◆ OPER ATIONAL EXCELLENCE ◆
If you do not define scope,
you will miss stakeholder expectations.
PHASE 2
PHASE 3
Engagement Preparation
Engagement Management
Selecting vendors for demos and establishing a structure for presentation and evaluation
Coordinating vendor demos and their respective evaluations
Common Pitfall
Risk
Vendor Selection Framework Solution
Common Pitfall
Risk
Vendor Selection Framework Solution
If you arbitrarily select
the vendor short list …
… you will eliminate tools
that would have been ideal for
your organization, while
wasting time evaluating tools
that are not the right fit.
Reach a decision on what vendors to engage for vendor demos
by pitting the long list of vendors against high-level “musthave” requirements. By grouping your detailed requirements
into categories and creating high-level descriptions, you
create traceability back to your processes. Research every
vendor on your short list, eliminating them when their tool
fails a key “must-have” requirement. Continue until you have
answered as many questions as possible, while aiming to
reach a goal number of short-listed vendors. When completed, your short list may surprise you. However, by using
empirical decision-making frameworks, you will have weeded
out tools that, in the end, would have dictated your processes
and not integrated well with your systems.
If you fail to establish a
key point of contact for
vendors ...
… you will have gaps in
vendor understanding and
your vendor demos will miss
your expectations.
Designate a project coordinator who vendors can consult
about scheduling and demo context. Your coordinator should
reach out to each vendor to establish goals and timelines,
distribute your use-cases, and lock down demo dates. Your
coordinator should be able to answer (or find the answer to)
any vendor’s questions, including initial scoping on budget,
anticipated user numbers, current processes or general
logistics. Some vendors may want sample data to incorporate
as part of their demos.
If you do not keep
your stakeholders
updated while
coordinating with
vendors …
… you may find yourself in
an empty room when the
demo kicks off.
Manage engagement of your stakeholders just as much as you
manage your vendors. Ongoing communication before and
between demos is crucial to stakeholder engagement and
to maintain demo attendance.
If you don’t train your
stakeholders how to
use your demo scoring
evaluations …
… you will find yourself
sifting through random and
uncataloged write-in
responses that don’t
comprehensively assess each
vendor in a methodical and
similar fashion.
Make sure stakeholders know how to complete scoring
evaluations prior to the start of the demo. Request
stakeholders leave comments in addition to scores.
If your stakeholders
do not complete the
evaluations as soon as
possible …
… your stakeholders will
forget demo details, and you
will end up with bad data
that will lead to poor
decisions.
Encourage stakeholders to complete their evaluations during
the actual demos so answers are not based on fuzzy memories.
If you fail to request
the presentation of
specific capabilities
when setting up
vendor demos …
… you will be in the position
of comparing vendors based
on varied demonstrated
capabilities (including
variance in the level of depth
presented).
Create a set of use-cases that you want all of your vendors to
walk through (align them to your high-level “must-have”
requirement areas for continuity). For your “nice-to-have”
requirements, it’s less important that the nuance of each tool
capability is presented, so your vendors can reply with written
responses to save demo time.
If you do not create a
demo evaluation
scoring mechanism
and obtain stakeholder buy-in on the
evaluation method …
… you will find your
organization making
emotion-based decisions.
Ensure you create a demo scoring evaluation for all stakeholders to fill out, aligned to your demo structure. Allow
room for stakeholders to score their impression on whether or
not the proposed software meets or exceeds your organization’s needs against each “must-have” requirement. If your
vendors provided written responses to your “nice-to-have”
requirements, you can compile those scores separately.
36
FA L L 2 014
O P E R AT I O N A L E XC E L L E N C E
37