Research methods unit VII web assignment

nasarb

ten_steps.pdf

Home >Business & Finance homework help >Management homework help >Research methods unit VII web assignment

40 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010 INFORMATIONMANAGEMENT

S electing software tools is not an

easy task. Whether opting to

hire external consultants, go it

alone, or just rely on sales people, the

level of complexity remains the same.

In the long run, obtaining external as-

sistance may prove to be a cost-saving

measure. There are a number of po-

tential pitfalls to be avoided in the

evaluation and selection part of the

process.

Perhaps the greatest pitfall to

avoid is purchasing software that has

an initial lower cost but eventually

higher maintenance or service and

support costs. The true cost of a solu-

tion will include implementation and

training. Also note that over time,

upgrades can contribute significant

additional expense to the total invest-

ment cost.

Steps in the Evaluation and Selection Process

There are 10 distinct steps in the

evaluation and selection process. For

a successful conclusion, each of these

steps should be conducted prior to

purchasing any records and informa-

tion management (RIM) software.

Step 1: Create a Project Team and Action Plan

Form a project advisory or guidance

team to oversee the entire process be-

ginning with the action plan – or

roadmap. This team should include at

least one key executive sponsor. Direct

and visible support from someone like

the senior vice president of operations

or the chief information officer will be

crucial for retaining momentum and

being successful.

Also, try to gain representation by

other key senior management func-

tions connected to each of the primary

or key business groups. Moreover, in-

clude experienced primary users from

these processes.

The guidance team should prepare

an action plan with measurable goals,

objectives, and milestone markers for

measuring progress and success. This

plan will serve as a roadmap for

tracking progress and correcting

course as you move through the

process. Be prepared to alter the plan

as the process moves along.

Additionally, consider engaging a

consultant who possesses the expert-

ise and knowledge about these steps

and different systems and software

products. This may mean investing a

few thousand dollars, but it could pre-

Investing resources in preparation for purchasing software and services is the best way to ensure that your organization gets the best service and a quality product.

Lee Pendergraft, CRM, and Alan F. Blakely

TenSteps for Evaluating and Selecting Software

and Service Providers

vent a $200,000 mistake. To deter-

mine whether hiring a consultant

would be a good investment, ask your-

self:

n Does my organization have quali-

fied staff with enough time and ex-

pertise to do the necessary

research and analysis to deter-

mine its needs and select the best

solutions?

n Can my organization afford to leave

its core business to learn what we

need to know?

Step 2: Identify and Map Sources of Information and Records

Before evaluating solutions, identify

the content to be managed beginning

with all the sources, physical dimen-

sions, and quantities for paper and

electronic files and formats (e.g., e-

mail, digital voice mail, digital video,

data bases); digital and analog record-

ings; physical artifacts and samples;

and any other non-standard sources of

information.

Avoid the trap of excluding end

users from the process; their knowl-

edge of workflow detail is essential for

proper configuration Moreover, if

they’re not involved, they may rebel,

refusing to use the new tools and lead-

ing to eventual failure.

Step 3: Review Current Process for Potential Improvement

Document processes to find poten-

tial areas for improvement. Record, as

it occurs, who, what, when, where, and

how each bit of information is created,

captured, stored, accessed for re-use,

and modified.

During the subsequent assessment

stage, review every step. Examine

each stage and all steps in each of the

business process tasks. Then ask,

“How does each task add value to the

internal or external customer?”

The resulting answer may elimi-

nate several steps and help improve

your organization’s workflow even be-

fore new software implementations or

technology upgrades.

Avoid the trap of believing once

you complete implementation, every-

thing will instantly be fine. Based

upon feedback from users, you will

probably need to make some alter-

ations. Users may still require addi-

tional training. Once they have

learned the basics, they will likely

want to know why, as well as how,

various features of the new system

can work to their advantage.

Step 4: Prioritize Business Needs Prioritize business needs by deter-

mining which features you would like

to have and features you absolutely

need to have. Take time to have dis-

there is no significant additional

cost, do these features affect the

final selection?

These criteria eventually define

the functionality for each of the

processes related to selected systems

requirements. Prior to final selection,

combine these criteria to create a

shopping list of useful features to use

in pre-qualifying service providers.

n Require service providers to respond

directly to your list of require-

ments. Compare products with

each other.

n Avoid the trap of omission. Without

a detailed list of function require-

ments, salespeople will sell you

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010 INFORMATIONMANAGEMENT 41

Don’t get caught in the trap of overwhelming, long-term add-on costs that can outstrip IT budgets and force cancelling or scaling back other projects due to an unforeseen drain on either financial or available labor resources. cussions with end users to learn more

about what could improve their work

processes and products. Define im-

provements to cost, time, and user

satisfaction.

Ignore temporarily any constraints

binding people, process, cost, time,

and technology to reveal potential

nice-to-have features and benefits.

Use the new ideas and existing pro-

cedures data to determine the rela-

tive value of the features and benefits

for business needs and technical re-

quirements. Make a list of “pros and

cons” for each of the features.

Rank the priorities of these specific

features in terms of what is really re-

quired. Are they:

n Mission-critical – If essential

components are not already in-

cluded within the proposed solu-

tion, is it unacceptable?

n Desirable – If added to existing

functionality, will the additional

features enhance or improve the

affected business processes?

n Nice to have – If available, and

only what their product does best.

Each service provider will claim to

have the perfect solution for your

needs; most likely without identi-

fying your needs.

n Commit enough time and resources

in your project plan to fully evalu-

ate the nuances in the products of-

fered. If you don’t have the time,

hire an experienced consultant,

who will save you money in the

long run.

Now you are ready to cross the

next milestone in you project plan:

service provider selection.

Step 5: Pre-Qualify Potential Solutions Reduce the number of solutions

you are considering to three or four.

Your evaluation team does not have

enough time to evaluate more.

Conduct additional research and

learn more about the packaged com-

bination of features and benefits

available within the tools that quali-

fied as best choices after narrowing

the selections down to a few choices.

42 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010 INFORMATIONMANAGEMENT

One way to do this is by visiting each

service providers’ websites and links

to their solutions. Request additional

information about multiple products

offered from each package within a

service provider’s toolkit.

Step 6: Pre-Evaluate Potential Service Providers

Before meeting with service pro-

viders make sure they:

n Have fully reviewed the require-

ments

n Fully understand each of the mis-

sion-critical processes

n Can demonstrate the solution to

those mission-critical requirements

Also ensure that the evaluation

team members have a scorecard with

clearly defined criteria.

Ask service providers to conduct a

demonstration, but be aware that

canned presentations are designed to

sell the product to you. Ask questions

during the presentation and ask the

provider to perform tasks with the

software not planned in the presenta-

tion to find out how difficult or easy the

software is to use.

Ask for a short evaluation period

(two weeks to a month), at little or no

cost, to determine how the software

will work in your organization’s exist-

ing conditions. Then, ask the service

provider to respond to a list of pre-

pared questions.

Step 7: Validate Service Provider References When visiting or calling references,

don’t just ask if they like the system or

if the system works; the service

provider would not provide an unsat-

isfied customer as a reference. Ask the

references to refer you to several other

users if they know of any.

Get the complete story by asking:

n If they had to do it again, what

would they do differently?

n Did the implementation occur on

time and within budget?

n Were there any surprises during

start up?

n Were they satisfied with the service

provider’s training?

n Are they satisfied with the service

provider’s documentation?

n Are they satisfied with post-imple-

mentation support?

n Are people using all the features?

Why or why not?

n What are the best features?

n What is needed that it doesn’t do?

These questions permit references

to be a great resource for honest, accu-

rate, and meaningful service provider

prequalification information. Their

revelations may also become valuable

input for the decision-making process.

You should avoid relying on responses

that come only from someone who may

never have been an end-user of the

software.

Step 8: Make the Decision Each step in the decision-making

process is, in its own right, key to long-

term success. If a small, elite group,

such as the organization’s IT depart-

ment or a single executive, selects soft-

ware and it fails, it’s their fault. But if

the software selection is a group deci-

sion, the group owns the results, and

its members will likely work hard to

prove they were right.

Step 9: Establish an Implementation Plan Work with a service provider that

gives second-tier support, implemen-

tation, or training, along with the

provider’s guarantees and relation-

ships with partners to ensure ade-

quate accountability. Ask the provider:

n What is our contractual recourse

for poor performance, inadequate

training, or service issues?

n What are the long-term, ongoing

annual costs going to be, including

license renewals, maintenance, or

planned upgrade charges?

n Is the availability and cost for tech-

nical support guaranteed for at

least five years?

n What is your history for successfully

delivering and implementing the

tool?

n Do you have any litigation issues?

n Are you financially sound?

n What are your employee and senior

management turnover rates?

n What is your business focus and

long-range business development

plan?

n What is your history for the deliv-

ery and implementation of patches,

upgrades, and new versions?

n Does your company leadership

Things to Avoid When Buying Software n Don’t buy bells and whistles that are not needed or that

make the essential process steps more complicated or slower.

n Don’t buy a product without first doing extensive research and testing. Making a purchase simply because you are fa- miliar with the sales person or the name of a company is not wise.

n Don’t buy software that is completely new to the market or at the end of its generation.

n Don’t buy a product based upon changing technology. Hard- ware, database design, and architecture and operating systems change. Products based upon technology from a declining market have a shrinking customer database and waning technical support and training.

44 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010 INFORMATIONMANAGEMENT

If they have the tools, it is usually worthwhile to include your current service providers in the evaluation process. Sometimes, the functionality that seems to be missing is actually there, but no one ever learned to use it to its full capabilities.

demonstrate vision and strategic di-

rection?

n Is employee morale and attitude

healthy?

n What is your strategy for imple-

mentation?

n Do you have a roadmap?

n Are you beginning with a pilot to

work out the kinks?

n What are the special needs of your

company?

n Can you commit to implement prop-

erly?

It may have already taken months

or even years to develop your strategy

and plan. You have invested a great

deal of time and involvement in defin-

ing the requirements. This is not the

time to fail. Give serious consideration

to the history, quality, and cumulative

experience and qualifications of your

IT department and the service

provider’s staff by asking:

n Does the implementation staff fully

understand our line of business?

n Have they taken the time to learn

how our processes relate to each re-

quirement?

n Have they understood our systems’

functionality to the degree that they

can properly configure the new tool

and demonstrate compliance with

our technical and operational re-

quirements?

Step 10: Negotiate Price and Service Level Agreements

The final step in selection is negotia-

tion. Some people look forward to doing

battle with the service provider, but

keep in mind the people you are negoti-

ating with (against) are the very people

who will be responsible for your suc-

cess. This must be a win-win situation.

If you get the lowest possible price,

good business sense says the differ-

ence in price has to come from some-

where.

Service level for ongoing support is

highly important. If training and sup-

port are short-changed, which is a

common place to cut costs, you may

never get the system operational if

you trapped the service provider in a

guaranteed deal before giving up the

last dollar.

Once you know your first choice,

negotiate a final price by telling the

selected service provider the contract

is theirs to lose. Then work with them

as a partner to put together an agree-

ment that serves the best interests of

both parties.

Finally, when it comes to final ne-

gotiations, an additional word of cau-

tion is worth noting: It does no good to

negotiate a price so low it puts the

service provider at financial risk. If

the provider’s company fails, who will

support the product in the future?

Based upon your organization’s

unique business needs, this informa-

tion should serve as appropriate

guidelines. Follow them to achieve

better results based upon sound rea-

soning, with decisions made at the

right time, for a solution at the right

price.

Lee Pendergraft, CRM, can be con-

tacted at [email protected]. Alan F.

Blakely can be contacted at alan@3rd

coastconsultants.com. See their bios

on page 47.

Editor’s Note: For more steps to help

you avoid costly and time consuming

service provider evaluation, selection,

and implementation mistakes visit

http://content.arma.org/IMM.

Administrators and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the

individual use.

Administrators and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the

individual use.