Consultants and Software Selection

All organisations embarking on a significant software selection project are burdened with concerns, rightly so – it can be a risky endeavour. An inappropriate decision can have disastrous consequences and not just financial ones – employee burnout, legacy systems running out of road and reputational damage are common. So how do you ensure that you make the right decision? As with all things in life, you cannot eliminate all of the risks, but you can approach your selection project in a way that minimises the risk.

An obvious “go-to” for organisations setting out on a system selection project is to hire consultants. However, understanding the role of the consultant in these endeavours is crucial and sometimes lacking – “Hire the consultants, they have experience of this, they will pick the right system for us and if it goes wrong, it won’t be our fault”. There is some truth in there but let’s dissect that a little bit….

“Hire the consultants, they have experience of this”. Absolutely, engaging suitably experienced consultants makes sense. They have been through the process successfully multiple times and know the market. They should be able to demonstrate that they have supported customers through the full lifecycle of a selection project. They should also be able to demonstrate good knowledge of the key players in the sector and also have the ability and resources to eek out the niche players if your circumstances warrant it. Even if it is an area that they don’t have direct experience in, they should have a mature methodology for selection projects and the right tools and resources to allow them to conduct the necessary research.

…“they will pick the right system for us”. Even with all of their experience, what your consultants don’t have is experience of your business. If the right people within your organisation are assigned to the project, then they have the depth of knowledge of the business to properly ensure that a proposed system and vendor align well with your organisation. They understand the processes (even if they are not yet optimised), they understand the customers and they have lived the culture. They must be entrusted with making decisions on what is best for the organisation. The consultant can support you in gathering and documenting your requirements, advising where your processes could and should be changed and translating your organisation’s colloquialisms into standard commercial system requirements. They can further support you in identifying the systems that are most closely aligned with your requirements and your budget and will help you in all aspects of your evaluations.

…“and if it goes wrong, it won’t be our fault.” When forming a team for your selection process, you must appoint individuals who know your business well and who will embrace the responsibility of a selection project. They need to understand their role and, very importantly, the role of the consultant. They must be empowered to make decisions, confident that those decisions have resulted from a rigorous process that the consultant has guided them through.

External consultants should never “pick” a system for you. The role of the consultant is to guide you through the maze – they should deliver structure to the selection process, provide market knowledge, gather and document requirements, manage the process and help with commercial negotiations. They can advise and help you tease out the pros and cons of the options before you, but the ultimate decision belongs with those who will live with it long after the consultant has submitted their final invoice.

If a consultant says that they will select a system for you, walk away, quickly.

This post was contributed by Lisa Gough, Director with Clarion Consulting. If you have a selection project on your horizon, get in touch  and see how Clarion can help.