Choosing management, customer relationship or support software commits you for several years. Demonstrations look alike and feature lists are long: without clearly stated needs, comparing quickly becomes difficult. Here is a simple approach to find your way.
Start from usage, not features
Rather than listing features, describe what users must be able to do: “answer a customer request from a single screen”, “follow an order from first contact to invoice”. These scenarios will be the basis of the whole comparison.
Describe the current situation
How is the work done today? With which tools, which files, which manual steps? What works well should be kept; what gets stuck points to the priorities.
Separate the essential from the nice-to-have
Rank each need: essential, important, nice to have. This hierarchy avoids rejecting good software over a minor feature, or choosing one for a gimmick.
List the constraints
- budget, at purchase and over time;
- number and profile of users;
- software it must exchange data with;
- migration of existing data;
- location and protection of personal data.
Compare on concrete cases
Ask vendors to run through your own scenarios during the demonstration, and test with a trial version if possible. Note each solution’s strengths and limits on the same grid.
A software choice to prepare?
I support you in stating the need, comparing solutions and following their rollout.