Choosing the system is the cheapest part of the project to get right
We run the selection, you make the decision. Requirements built from how the business actually works, a scored shortlist you keep, and demos that test your processes rather than the vendor's favourite ones.
Most selections are decided before the evaluation starts
A shortlist arrives from somewhere. Three vendors demo for two hours each, all of them impressive, all of them showing the parts of the product they are strongest at. A scoring sheet gets filled in afterwards to justify a decision that was already leaning one way.
The cost of that shows up eighteen months later, in the workarounds nobody planned and the module that turned out to need a third party to make it usable. By then the switching cost is high enough that you live with it.
We slow down the part that is cheap to slow down. Requirements first, written from how your close runs and how your orders actually flow, then vendors measured against those rather than against each other.
What the work covers
Requirements definition
Built by sitting with the people who will use the system, not by circulating a template. Each requirement is marked load bearing or preference, because the two get treated very differently in scoring.
Market scan and longlist
Who actually serves companies of your size in your sector, including the ones that do not advertise heavily. We say plainly where a product is a poor fit and why.
Scored comparison
Weighted scoring against your requirements, with the weightings agreed by you before anyone demos. You keep the full matrix, not a summary slide.
Structured demos
Scripts written around your processes. Same script for every vendor, so you are comparing like with like instead of comparing sales teams.
Reference and viability checks
Conversations with comparable customers, plus a look at the vendor's financial position and product roadmap. A good product from a struggling vendor is still a risk.
Commercial and contract review
Licence structure, implementation estimate, what is excluded, what the price does at renewal. This is where a good decision is most often undone.
What you end up holding
Named artefacts, handed over. Not a slide deck summarising them.
- Requirements register, marked load bearing or preference, signed off by the business
- Weighted scoring matrix with every vendor scored against every requirement
- Demo scripts and the notes taken against them
- Reference call summaries
- Commercial comparison covering licence, implementation and five year cost
- A recommendation with the reasoning, and the case against it stated too
When to call us
Any one of these is enough. You do not need a defined project first.
- A vendor has been recommended to you and you cannot tell whether it is the right one or the one somebody earns from.
- Finance and operations disagree about what the new system needs to do, and the disagreement has never been written down.
- You have outgrown the current system but nobody can say precisely which part of it is the constraint.
- You have a shortlist that arrived without an explanation of how it was arrived at.
An assessment, not a proposal
Two to four weeks at a fixed price, delivered as a decision document. You own the output whether or not you carry on with us.
Start with an assessmentWe are an independent consulting firm. Software vendors do not pay us, so our recommendations come with the scoring behind them.