# U.S. and Canadian Software Vendor Evidence Index methodology

Version: 1.0.0-beta.1

Generated: 2026-08-29T05:42:38.070Z

## Purpose

This index helps buyers examine software-vendor claims through traceable first-party and public-procurement evidence. It is not a ranking, endorsement, pay-to-play directory, or census of every vendor.

## Source frame

The U.S. candidate frame aggregates domestic recipients of federal prime contract transactions from 2021-01-01 through 2026-08-29, classified under NAICS 541511 and 541512. The pipeline follows the official recipient-category API until pagination ends unless a development-only page limit is explicitly supplied. Individual U.S. award records shown for verified firms are a labelled sample, not an exhaustive award census. Canada candidates use the official CanadaBuys complete contract-history resource when accessible.

## Verification

Government recipients remain unpublished candidates until a reviewer records the organization's canonical website, headquarters evidence, and at least one current first-party page supporting a software-delivery service. Each service flag must cite its evidence URL and observation date.

## What procurement evidence means

An award or contract is factual evidence of a public transaction. It is not a quality rating, endorsement, or proof that every current service claim is true. Organization matching uses a reviewed UEI or normalized legal-name alias and never fuzzy name matching alone.

## Exclusions

The public release excludes personal contact data, street addresses, commercial-directory rankings, copied reviews, and unsupported service claims. Paid placement is not offered. Essential Designs is disclosed as the publisher and, if included, follows the same evidence rules.

## Coverage and limitations

This build contains 50 verified vendors and 7023 procurement candidates awaiting first-party verification. Candidate coverage is bounded by the documented dates and classifications, while the number of source records is not arbitrarily capped. Missing evidence means only that sufficient support was not captured under this method.