Solution Selection

Mastering the Vendor Software Selection Process

Choosing the right vendor software requires thorough research and a deep understanding of your business needs and goals.

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Leverage AI to rapidly shortlist vendors at the start of your project!

Vendor Evaluation and Software Decision

Key Considerations for Vendor Selection

Assessing your business requirements is crucial when selecting vendor software. Focus on vital needs and desired outcomes to guide your decision-making. Keep in mind that software selection extends beyond just the product; vendor service, capability, and culture play an essential role.

Stay on schedule and achieve impactful results with our project resources.

Six Actions to Optimize Your Vendor Software Decision

1. Accelerate

Adopt an agile mindset with an interactive, collaborative process driven by vital need and AI-prepared briefs for quicker decisions.

2. Focus on Vital Needs

Identify essential requirements and the most viable vendors: leverage AI and online resources to research and filter potential options.

3. Validate

Gain insights from peer organizations and other vendor solution users to assess real-world performance and satisfaction.

4. Streamline

Eliminate Procurement as the middleman in vendor communications—yes, it might be unconventional, but it saves time!

5. Engage

Communicate directly with vendors and share the most critical decision-making factors to foster impactful discussions.

6. Partner

Use a partner-driven approach to condense the vendor evaluation process into an intensive three-day onsite assessment.

Key Criteria for Selecting Vendor Software

Capability

Evaluate scalability, integration capabilities, and support services.

Software

Test user interface, configuration options, and overall experience to ensure alignment with key requirements.

Security

Assess security features, compliance standards, and data protection measures.

Value

Compare total cost of ownership, licensing models, and potential ROI.

Engage in contract discussions in parallel with vendor evaluations.

Focus on vital needs—avoid getting lost in unnecessary details.

Ask the right questions strategically.

Assemble a focused, cross-functional team for accelerated decision-making.

Assign measurable scores to vendor proposals and interactions.

Minimize RFPs and reduce reliance on intermediaries like Procurement.

Streamline screening and selection processes using AI.

Prioritize the few factors that truly impact your decision.

Use expert insights and modern strategies to accelerate selection.

Shift your mindset from buying software to acquiring a business process.

Foster differentiating partner relationships instead of commodity-based engagements.

Reduce bias and mitigate conflicts of interest.

Additional Insights for Success

Selecting software is more than about software and technology—it’s about aligning the right solution with long-term goals. View our Insights for success.

Focus on Vital Needs

Think 80/20 - Concentrate on impactful elements

Establish Vendor Minimums - Define baseline criteria for considering vendors

Think Post Implementation - Plan beyond initial adoption

Invest in your Employees - Ensure teams are equipped for success

Our Playbook Delivers Unparalleled Value

Explode out of the blocks on your software evaluation and selection project. Our comprehensive Playbook empowers you to accelerate the software selection process while maintaining rigor and effectiveness.

AI Prompts – Quickly streamline your research on vendors and peer organizations, and identify the best vendors to support your needs with the Playbook's AI prompts.

Productivity -- Save over 500 hours with more than 100 templates, content guides, and digital assets that simplify your selection process.

Fully Customizable – Tailor templates to meet your needs.

Scalable – Fits organizations of all sizes, from startups to Fortune 500 firms.

Industry Expertise – Playbook based on decades of best practices employed by top consulting firms.

Comprehensive Guidance – Help you make confident vendor choices.

Employee Engagement – Empower your employees to take action using our Playbook as a guide, reducing or eliminating the need for costly management consultants.

Our Playbook Incorporates Experienced Knowhow in Optimizing the Vendor Software Selection Process

Vendor Assessments

200+

Projects

600+

Industries

16+

Organizations

100+

Vendor Software Evaluation Leading Practices

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Faq

Why Choose Our Playbook?

Use creative and innovative thinking to improve your vendor application software selection while greatly cutting down on time and costs.

What is the Value Proposition?

This Playbook is more than just an attractive investment; it's a game-changer for your professional career.

Accelerate your project outcomes by up to 10 times with our advanced AI prompts and Just-in-Time Decision Evaluation (JITDE) approach. Additionally, save over 500 hours by utilizing the templates, scorecards, content guides, and digital assets included in the Playbook.

Reduce your dependency on costly management consultants. Top-tier firms, such as MBB (McKinsey, Bain, and Boston Consulting), have average project fees that range from $500,000 to tens of millions, depending on the size of the team and the project's complexity¹. Accenture and the Big Four firms (Deloitte, PwC, EY, and KPMG) typically start at $500,000 for smaller-scale projects and can reach several million dollars for large-scale, complex initiatives. Big Four hourly rates range from approximately $250 per hour for junior consultants to over $850 for senior partners². The MBB firms typically charge higher rates.

If you decide to use a management consulting firm, use their more experienced staff as opposed to their green or junior staff. AI, with our Playbook, can do most of what those junior staff do, such as research, summarize research, prepare deliverable templates, draft first drafts of deliverables, review and edit documents, etc. MBB and Big Four firms employ a pyramid staffing model to drive their profitability, with most of the staffing in the lower half of the pyramid comprised of inexperienced junior staff.

1. Enter the following search criteria into Google Chrome and read the AI Overview: What's the cost range for retaining a top-tier management consulting firm on a technology-related project?

2. Enter the following search criteria into Google Chrome and read the AI Overview: What's the cost range for retaining a Big Four management consulting firm on a technology-related project?

Contrast that with our DIY Playbook costing only $49. You can select the advanced AI, templates, content guides, and digital assets that best suit your project needs, offering you the flexibility to adjust the intensity of your due diligence as required. In addition, you can choose to tap the knowledge of an experienced, seasoned practitioner (equivalent to a senior partner) for as low as $35 per service unit (a service unit represents 10 minutes of discussion, e.g., address your questions, provide advice, deeper explanations, education, etc.). You can purchase one or more service units.

Gain mastery over the vendor software selection process and learn how to engage and influence software selection projects as a senior leader, sponsor, business professional, or stakeholder.

What Do I Receive?

A fully customizable Excel Playbook that offers over 100 templates, methods, scorecards, decision tools, AI prompts, guides, and digital assets—no installation required. All you need is Excel. Compatible with Mac and Windows, it does not utilize VBA or macros. User documentation comes with the Playbook. The Playbook contains four workbooks: Project, Scorecard, Score Consensus, and Scoresheet.

Enhance Your Career

Confidently lead vendor software selection projects as a senior leader, stakeholder, or business professional. Make informed decisions and accelerate results using proven strategies.

Playbook Features

Representative templates from our Playbook.

Demo the Playbook

Select the links below to demo each of the workbooks in the Playbook using Microsoft Excel on the Web.

Note: Smartphone users may need to tap and hold the link, then choose 'Open in new tab' from the pop-up menu to view the workbook.

There are minor formatting differences between the Excel desktop app and Excel for the Web. Any cell formatting issues can be due to those differences.

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Select the button below to go to our 80/20 Thinking shop on Etsy and learn more about the Playbook.

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