Purchasing a commercial off the shelf software solution isn’t as easy as buying your weekly groceries. While the project life cycle may not be as long as the development stage, it does require a different kind of attention.
The decision of which software solution to select can become difficult. Decisions are complicated by the technical, economic, and political considerations. A poor decision can ruin a successful analysis and design.
The correct solution weighs heavily on the systems analyst, or acquired consultant. Their job is to: -
Identify and research specific products that could support our recommended solution for the target information system.
- Solicit, evaluate, and rank vendor proposals.
- Select and recommend the best vendor proposal and why.
- Contract with the awarded vendor to obtain the product.
Does your internal systems analyst have the knowledge to select the right software vendor? JS Consulting Group has many consultants able to answer these questions and help fulfill your requirements. Their experience will help them understand your needs and requirements and to ensure that your chose software solution is the right answer to your question and makes financial sense.
A JS Consulting Group consultant will complete the following when trying to determine what the best software vendor for your company is: - Research Technical Criteria and options - The first step to selecting the proper software vendor is to have a list of the technical requirements and what problems the solution is supposed to resolve. Knowing what hardware and software you have currently and will have is also essential. Having options is the second step to selecting the proper software vendor.
- Solicit Proposals (Quotes) from Vendors - There are few differences in pricing your next car from pricing the best software vendor. While price maybe a factor, options, features, requirements will all play factors in your decision. Getting multiple quotes, even for the same software may surprise you, like car dealers, pricing is up to each company.
- Validate Vendor Claims and Performances - Proposals should not be compared to each other, but compared to your requirements. Validating the proposals and actual performances of each application must be done. You cannot take any proposal at face value. Depending on the project requirements, you may need to involve designers, data base administrators, network administrators, analysts or application administrators to effectively and accurately validate a proposal.
- Evaluate and Rank Vendor Proposals - Once the validation is complete, you can cost-effectively determine your best option. This cost-benefit analysis should be predetermined to ensure that there is no bias in setting the criteria to subconsciously favor any one proposal. Using an outside consultant or executive sponsor is ideal for this activity.
- Award Contract and Debrief other Vendors - Upon management’s final approval, awarding the contract to the selected vendor and debriefing the other vendors ensures that you can contact them again in the future without worry.
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