A Saying To Meditate On:
You need to find out where the road begins and ends, and what the route is. The slightest error results in an enormous loss.
-- Liu I-Ming,
Awakening to the Tao
The software selection process has become the ideal, impossible-to-circumvent tool necessary to address increasing needs for
openness, fairness, accountability, and impartiality
regarding decisions taken for corporate sake while facing a technology
selection. Furthermore, recent major corporate and accounting scandals have raised these concepts from
utopia and counter productive to legitimate and even highly desirable.
Although decision making with no planning is still far from being rare, there is a proven technique to
help you identify the business software solution best addressing your needs within a complex context involving a number of alternatives and decision criteria not humanly manageable.
This ideal software selection process is threefold:
- Specify and publicize your needs; then
- Identify and evaluate available solutions; and
finally
- Compare solutions and select the best-matching option.
Technology
Evaluation Centers provide you with such a decision-support system (DSS)
guiding you towards the solution best-matching your needs, thus allowing you to lower risks, costs, and time associated with
any business software selection. From specialists of Multi-Criteria Decision Making
(MCDM) and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), you get assistance through your solicitation, evaluation, comparison, and selection process.
Indeed, coupled with experts-vetted knowledge bases, powerful mathematical DSS tools
permit an enlightened, impartial decision-making cycle, which can apply to a broad variety of technologies and business fields like ERP, CRM, SCM, PLM, Accounting, Finances, Outsourcing, Business Process Management (BPM), Human Resources
(HR), and much more.
The ideal business software selection process start with your
expressing your needs, and then translating them into requirements:
- Identify stakeholders
- Interview stakeholders
- Gather and prioritize requirements
In order to allow the next deep and exhaustive evaluation of
vendors' offerings, the software selection process formalizes your problem as a knowledge base,
also called decision model or decision tree, which is a hierarchy
of criteria directly inferred from the expression of your needs. The so-created
decision hierarchy covers the following common but important sections for the
final decision related to both company and product:
- Functions and features
- Technology
- Costs
- Services
- Viability
- Vision
Perform market assessment to identify potential solutions:
- Research solutions
- Identify relevant solutions
- Build the long list of potential solutions
- Issue a request for information (RFI) to software vendors in the long list
- Gather responses from software vendors
Evaluate the solution provider responsibility and their
solution responsiveness:
- Build a decision matrix
- Rate each solution within the knowledge base
- Analyze strengths and weaknesses (sensitivity analysis, what-if scenario)
- Rank solutions and keep top ten (shortlist)
- Notify rejected vendors and handle disputes
- Issue an RFP to software vendors in the shortlist
- Develop a scripted scenario of functionality as mapped to internal business processes
- Invite vendors to on-site demonstrations
- Rate demonstrations
- Gather RFP responses from short-listed software vendors
- Revisit analyses with respect to their inclusion of the evaluation of the demonstrations
Software Selection Step 3:
Compare solutions and select the best match
The ideal software selection process provides you with powerful mathematical decision-support systems (DSS) tools
that, coupled with the knowledge base, help you identify the solution
best-matching your needs:
- Rank solutions and keep the top two (reduced short list)
- Client reference check
- Select the solution that best fits requirements
- Notify rejected vendors and handle disputes
- Approval
- Solution award
- Negotiate prices (licenses, services, etc.)
- Sign contract
Technology Evaluation Centers
Start your enterprise software selection now for:
Web Resources on Software Selection Process
Sealed Bidding
SubPart 14, Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)
This part prescribes:
- Use of Sealed Bidding.
The basic requirements of contracting for supplies and services
(including construction) by sealed bidding;
- Solicitation of Bids.
The information to be included in the solicitation (invitation for
bids);
- Submission of Bids.
Procedures concerning the submission of bids;
- Opening of Bids and Award of Contract and Award of Contract and Award of Contract and Award of Contract.
Requirements for opening and evaluating bids and awarding contracts; and
- Two-Step Sealed Bidding.
Procedures for two-step sealed bidding
Contracting by Negotiation:
Competitive and Sole Source Acquisitions
SubPart 15, Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)
This part delineates policies and procedures governing
competitive and
noncompetitive negotiated acquisitions like:
-
Sole source acquisitions. When contracting in a sole source environment, the
request for proposals (RFP) should be tailored to remove unnecessary information
and requirements; e.g., evaluation criteria and voluminous proposal preparation
instructions.
-
Competitive acquisitions.
When contracting in a competitive environment, the procedures of this
part are intended to minimize the complexity of the solicitation, the
evaluation, and the source selection decision, while maintaining a
process designed to foster an impartial and comprehensive evaluation of
offerors’ proposals, leading to selection of the proposal representing
the best value to the Government (see FAR 2.101).
Top Books on Software Selection Process
Source Selection Answer Book (2nd Edition)
by Vernon J. Edwards
Hardcover: 443 pages
ISBN: 1567261728
Book Description:
The newly expanded and updated second edition of this best selling and practical
handbook is designed to give hands-on contracting professionals a solid working
knowledge of this critical process.
This proven resource covers the entire source selection process, including
acquisition and source selection planning, preparation of requests for
proposals, proposal solicitation and preparation, proposal evaluation, award
without discussions, discussions and final proposal revisions, final proposal
evaluation, contractor selection, and debriefings and protests.
Source Selection Answer Book, Second Edition provides concise, straightforward
answers to common questions about the Federal government’s rules and procedures
in selecting contractors including:
- Completely updated FAR Part 15 citations and quotations.
- Revised answers to questions based on new regulations and case law.
- Easily understandable explanations of concepts such as evaluation
factors for award, relative importance, cost realism analysis, and tradeoff.
- How agencies evaluate proposals and how to evaluate agencies.
- Answers on the best methods in developing effective proposal strategies.
All in a unique question and answer format that allows the reader to go directly
to the topic of interest for fast and comprehensive solutions!
More information about Source Selection Answer Book (2nd Edition)
The Software Selection Questionnaire
by Preston D. Cameron
Hardcover: 60 pages
ISBN: 0929526856
Book Description:
Business experts all agree: if you're not asking the right questions of your potential technology vendors, you are putting your entire technology project at risk. The need for seamless technology selection and implementation projects is nothing new. What is new is the shorter time frames that now dominate the organization landscape. Every company wants and needs a productive and efficient process for identifying new technology needs. Technology selection projects that used to take years to complete must now be up and running in a matter of months or even weeks. More importantly, they must be done successfully - the first time. And part of doing it right is knowing the right questions to ask.
The Software Selection Questionnaire identifies a host of questions that busy executives and managers at all levels of an organization should be asking themselves, each other, and potential vendors to ensure that their software selection process is as efficient and effective as it should be.
In this comprehensive outline executives, managers, and vendors alike will discover:
- Over 270 questions that should be asked and answered prior to beginning any technology project
- Strategies that even established organizations can use to take control of the solution selection process
- Techniques that master the software selection challenge
- Lessons learned from the leaders of successful selection & implementation projects
- Helpful hints that can help organizations avoid the often encountered problems that bring technology projects to a standstill
The potential returns from selecting and implementing the right technology solution continue to skyrocket. Let The Software Selection Questionnaire help you develop a competent starting point for your project and take the fullest possible advantage of today's evolving technology vendors.
More information about The Software Selection Questionnaire
A Guide to Software Package Evaluation & Selection:
The R2Isc Method
by Nathan Hollander
Hardcover: 344 pages
ISBN: 0814405533
Book Description:
Performing the right software selection process for a company is downright scary! Whether it's for inventory, e-commerce, accounting, e-mail, or whatever else the company needs, a poor software
selection process has negative ripple effects that can undermine business for years to come (and damage reputations as well).
This pragmatic book is for anyone charged with evaluating and choosing an application. It provides a systematic method for
the best software selection. In careful detail, the book guides readers through each key step to obtaining a package that meets their needs, based on: critical requirements, budget, culture, and in-house technical expertise.
The ideal software selection process allows readers to learn how to:
- Create a request for proposal (RFP), and then understand how to thoroughly evaluate the vendors' responses
- Accurately compare requirements against the package
- Ensure that the vendor demonstrations really help them determine if the software can do the job they need
- Investigate the software company to make sure it's reliable
- Negotiate the contract to the organization's advantage.
More information about A Guide to Software Package Evaluation & Selection: The R2Isc Method
Maximizing Business Performance through Software Packages:
Best Practices for Justification, Selection, and Implementation
by Robert W. Starinsky
Hardcover: 320 pages
ISBN: 1574443291
Book Description:
Performing an enterprise software selection
process is very complex - and usually involves a large expenditure. As a result, decision-makers desperately seek a definitive source that will help them select the solutions that best fit their business needs. This is that source.
The book presents an overview of available software and discusses their pros and cons. It provides cost justification/ROI criteria, a scoring matrix for evaluating vendors, and guidelines for controlling
the whole software selection process, including software purchase and implementation costs. It also demonstrates how to effectively implement a technology solution for enhanced performance after it has been selected and much more.
More information about Maximizing Business Performance through Software Packages:
Best Practices for Justification, Selection, and Implementation
Request for Proposal:
A Guide to Effective RFP Development
by Bud Porter-Roth
Hardcover: 288 pages
ISBN: 0201775751
Book Description:
Despite its importance as an initial step in the development of major technical projects, the Request for Proposal (RFP) process rarely receives the professional attention it deserves. Used by government agencies and by private corporations to solicit proposals from contractors and vendors, the RFP document is the foundation for a successful
software selection process. A clearly written and properly organized RFP clarifies technical goals, communicates administrative and financial expectations, and sets the tone for good communication and a trusting and productive relationship between customer and contractor.
This experience-based handbook offers a systematic, comprehensive, and professional approach to
writing RFPs for any king of selection project, including and
particularly software selection. It guides you through the software
selection process step-by-step—from initial planning to selecting the winning proposal—through the RFP process, demonstrating the most effective ways of structuring the document and expressing technical, administrative, and financial requirements. Request for Proposal: A Guide to Effective RFP Development focuses on the major goals of the RFP process—to elicit high-quality responses from potential contractors and promote effective communication between the client and the chosen vendor.
You will be able to plan and execute a state-of-the art software selection
process:
- Plan and organize the RFP effort
- Outline each RFP section
- Develop, write, and review all requirements, including those that are administrative, technical, and managerial
- Set realistic pricing requirements
- Pre-screen a vendor list to select appropriate vendors
- Set up objective evaluation criteria for selecting the best solution
- Prepare for post-RFP activities such as site visits, reference checks, and implementation activities
In addition, this book includes several templates you can adapt for your own organization’s RFP efforts. Request for Proposal gives numerous examples of both effective and poorly-written RFP requirements that illustrate the author’s points and provide solid advice to help you avoid common pitfalls and implement best practices.
For anyone with the responsibility of writing RFPs or responding to them, this book is are source you will want to keep close at hand.
More information about Request for Proposal: A Guide to Effective RFP Development
