Product selection

Why invest into systematic product selection?

In system categories like CCMS (Component Content Management System), PIM (Product Information Management), DMS (Document Management System), catalog systems, shop systems and many others, there are often 30 or more products available to choose from, both proprietary and Open Source solutions. On their websites, all vendors expose the features and advantages of their systems, claiming to be the best product on the market. Reality is often less glamourous.

Also, before choosing a product, the requirements must be clearly known to identify all products that fulfill these requirements and choose only among them. With precisely known requirements, clients can choose a cheaper or otherwise more adequate product with limited functionality, knowing that none of the missing features is needed now or in the future.

In almost all cases, compared to a product selection based on only a few potential vendors, a systematic product selection saves sufficient budget to cover the consultancy fee (often significantly more), and leads to higher user satisfaction because the software to be purchased does all it needs to do.

What we can do for you

• We start product selection projects with a (physical or virtual) "round table" kick-off workshop to understand the big picture and collect the key requirements.
• To round this information out, we keep contact with your different stakeholders and user groups to identify more details. This also includes the IT department to make sure the new system follows your IT policies and can be seamlessly integrated into your existing infrastructure.
• We document the requirements in tabular form and agree on them with you.
• Based on the confirmed requirements, we choose possible candidates and sort out products that are surely non-matching from the systems that we know about. Per category, these are 30 to almost 100, depending on the category. We evaluate public information as well as our experience with the vendor or product from previous selection projects.
• Depending on the relative and absolute adequacy of the products in the list, we try to cut the list down to 2 or 3 candidates. If there are more candidates, we try to get more details from vendors to have a decision base.
• We discuss the use cases and requirements with the remaining vendors to have a reliable how your business requirements will be solved.
• We organize online or presence product presentations with all remaining vendors, if possible, all in the same week.
• After the meetings, we discuss the findings with you and moderate your decision process.
• Finally, we document the product selection for you, including a management summary for your internal communication.
• Optionally, we moderate the fulfillment project with the software vendor you have chosen to make sure the system matches what was discussed before and layed down in the vendor's proposal.