How do SMEs manage to master their own personal journey into the digitalized future and keep pace with new developments? New software should not just be a "nice-to-have", but should efficiently support employees and drive innovation and business success. Are you planning to digitize a business process? Are you wondering how to find suitable partners when selecting software? We present a cinematic method for software selection processes that saves time and shows a very smart side.
Goals when choosing business applications
For modern IT developments, business applications offer the greatest added value and at the same time the greatest challenges. We will give you tips on which goals you should pursue when making your selection in order to benefit from the advantages and avert risks.
Typical business applications can be ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems or applications in sales (CRM = Customer Relationship Management) and purchasing (SRM = Supplier Relationship Management).
Ideally, you should pick the best cherries for each platform. In line with the "best of breed" principle, you should choose the most powerful and best software for each area of application.
The "one size fits all" principle is not advisable. Complete packages often do not meet individual needs and can reduce productivity in the long term. The task of a modern IT department is to seamlessly link all solutions so that users benefit from a barrier-free IT landscape.
Is your company facing a software selection process? Then keep the following three goals in mind:
- Standardization
- Innovation
- Cloud & Mobile First
Instead of aiming for a high degree of "individualization", focus more on a high degree of "standardization", as this creates scope for innovation. If, on the other hand, you opt for highly individualized software installations, you risk high development and testing costs.
How do you implement this in the best possible way? Use the Pareto principle. Ideally, your software solution should be 80 % standardized and only 20 % customized.
No matter which IT developments you drive forward, they should fit in with the dynamics of current cloud technologies and mobile applications. Get an overview of how SMEs can benefit from "Cloud & Mobile First":
- Reduction of operating costs
- Faster innovation cycles
- Location and time-independent flexibility for mobile working
- Direct integration of external partners, customers and suppliers
- Competitive advantages through a head start with new developments
- With a script for software selection
Choosing the right software and the associated implementation is a strategic investment that needs to be carefully considered.
The key question is therefore: How do you find a suitable partner who will accompany you on this path with the greatest possible success at the lowest possible cost and risk?
In reality, the classic and often time-consuming way of tendering or "Request for Proposal" (= RFP) is often chosen, simply because many companies have "always done it this way".
Apart from industries with a statutory tendering obligation, an agile and therefore much smarter approach is recommended. We explain below how this can be achieved.
From the "short list" to the decision
And what about the "long list", you ask? You don't need a complex selection process to choose suitable software. Scan the market, talk to market companions or partners and directly select a maximum of three to five providers for your "short list". This approach is very suitable for the fields of ERP, CRM and SRM.
Then get advice from the pre-selected providers and seek an open discussion. Benefit from innovations and use established best practice scenarios.
Please also note: A 1:1 conversion of today's processes to a new software platform alone will not bring you any added value apart from a possibly visually prettier "look & feel"!
What happens after the "short list" has been created? Don't make the mistake of locking up many valuable employees to document current processes. Of course, the documentation of processes in continuous process management is absolutely justified. However, it is useless if it is no longer used afterwards.
It is better to approach the topic as freely as possible.
Comparability of software providers
In order to be able to evaluate the providers objectively, select three to five core processes and describe a script on this basis. To do this, you should obtain the input of all the necessary employees who also form the project team. Have you already established a key user structure? Then use this.
The processes described in the script should not be too tightly knit in order to keep possible solution designs open. This way, potential providers can demonstrate the individual strengths of the respective software and you can benefit from best practice scenarios.
Once the scripts have been created, you can invite the selected providers on the "short list". Ideally, all providers should be given sufficient lead time of four weeks. The entire project team always takes part in the presentations on site and in the evaluation, so that an objective assessment can be ensured even in the case of non-specialist topics.
Then evaluate the presentations as a team and make a well-founded selection decision together. The detailed process definition takes place later with the selected provider as part of the project.
The contents of the script
Take a detour into the film industry. Use real film scripts as a guide and use the following elements:
- The protagonists
- The set design
- Scenes 1 - 5
- The valuation
- The protagonists
For the script, the first step is to describe all internal and external people involved in the process using a persona. This is nothing more than a profile. It makes it possible to understand the challenges and needs of those involved.
Use these aspects to describe the persona:
- Name & role: What is the name of the fictitious person and what role does he or she have in the company?
- Personal background: What is her profession and hobbies?
- Demographics: What is the age, gender and housing situation?
- Identifiers: What appearance does the persona have and how strong is their affinity for technology?
- Expectations, goals & emotions: What does the persona want to achieve with the software? What problems and fears does it have?
- Challenges: What are typical obstacles in everyday working life?
- Ideal solution: How can the software master the challenges and ideally positively exceed the expectations of the persona?
- Frequent objections: What are typical counterarguments and uncertainties of the persona?
An example - Mike, sales employee in a CRM project:
Mike is an account manager, 42 years old, married, has two children and lives in a semi-detached house in Munich. He loves soccer, fast cars and is always equipped with the latest IT gadgets. His appearance is self-confident and extroverted.
The aim of his work is to reduce bureaucracy and to be able to see and evaluate potential sales opportunities at the touch of a button. Competitive and time pressure as well as demanding customers are his biggest challenges. Ideally, he could use the new software to transfer leads from marketing and evaluate opportunities on a mobile basis using artificial intelligence. However, he fears that the sales manager will be monitored and controlled.
The set design
Describe your company, your business models and all framework conditions as precisely as possible.
Define a data model for each scenario that relates to the customer master record, the product or the employees and integrate the personas. The more specific you are, the better you can later see how agile the provider can adapt to you and possibly even integrate your data into a live demo.
The following points should be described in detail in the data model:
- Customer: e.g. customer number, name, company size, locations & purchasing volume
- Product: e.g. article number & prices
- Reporting KPIs: e.g. funnel, leads & sales
- Documents: e.g. calculations, offers & contracts
The scenes
Here you use a maximum of five selected core processes that you describe end-to-end. Deliberately choose a slightly higher level of detail. If there are too many details, there is a risk that you will simply receive the next individual solution - just in the form of a different software.
An example of scene 1 - Creating master data in CRM:
Ms. Maria Müller has registered for the newsletter via a company website. All the data is transferred to a CRM system and an automatic customer number is generated. The sales employee Karla is given the task of processing the master record. Further information, such as company and interests, was added from external data sources. On this basis, the CRM system has defined a recommended customer journey and predefined actions, such as a customer call.
Karla checks the data and the assignment to sales employee Mike from the CRM area. She sends information to the prospective customer. A task is automatically created for Mike and he is informed by email and mobile app to call the customer in three days. Mike and Karla can make further changes conveniently on their mobile or stationary PC.
The valuation
After all providers have received the scripts, you present possible solution scenarios in 1-2 day workshops. The evaluation should contain a maximum of 10 criteria, such as the solution itself or the industry know-how. The evaluation can be based on the school grading principle of 1 (=very good) to 6 (=insufficient).
Is your company planning to digitize a business process and you want to find out more? Our mission and daily passion is to create tangible added value for our customers in the area of IT and digitalization. Get in touch with me. We would be happy to support you in your software selection process.
