.

The scorecard

Score Three Managed IT Providers Side by Side

Each row points to a question in the RFP below. Give every answer a score from 1 to 5, multiply it by the weight, then add up each column. A 5 means the answer was specific, in writing and backed by something you can check.

Question	Weight	Provider A	Provider B	Provider C
2.1 Share of clients that are dealerships	×3
2.2 DMS platforms worked in directly	×2
3.1 Help desk open whenever your stores are, 7 days a week	×3
3.2 Measured time to reach a live technician	×2
3.3 After-hours and onsite visits in the monthly price	×2
4.1 Live security monitoring around the clock	×3
4.2 Security controls in the base price	×2
5.2 Safeguards evidence handed over each year	×3
6.2 Plan for bringing on an acquired store	×1
7.1 What the monthly number covers	×2
7.4 Credentials and documents returned at exit	×2
8.1 Written onboarding plan with dates and owners	×1
Weighted total, out of 130

Weights are where we’d start for a single store. A group adding rooftops should raise 6.1 and 6.2, and the next section shows how. The Word and PDF downloads carry the same scorecard with room for notes.

The template

The Dealership IT RFP Template

Rather send a file? Download the editable Word version or the printable PDF. Both have the same 26 questions and the scorecard.

Dealership controller and IT manager reviewing three stacks of printed IT proposals at a small conference table

Where Helion fits

Send it to us too. Or start with a complimentary IT and cybersecurity assessment, where we gather your current vendor bills and set your total spend today next to one all-in number.

Request for proposal: managed IT services Answer every question in writing, numbered to match. Pricing goes on a separate sheet.

1 About our dealership

This part is yours, and it’s what keeps three proposals comparable. Skip it and one provider quotes two rooftops while another quotes three, because nobody mentioned the body shop. So write down each store and what it sells, roughly how many people and computers you have, your DMS and the other systems your staff log into all day, who looks after IT today and the date each IT contract ends. What you pay now can wait.

Rooftops, brands and addresses
Users, PCs and phones
DMS and core applications
Who handles IT today
Current contract end dates
Known problems to fix

You complete this section before sending.

2 Dealership experience

2.1 How many dealerships do you support today, and what share of your clients are dealerships?
2.2 Which DMS platforms have your technicians worked in directly this year, such as CDK, Reynolds and Reynolds, Tekion, Dealertrack or PBS?
2.3 When the DMS provider blames the network and the network blames the DMS, who owns the ticket?
2.4 What’s your client retention rate, and which three dealerships our size can we call?

Strong answer: a number, named platforms and references you can phone this week.

3 Help desk and field support

3.1 Is your help desk open whenever our stores are open, 7 days a week, and on which holidays is it closed?
3.2 What’s your average time to reach a live technician, and how do you measure it?
3.3 Are after-hours emergencies and onsite visits included in the monthly price, or billed on top?
3.4 How do you confirm a caller really works for us before you reset a password?

Strong answer: hours that match yours and a measured figure, not “fast”. Our help desk metrics guide shows which numbers to ask for. For 3.4, here’s how we verify callers.

4 Cybersecurity

4.1 Are live analysts watching our systems around the clock, and are they your staff or a subcontractor?
4.2 Which controls are in the base price, and which cost extra? List MFA, endpoint detection and response, email security, backup testing and training.
4.3 How will your technicians get admin access to our Microsoft 365 tenant, and who approves it?
4.4 How fast will you tell us about an incident in our environment, and is that written into the contract?

Strong answer: least-privileged, time-bound access such as Microsoft’s GDAP, and an incident clock in writing, as CISA advises MSP customers.

5 FTC Safeguards evidence

5.1 Can you serve as our Qualified Individual, or support the person who is?
5.2 What written evidence will you hand us each year, such as the risk assessment, test reports and the annual report?
5.3 How often do you run penetration tests and vulnerability scans, and is a person or a tool doing the testing?
5.4 How will you help us oversee our other vendors?

Strong answer: documents with dates on them. Vendor oversight is 314.4(f) of the rule, and our FTC Safeguards Rule checklist lists the proof to keep.

6 Rooftops and growth

6.1 How do you standardize stores that came to us with different DMS platforms, networks and phone systems?
6.2 Walk us through bringing an acquired store onto our network. Who does what, and what does it cost?
6.3 Can we see tickets, cost and open risks broken out by rooftop?

Strong answer: a written playbook, not more technicians. See our page on acquisition IT.

7 Pricing and contract

7.1 What’s included in the monthly number, and what gets billed on top of it?
7.2 What are the upfront onboarding and hardware costs, item by item?
7.3 How long is the first term, and what happens to price and terms at renewal?
7.4 When we leave, do we get every password, admin login and document back, and does the contract say so?

Strong answer: one all-in number and exit terms on paper. Our SLA guide covers response and resolution.

8 Transition and onboarding

8.1 Send a written onboarding plan with dates and an owner for every step.
8.2 Who’s our named contact, and who do we call when a ticket stalls?
8.3 Can our IT person stay on and work alongside you, and how would the work be split?

Strong answer: a real plan with names on it. For 8.3, see co-managed IT.

9 How to respond

This one’s yours as well. Everybody gets the same due date and the same person to send questions to, and they all know the day you plan to decide. We’d ask for pricing on a separate sheet, too, because it’s easier to judge an answer about help desk hours when you haven’t already seen the number at the bottom.

Responses due
Questions go to
Format and page limit
Decision date

You complete this section before sending.

How to Weight the Scorecard for Your Stores

Our weights assume a single store, and you should change them before the proposals arrive. Wait until after and it’s very easy to nudge the math toward whichever provider gave the best demo, and nobody does that on purpose. Put your weights on the sheet and date it, so the decision has a paper trail.

Three providers is plenty, as long as each one already works with dealerships. Our list of managed IT providers for dealerships is a fair place to start the shortlist, and our guide to choosing dealership IT support explains the thinking behind each criterion. Score every response on paper before anyone gets a second meeting.

Set the weights first. Read the answers second.

One rooftop

With one rooftop there’s nobody down the hall to call, so the help desk and onsite questions matter most. We’d push 3.1 and 3.3 up, and keep 5.2 high if a lender or your cyber insurer has started asking for Safeguards paperwork.

Weight the phone first. It’s what your staff will use.

A group adding rooftops

Raise 6.1 and 6.2 to ×3 and add 6.3 to the scorecard. A provider that can’t standardize stores or bring on an acquired one turns every buy-sell into a rebuild. Our page on IT for dealer groups covers what that looks like.

Weight the playbook. You’ll use it on the next store.

Who’s Behind This RFP Template

2,000+ Automotive and heavy truck dealerships

35,000+ Dealership employees supported daily

98% Client retention rate

82 sec Average time to reach a live technician

Helion Technologies has worked only with automotive and heavy truck dealerships since 1997. Here’s how we’d answer section 3 ourselves. Our help desk is open whenever dealers are open, 7 days a week, after-hours emergencies and field support cost nothing extra, and security support runs 24/7, with live, US-based analysts who step in the moment they see signs of an attack. Hold every provider to written answers like that.

How to Use This IT RFP Template

1
Fill in your dealership
Sections 1 and 9. Rooftops, users, systems, contract end dates and the due date.
2
Send it to three providers
Same version, same day, same deadline. Ask for numbered written answers.
3
Score the answers side by side
Use the scorecard with your weights, before anyone gets a second meeting.
4
Check references and the contract
Call the references, then read the exit terms before you sign.

Common Questions

Dealership CFO holding a folder and talking with a service manager at the service counter, with a pickup on a lift in the bay behind them

Want the numbers too?

A complimentary IT and cybersecurity assessment sets your current IT spend next to ours. Prefer a figure first? Get a price quote.

What should a managed IT RFP include for a dealership?

It should include your dealership’s profile, the provider’s dealership experience, help desk hours and field support, security, FTC Safeguards evidence, pricing and contract terms, and an onboarding plan. The template above covers all of it in nine sections and 26 questions.

How should a dealership choose a managed IT services provider?

Score written answers to the same questions instead of comparing sales meetings. Send one RFP to three providers with real dealership experience, weight the scorecard for your stores before the answers come in, then call references and read the exit terms before you sign anything.

How many providers should get our IT RFP?

Three. Two doesn’t tell you much about the market, and past three the answers start to blur together and the scoring takes a week. Pick providers that already support dealerships, so section 2 isn’t a formality.

Is this the same as a cybersecurity vendor questionnaire?

Not quite. This RFP picks the company that runs your IT, and section 4 asks the security questions that matter for that choice. A full security questionnaire goes deeper, and our buyer’s guide for evaluating cybersecurity vendors covers that.

Should we tell providers what we pay for IT now?

Tell them what you pay for, not what you pay. List every vendor and contract end date in section 1 so each provider prices the same scope. The comparison that matters is your total spend today, across every IT vendor and invoice, against each provider’s all-in number.

Can our current IT provider answer the RFP too?

Yes, and they should. Your current provider gets scored on the same sheet as everyone else, which is often the first time anyone has written down what you’re actually getting from them. Sometimes they win.

What’s a red flag in an IT provider’s RFP response?

Vague hours are the first one we’d look for. If a provider says “24/7 support” without saying who answers and when, ask whether that means the help desk or security monitoring, because they’re different jobs. A price far under the others usually means a narrower scope, so check section 4 for add-ons.

Before you send the RFP, it helps to know where your stores stand, and a complimentary assessment will show you.

Get Your Complimentary IT & Cybersecurity Assessment →