We’ve been supporting and installing vendor solutions for decades. We help you find software that fits your business. Don’t risk making a big investment that falls short of expectations. We can help you avoid costly software purchasing mistakes with a time-tested software selection approach.

Software Buffet

There are many great solutions available in just about every industry. More are being added every day, and they keep getting better. Applications that used to require costly configuration and on-premises hardware and implementation are being turned into cloud solutions running on hardware that some experts maintain for you. They come with extensible Application Programming Interfaces and Web Services that make it possible for a custom software development solution to integrate the different products you own.

Many of them have a thriving community of third-party add-ons that extend their functionality further, often into industry verticals. They come with impressive reporting and analytics capability to give you insight into your business that would be difficult to obtain otherwise. You probably run an accounting package in your office like QuickBooks or Microsoft Dynamics. These have an entire ecosystem dedicated to extending their functionality.

On-premises applications get installed in your own office. Most industries have one or more good options to choose from. The data is locally available for combining with data from other package and custom applications to provide unique insights.

So Many Options

It’s a double-edged sword, of course. With so many options to choose from, it’s hard to tell them apart, to know which ones fit your business, to find the one that won’t be a black hole for your cash a few months after you buy it. So how do you know?

Psychology tells us that most customers who are evaluating options buy from the salesperson they like the most, hoping rapport is the secret sauce to being taken care of. There is always a price consideration because money isn’t in infinite supply. The one with the slickest looking demo has an upper hand. These aren’t the best buying criteria, but it is often all that businesses have to go on.

Salespeople Don’t Design, They Sell

The problem is that they don’t really know your business. They know their software. Sales people believe in their products, even fall in love with them. They are sure their products are the best thing ever and you need to have them right now.

It isn’t their job to help you compile as set of detailed requirements, and most salespeople aren’t any good at that anyway. They are personable and empathetic, but not particularly analytical. They answer your questions, usually truthfully, but they can’t answer what you don’t ask. It isn’t until after you plunk down some money that you get to talk to the analytical configuration specialist. When these people start asking you questions is when you start to realize you might have made a mistake. Then the hunt for klunky work-arounds and upsells begins.

You Need a Partner That Knows the Way

Our Software Selection Methodology makes sure the right questions get asked. Built on top of our Business Process Modelling Methodology and our Requirements Management Methodology, we nail the requirements down and evaluate the vendors quantitatively based on their fit with your exact needs. You can then authoritatively determine what trade-offs you are willing to make based on the vendor’s ability to satisfy your critical, “need to have”, and “nice to have” features. The right requirements drive the implementation schedule so the project addresses the most important and most challenging features first.

There When You Need Us

We will be there with you through the entire software selection, implementation, configuration, user acceptance testing, and roll-out. We act as the liaison who makes sure you get your questions answered and the software does what the vendor says it will do.

Options For Your Unique Needs

Can’t find an on-premises software package or cloud application that fits your needs? We use the same requirements for software development. They are basis for building custom solutions that fit your unique and innovative ways of doing business. These can be stand-alone solutions, ones that integrate or extend vendor offerings, or a combination of the two. We build databases and software applications for on-premises desktop applications as well as web and mobile apps.