Jan 8, 2008
Vendors and Customers (Should!) Share the Investment for Solution Analysis
Do your 2008 plans involve looking into new technology for a document-related system?
If so, take a serious look at the costs (both hard and soft) of conducting your analysis and get creative about how to use your resources as well as vendor resources to get to a decision quickly.
As you can guess (or may know), the entire process from research to final RFP and decision is costly if you calculate the value of your research team's time. 
One approach is to calculate approximately how much the entire process will cost (even in soft dollars) and use that as a basis or starting point for a budget related to the analysis process. It's different for every company but the calculation can be as basic as giving the project an expected completion date and parameters on the type of resources and amount of time required to meet the decision deadline. You can get to $100K pretty fast depending on the scope of the project. Once you have an approximate amount add in any hard dollars that might be allocated to the project. If you don't have any hard dollars then consider swapping out some soft dollars if possible as follows:
- Invest in hardware
If bringing in some new hardware gets you to a pass or fail decision quicker then consider trading in some soft dollar research time for some hard dollar equipment. I'm not suggesting buying hardware in lieu of studied research but instead recommending you find the best point to stop reading and start testing. Most likely the hardware can be utilized for any system selected since companies have established hardware and software platforms.
- Invest in learning the proposed solutions
Vendors provide public and private training classes for their products so make this a test you both have to pass. Send a couple of staff to a training class and evaluate the ease of use, interface and even the vendor's trainers and staff members. This investment is a combination of hard dollars (travel, expenses) and your employee's time but is well worth the investment. You're going to be spending a lot of time with the vendor's team so get to know them!
Remember that the vendors are willing to invest in this process too. Some things you can look for from your vendor include:
- Invest in application development
Frequently referred to as a proof of concepts (POC), these sample applications are typically provided by the vendor as a way to prove the solution can successfully jump the highest hurdles required. This may or may not be the complete application but that's a valuable negotiation point for you.
- Invest in application testing
Web-based solutions make it easier to test an application using hosted systems. Ask your vendor if they provide any level of hosting that would allow your evaluation team to test the solution on the vendor's system.
- Invest in your training
Remember that training course I talked you into the previous paragraph? I'm sure many vendors would be more than happy to waive the course cost in the interest of helping to speed up the evaluation process. This is time well spent regardless of the final decision because it helps you refine the list of what you do and don't want.
Wishing you a profitable 2008!