Surviving the Software Selection Process

Cruising down the cereal isle at the local grocery store, I am overwhelmed by the numerous

eye-catching boxes. Although the frosted covered sugar flakes look quite tasty, I can

envision my family doctor shaking her head in disgust at my upcoming annual physical.

Maybe I should consider a generic brand of corn flakes, minus the tasty sugar and flashy

packaging. But even though I would pay more for the top-selling brand of corn flakes, I

would feel more confident in the quality.

Too many choices leads to cereal isle stress! And if that gets to me, you can only imagine

the pressure a CIO feels when tasked to select a multi-million-dollar enterprise software

package.

CIOs need a proven, steadfast process for sifting through the hundreds of choices available

for each enterprise software market segment. Whether you are evaluating CRM or RFID

solutions, the same basic selection process applies. There are a series of steps for

ensuring a result that will survive the intense, long-term scrutiny this level of

investment will certainly attract.

Where do you begin?

PN Narayanan, senior project management team leader with the Delaware Department of

Technology and Information, is a key member of the ERP Financials selection team. He says

there is an imperative precursor to starting the selection process.

”It is important to reengineer the business process prior to making a selection,” he

explains. Narayanan found in his experience that instead of customizing software to fit the

process, there is a greater benefit in reengineering the legacy process.

Once the business process is reworked and solidified, make sure you have committed

executive sponsors who have no false expectations of a quick selection. We are talking

months, not weeks.

Then put together a team of subject matter experts (SMEs), technical experts and a project

manager. If your resources are limited or you lack the expertise internally, consider

hiring a consulting firm that specializes in selecting this type of software.

What is Driving the Change?

Find out what is driving the need for this new software. Does the legacy system to be

replaced have performance issues? Are there business requirements that are too costly to

implement in the current system? Ask your target user audience and IT staff to rank the

importance of relevant requirements.

Narayanan knows all to well the importance of obtaining user insights.

”Our business users’ experience with a prior implementation showed them the importance of

minimizing the customization work to reduce the rollout complexity,” says Narayanan. ”In

response, we developed a ‘customization’ weighted criteria that was applied to each

functional requirement. We then could compare the average level of customization of each

product.”

Rick Morani, president of HMG Technologies, Inc. in Columbia, Md., says you have to strike

the right balance when coming up with selection criteria.

”Avoid a great technology solution that doesn’t meet the needs of the business, or a

feature-rich solution that isn’t technically up to snuff,” says Morani.

Your team can create a comprehensive weighted criteria formula to help weed out the ISV’s

that won’t fit your needs. Criteria should strike a balance between the panache that

accompanies a leading-edge start-up, versus the tried-and-true brand names, such as SAP or

PeopleSoft.

Just as my family doctor wouldn’t like the sugar-coated cereal selection, your CEO won’t be

happy with software that is all frosting.

To whittle down your list of hundreds to a manageable list of three or four vendors,

Morani stresses the need to follow the traditional means of separating the potential

winners from the pack.

”Absolutely be sure that your process involves a Request for Information (RFI) phase to

sift through the noise and get to a top five that would be involved in the more detailed

Request for Proposal (RFP) phase,” says Morani.

Just bear in mind that you have a limited amount of time to review each response, so don’t

over do it. Make the final selections for the presentation stage based on your weighted

criteria.

If you are short on time, another option is to purchase industry research from an analyst

firm like Gartner, Inc. and limit your RFP selections to those ISV’s that best fit your

requirements.

Continue on to the next page to find out how to weed through the vendors…

Schedule times for each ISV finalist to deliver their standard demo. This may require a

series of demonstrations depending on how many modules are being considered. Prepare a list

of questions that will help you identify technical and business concerns. Try not to get

too far off track during these demos because you want to see all the basic, out-of-the-box

functionality in the allotted time.

There will be time for drilling down into your concerns after seeing all the presentations.

Now that your team has reviewed each finalist’s proposal and has seen the product in

action, request a custom demo. This is where you can rake the vendor over the coals. Well,

let’s keep it professional. But in all seriousness, this is your team’s chance to explore

the nooks and crannies of the product.

Give each vendor the same amount of time to build the customizations, but have someone from

your team shadow them as they make the changes. Make sure there are no smoke and mirrors in

play, and gauge how much configuration versus actual programming is necessary to meet your

requirements.

In addition, set technical benchmarks that the vendor must prove, such as numbers of

transactions per minute in the case of high-volume processing.

Now comes the hard part.

Compile the ratings of each product, by feature, and come to an empirical final ranking.

Then you must compare each vendor’s qualifications, which should be well vetted by this

point. How stable are they financially? Is there an impending acquisition, like Oracle’s

recent bid to take over PeopleSoft? Were the references provided impeccable?

Set up meetings with each vendor to provide them a chance to respond to all your concerns.

As your journey comes to an end with the selection of a vendor, be careful not to overlook

the items that hang on the periphery of these projects.

”Don’t forget that your package system is usually just a part of your total picture,”

says Morani. ”You still have to think about system interfaces, addressing changing

requirements and reporting requirements.” This includes potential legacy data conversion

and new hardware requirements.

But in reality, your journey is just beginning. You have a long implementation road ahead.

So take a well deserved break and reward yourself with a nice big bowl of frosted covered

sugar flakes. Enjoy!