So, you have to pick a packaged application for your company. The good news is, there are a lot of great products available in most product spaces. The bad news is there are a lot of great products available in most product spaces. You can't look at all of them--you just don't have time for that. So, in lieu of weeks of product demonstrations (by the way, usually driven by the vendor), how does a project manager manage the process of selecting what's best for his company's needs? The answer is with a systematic, criteria-based approach to packaged application selection. This article will detail a six-step process that will help your team select the best product for your company's specific requirements. The process is very straightforward, as follows:
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Step 1: Form a multifunctional team
Ensure that key business areas and IT representatives are on the product selection team. This team will determine how often to meet, how long the selection process should take, assist in defining the scope, criteria and ultimately product selection. It is critical to get commitment from a core group on the team to participate in ALL targeted demonstrations so that the same people can compare the products against each other. This core group must have a representative from the key business areas that the product will impact and a representative from the IT group.
Step 2: Define the scope
The scope is the foundation of all other steps and helps vendors quickly determine if their product has potential to meet your needs--it saves you and the vendor time. Start with the situation that triggered the product selection. It could be that an existing product no longer functions as required, or the company has grown and manual processes now require automation. Whatever the reason, start the scope statement with the basis for the product search. Next add key, must-have functionality. If inputs into the system are important (i.e., accepts input from the Internet), add a statement about inputs. The same rule applies to outputs. If technology requirements are key, add those (stability, scalability, volume handling). So, scoping involves forming a statement that includes:
Step Three: With the scope in hand, build the list of required criteria
It helps if the project manager starts a list and sends it out to the rest of the team. Good sources for the first cut are white papers from vendors with products in the space you are evaluating. It helps readability to break the criteria up in to sections. Sample sections and criteria are included below:
Reporting
Includes standard reports on key metrics
Allows for ad-hoc reporting
Includes automatic report schedulingTechnical
Operating System (specify operating system requirements)
Database Management System (specify database management system requirements)
Security
Once the criteria is defined, the team needs to determine if each one is a must have, should have or nice to have. This will be the foundation of the next step, preparing the RFI.
Step Four: Convert the criteria to an RFI document
This step is relatively easy. Include the sections developed in Step 3. Let the vendors rate themselves on their ability to meet each criterion (and ask for supporting documentation). This helps reduce your workload and provides written documentation from the vendor of the products' stated features. Add a section for additional functionality for the vendor's use. The vendor can specify additional criteria not requested that may be key to the final decision.
Other sections to include in the RFI:
The vendors should be able to complete the RFI document in two weeks. Request electronic and paper copies of the RFI response and distribute these to the team as they arrive. The completed documents will be used to prepare a short list of vendors to participate in the next step, targeted product demonstrations.
Step Five: Prepare, distribute and conduct targeted product demonstrations
This is where the rubber meets the road. Using the criteria rated as must have from Step 3, set up five to seven targeted scenarios. Each scenario will be an application of multiple criteria (i.e., Show an e-mail campaign from setup through reporting the results. Assume that campaign recipients are from a purchased list that will need to be imported into the system). The vendors will use these scenarios to demonstrate their products capabilities (to your specific requirements). These scenarios should be sent to the short list of vendors determined from the completed RFI documents. Vendors should be able to demonstrate their product to the scenarios within two weeks.
Send available time slots for the demonstration at the same time the scenarios are sent out and fill these on a first come, first served basis. Provide the core team a document with each scenario and the criteria evaluated under each it to use in rating each product. These ratings will be used to evaluate product capabilities.
Step Six: Finalize the selection
If you are lucky, there will be one vendor that really stands out to the team. Often, two or even three products are very close. Start negotiations FAST ? this is the best time to get added functionality, price breaks, etc.!! Beyond price, the team needs to determine what is really most important in deciding between the products choices. A forced elimination process may help. It involves pairing up the most important criteria and eliminating one a time until only one or two are left (this is easier than it sound). Eliminate as follows:
Price or Speed (eliminate one ? assume price remains)
Price or Payroll Processing (eliminate one ? assume price remains)
Price or Scalability (eliminate one ? assume scalability remains)
Scalability or Reporting (eliminate one)
By now your company should have selected the best product for its unique requirements through a fairly objective, systematic selection process. Each of these steps will be detailed further in future articles.
Pat Yount has more than 16 years of experience managing a variety of IT projects from client server, data warehouse to internet projects. She has led projects to select and implement a variety of vendor packages, including e-mail, CRM and Data Warehouse products. You can e-mail her at [email protected].
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"One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important. " - Bertrand Russell |
