Benefits of Selection with Technology Advisors
Finding Your Perfect Match
Finding the right software is like finding the right partner. You wouldn't just marry the first person you were attracted to, right? You must be certain that what they offer matches what you need. The same is true for your software.
Before you "tie the knot" with a solution, it's crucial to understand not only what you need today, but where you plan to be in the future. Which are your must-have features? Which features can you live without? Establishing this list not only helps narrow your possible options, but it also increases your likelihood of a successful, long-term relationship with the software you choose.
We're here to guide you to your software best-fit based on criteria that aligns with your goals. We'll help you define and rank your features to find your perfect match.
The Strategy of Selection
Software selection involves more than just the analysis of basic features. It's crucial to go through the entire strategic selection process to ensure you make the right choice for the long-term. How will the features support your strategic objectives? Is the software you're considering compatible with your existing software architectures? Will you need to customize out-of-the-box features to match the way you do business, or do you plan to alter your business processes to match the software? These are the types of questions our experts can help you answer.
Structured Demos
Once you narrow your options, you must keep the final vendors focused on what you need your software to do. That's why TAI created a structured demo script. Forcing all vendors to present the same information prevents selection of a solution that simply highlights a requirement you don't need.
Weighted Selection Criteria
Some criteria is more important than another. Weighting the criteria by ranking it with a score is the only way to prevent the selection of a marginal product. TAI uses a “sum of product” weighting system that highlights your most important criteria for final selection.
Selection Considerations
Structured demos and weighted criteria will provide a selection that is functionally correct. However, we must also consider many intangible items, like the depth of the provider's marketplace, their reputation in the market, long-range viability, and so on. TAI helps you navigate these intangible items to make sure your selection will last.
Software Selection Workshops
The most effective way to gather requirements in the form of user stories are through workshops. Workshops allow your team to brainstorm and exchange ideas to agree on processes that are both customer and internal facing. The outcomes of the workshop define the list of user stories we use to create the selection criteria.
User Stories
While requirements are function-focused, user stories are process-focused. TAI creates user stories to determine the functional criteria for your selection process. Well written user stories have an added benefit: they help produce validation requirements that can be used later to drive test cases.
Evaluation Matrix
There are thousands of software solutions in the marketplace and no one can evaluate all of them. So, how do you know you’re picking the absolute best? TAI built an evaluation matrix to compare some of the market's top products, and we're adding new ones every day. By mapping the functions defined in the user stories to the evaluation matrix, you can quickly create a subset of products that are well suited for your organization.
Download our CRM Requirements Checklist
Use this requirements checklist as a guideline for your CRM selection. There are three tabs in this Excel document - one for sales features, marketing features, and services features. Rank the features in each set numerically to reveal your most important and least important criteria.
What is a CRM roadmap?
In this video, you'll learn the important steps of a CRM roadmap and how it’s crucial for successful CRM implementation.
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