Product Evaluation: A Journey

In the age of Industry 4.0 along with pandemics and lockdowns, being digitally enabled is not a luxury, but a hygiene factor for all kinds of businesses. Most of the organisations around the world have started using emails, Excels and Words. But as the transactions increase, tracking and reporting become necessary to augment the growth of the business, which is deficient in the simple recording tools. This demands software applications that have higher processing and analytical capabilities. The investment in an enterprise application is a major decision as it involves a good amount of money and brings about change management in the organisation.

We begin by identifying the most suitable product for the business. But there are hundreds of products in the market. Which one to choose? How do we know which one is best suited for our needs? How do we decide on whether the money we spend on the product is worthwhile? Who can evaluate the product for us?

There is a systematic multi-step process of arriving at a single tool best suited for the needs of an organisation. This exercise can be taken up by the technology head of the firm or an external consultant who is an expert on the products in the market, has a systematic way of recording your requirements and score the tools against your needs.

The first step is to do an AS-IS of the processes followed in the organisation. The processes followed in the company are recorded methodically in a sequential manner. High-level differentiators are identified from among the processes in this step. These are the ones that the business has developed as its own and which gives the firm the edge over the competition. 

Meanwhile, start compiling the list of probable tools too. There are multiple levels of screening that should be done to come to the final five. In the first level, a long list is created by searching on the internet, referrals and other sources. It also depends on factors like choice of a one-time payment or a subscription model of billing, a dedicated installation or a cloud-based SaaS model. The long list is narrowed down using the high-level differentiators to a Short List. Any product that does not support the differentiators cannot be selected. 

A Request For Proposal is created including all the needed functions, UI/UX specifications and security features expected from the product. RFP also asks details on the team behind the product, the company history, their client details and product roadmap. RFPs are then sent to all the vendors in the Short List.  

From the response for the RFP, the vendors are scored against Functional Fit, Technical Fit and Business Risk Fit. Five products with the highest score are chosen and their Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for 3 years is calculated. Considering TCO too, the vendor list is shortened to three. 

All the vendors are sent use cases - most commonly used, most complicated, most desirable - for demonstration. Scores are assigned for the responsiveness and knowledge level of the product team as well as how well the use cases are demonstrated. The result would be the best-suited product for your organisation.

Like an Indian arranged marriage where the groom’s family is as important as the groom himself, implementing a product in the organisation involves not only evaluating the product features, but also partnering with the team behind it. A collaboration with the team is very crucial during the implementation phase and henceforth to reap the true benefits of the product. Wishing all a smooth digitisation!!!