An RFI or Request For Information is a specific document that asks for information from your suppliers about their products and/or services. An RFI is generally a preliminary document that is sent out early in the buying process, with the purpose of gathering general information about the vendor's ability to meet your organizations needs.

The purpose of an RFI is to ensure that potential candidates can be easily filtered early in the process before a more specific document such as a request for proposal (RFP)or request for quotation (RFQ) is sent out.

Having responses sent out from an RFI in a standard format is extremely useful when comparing solutions and services between vendors.