Software Buyer Resources

One of the first steps in buying business software, after you’ve articulated your goals and requirements for it, is to identify all of your software options. Creating this “long list” is critical to ensuring you don’t miss any solutions that are potential good fits for your business. Doing so will also better prepare you for the tasks of buying and implementing the software. These benefits, and the ones included below, show why considering all your software options is so important.

1. It will help you to discover lesser-known products that may be cheaper or better.

   Because there are so many different solutions out there, failing to use every resource to catalog them means you may miss some which would best fulfill your requirements. For example, a list based solely on the popularity of certain software programs would miss out entirely on solutions that may not be “big names” but were developed specifically for your vertical industry. You might also miss out on strong foreign software packages that have entered your market, newer startups with innovative solutions or even older companies who have reinvented their products. Additionally, overlooking an ideal software solution by not being thorough in your initial list can generate huge opportunity costs. The cost to replace or modify underperforming software is magnified by the additional time and resources required for activities that are not revenue-generating. Better to create an exhaustive list in the first place and delay a new software upgrade as long as possible than have to replace a program that was less than a perfect fit within the first year or two.

2. It will help you to think of additional features you should consider as requirements.

   

   When at a restaurant, seeing the menu is essential before choosing what to order. It helps to know what is on offer before deciding what to eat. Ordering foie gras at a fast food chain won’t get you anywhere. Conversely, you may see something on the menu that you weren’t thinking about before that “sounds good” and induces you to order it. Considering your software options is a similar situation. If you aren’t aware of the features and options provided by the multitude of software products on the market, you may pick software requirements which are impossible (or expensive) to fulfill or, more likely, you may miss out on useful features you never knew existed. Taking time to look into a variety of options available will help you avoid this mistake.

3. It will help you defend your decision.

   Given that many of your users or other stakeholders often become aware of other options, being able to defend your decision requires you to be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of competing offerings. A comprehensive consideration of all your options is the best way to arrive at this knowledge.

4. It will help you learn about the software you end up buying.

   Learning from a vendor about how wonderfully their software performs is not hard, but getting them to point out the flaws in their product is more of a challenge. This is why researching all the software options out there is key. Competitors will often highlight the weaknesses of the software product you are reviewing, so considering other options and what they say about the competition is a great way to learn about the solution you are looking to purchase.