by Scott M. Lewis
Over the course of the last six months I have been working with a client on selecting a new software package. As their outsourced chief information officer, it was my role to develop a methodology that would help them select the right software package the first time. As I expressed to them and had to reinforce several times this has to be a big picture view, meaning we have to document every business process, identify shortcomings, review work flow processes and put together a comprehensive selection process that addresses each of those items.
The first item we had to get through was how to take an emotional issue and turn it into a logical, mathematical process. Employees tend to want ownership of their business objects. We had to remove the emotional overtones that sometimes create roadblocks in the process. Secondly, we needed to understand that every package is going to have strengths and weaknesses, so we have to put ourselves in a mindset to think globally and about the best overall business fit verses only solving some departmental work process issues or shortcomings.
Once we got past the emotional and silo departmental thinking we also had to counsel them to stop looking at software; there is no reason to look at software until you know what your business demands and processes are going to require and why. The first step in any software evaluation is going to be documenting how your business operates and measuring your willingness to change those processes if need be or to what degree those individual processes are so important that they could become deal killers when it is time to negotiate your software purchase.
Selecting your software selection team is going to be very important, and the natural instinct is to have the business ownership or department heads make up the majority of the team. I have always encouraged our clients to put key rank and file players on the team, with oversight by the department managers or ownership. Obviously the ownership has to have a place on the team - somebody has to write the check. More important, though, is that in your discovery of the work processes and work flow you actually get how it works, not how you think it is working. I always recommend that we include key people, but keep the team as small as possible, because these meetings can sometimes get caught up in the smallest detail and get lost in the mud, resulting in frustration and, ultimately, no decisions being made. Keep the teams as small as you can, then have subcommittees within each department to work through the detail and document the actual work flow and processes.
The subcommittees within the departments are going to be charged with the actual documentation process around work flow, processes and the development of a list of items that can actually be documented and measured.
Ultimately these subcommittees are going to develop a list of items that are important to have within the software package that will be rated and scored against a business priority. These items cannot be subjective. They have to be substitutive to the point where the software vendors can actually demonstrate the process or item within the software package, and it can be measured by the software selection team. The subcommittees need to develop the list of items and provide any detailed descriptions required to outline and fully explain the item, rank the items based on the priority - how important is it that the software be able to perform that function - and provide a flow chart of the work process. I know it seems like a lot of work and it is time consuming, however this is a selection that is going to impact your business for years, and it is worthy of your time to do it right and select the software that is going to actually work for your business for many years.
You now have your business requirements documented, workflow charted, work processes outlined and are now ready to put together your request for proposal that will contain all of this information to send the software vendors.
As part of your request for proposal you would want to also include a confidentiality agreement a statement of work, company history, current network and IT structure, and an outline of how you are going to measure and score each individual software package and of course your overall goals and objectives.
All these individual components are stepping stones to the identification and elimination of the software vendors. Many will eliminate themselves for various reasons, and others will be eliminated based on your requirements.
Eventually you will get down to three or four vendors that you will actually want to have come to your business and demonstrate their software. You have to be ready to walk them through your process verses the software vendors showing you what they want you to see, which will obviously be the strengths of their software package. Having weaknesses is not a bad thing. They are all going to have them. What your mission is going to be is to identify them and then decide if they are going to overly burden your business or simply require you to change some of your processes and work flow.
This process is obviously going to be more difficult and time consuming than I could outline in this article. However, the key thing to remember is to document how you want your business to operate, not how the software wants you to operate. Then pick a software package that improves your processes and workflow and allows you to work more efficiently, which increases productivity.
Another important fact to remember is that not everyone is going to be happy. It will require changes within your organization, which means people are going to have to change, for the better hopefully. People can struggle with change so don’t expect everyone to be happy. But, if they participate in the process, at least they had a say in the selection process.
Scott Lewis is the President and CEO of Winning Technologies Group of Companies. The Winning Technologies Group of companies is an international technology management company. Scott has more than 30 years of experience in the technology industry, is a nationally recognized speaker on technology subjects such as Collocation, Security, CIO level Management, Data and Voice Communications and Best Practices related to the management of technology resources, learn more about Winning Technologies at www.winningtech.com.
Submitted 6 years 170 days ago