Software Selection…a Broad Brush Search is Essential
Solution Explorers on May 4th, 2010. Under Discovery: Needs Analysis, Miscellaneous
I follow the TEC Blog regularly and appreciate their insights into the ERP software technology market. Their site in and of itself is quite amazing; clearly a lot of thought and work went into this service model. Recently, they submitted a post that I felt compelled to respond to regarding accounting software selection product ratings. Below is a link to the post and copy of my comments. What are your thoughts?
Q: Why [does] modifying your priorities change the overall accounting product ratings?
My response….
Well, one obvious answer is product differentiation. Infor and MS Dynamics are viable market solutions, as are many others such as the deep Sage product line. However, each vendor has conducted extensive market research and intentionally (key word) developed different product and/or modular features and functionality emphasis. You’ve heard it before…”if you don’t differentiate then you’ll only compete on price.”
Also, and don’t take this personal, but online product search engines are imperfect. For instance, I recently helped a business find project management software. The software that actually met the client’s needs best did NOT appear in initial searches, respected industry Top 10 lists, etc. The human part of research has exponential value; especially for businesses that want a system that exactly meets their needs – not just a short list of participating vendors.
Finally, regarding your statement, “…many software selection mishaps are directly attributable to improper assessment of business priorities.” That’s ok, but even more so “many software selection mishaps are directly attributable to”…de-emphasizing pre-search Needs Analysis (internal) and documenting System Requirements BEFORE product research and/or reaching out directly to potential solution vendors. Too many companies (buyers) open themselves up before they are really ready to buy, and that’s a costly mistake.
Note: TEC’s emphasis on “prioritizing” system requirements is spot on! It’s bad enough that most software buyers de-emphasize documenting their business needs before reaching out to potential vendors, but it’s worse to also fail to place priorities on system requirements. Doing these two tasks alone, albeit steps that require time and skill, would produce a transformation in software buying and selling; which happens to be the vision for Solution Explorers.
Image credit: © Dmitriy Melnikov – Fotolia.com
