The Rapid Application Selection Framework
Select your applications better, faster, and cheaper.
Member Challenge
- Selection takes forever. Traditional software selection drags on for years, sometimes in perpetuity.
- IT is viewed as a bottleneck and the business has taken control of software selection.
- “Gut feel” decisions rule the day. Intuition, not hard data, guides selection, leading to poor outcomes.
- Negotiations are a losing battle. Money is left on the table by inexperienced negotiators.
- Overall: Poor selection processes lead to wasted time, wasted effort, and applications that continually disappoint.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Adopt a formal methodology to accelerate and improve software selection results.
- Improve business satisfaction by including the right stakeholders and delivering new applications on a truly timely basis.
- Kill the “sacred cow” requirements that only exist because “it’s how we’ve always done it.”
- Forget about “RFP” overload and hone in on the features that matter to your organization.
- Skip the guesswork and validate decisions with real data.
- Take control of vendor “dog and pony shows” with single-day, high-value, low-effort, rapid-fire investigative interviews.
- Master vendor negotiations and never leave money on the table.
Impact and Result
Improving software selection is a critical project that will deliver huge value.
- Hit a home run with your business stakeholders: use a data-driven approach to select the right application vendor for their needs – fast.
- Shatter stakeholder expectations with truly rapid application selections.
- Boost collaboration and crush the broken telephone with concise and effective stakeholder meetings.
- Lock in hard savings and do not pay list price by using data-driven tactics.
Research & Tools
| Name | Actions |
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1. The Rapid Application Selection Framework
- A complete framework to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of software selection
- All necessary training and tools for IT leaders and business stakeholders
- Adopt this framework to:
- Improve the effectiveness of software selection.
- Reduce the time to select software.
- Reduce the cost of the applications you procure.
| Name | Actions |
|---|---|
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The Rapid Application Selection Framework Sample Deck
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The Rapid Application Selection Framework Deck
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2. The Guide to Software Selection: A Business Stakeholder Manual
- This guide has been built to share with your business leaders and stakeholders.
- It provides a clear methodology that sets expectations with stakeholders and encourages them to uses software selection best practices to improve selection results.
- This customizable guide helps you train and guide your business stakeholders as they participate in software selection projects.
| Name | Actions |
|---|---|
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The Guide to Software Selection: A Business Stakeholder Manual
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3. The Software Selection Workbook
- This critical template helps you capture and document your selection process and decisions.
- This practical template streamlines your selection workflow and provides easy-to-follow guidelines with practical examples.
- It is a reusable template for all of your software selection decisions.
| Name | Actions |
|---|---|
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The Software Selection Workbook
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4. Requirements Workbook
The Requirements Workbook provides a centralized document to record your key functional/non-functional use-case criteria and requirements needed for the prospective software or solution that your team is hoping to procure.
Please Note: This workbook is to be shared with the vendor upon finalization of its contents. It will serve as a guiding reference for the vendors during the demo process in tailoring the vendor's product demo based on the requirements documented within the workbook.
| Name | Actions |
|---|---|
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Requirements Workbook
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5. Vendor Evaluation Scorecard
The Vendor Evaluation Scorecard template provides a scorecard system for your team to score, rank, and compare your shortlist of vendors based on the level of fit with your requirements and use case criteria.
| Name | Actions |
|---|---|
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Vendor Evaluation Scorecard
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Member Testimonials
After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.
- Overall Impact
- 9.0/10
- Average $ Saved
- $40,111
- Average Days Saved
- 16
| Client | Experience | Impact | $ Saved | Days Saved | Testimonial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rincon Consultants, Inc. | Guided Implementation | 9/10 | $2,759 | 5 | |
| CalSTRS | Guided Implementation | 10/10 | $206K | 47 | |
| Member Organization | Guided Implementation | 10/10 | N/A | 5 | |
| Member Organization | Guided Implementation | 10/10 | $1,379 | 1 | |
| Member Organization | Guided Implementation | 9/10 | $13,670 | 5 |
Good soundboard and valuable to get second opinion
Robust discussions help us identify gaps with our approach
Adds more structure to our approach and vendor communication
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| Member Organization | Guided Implementation | 8/10 | N/A | N/A | It is too early for any analysis of the framework as it is still at pre-POC stage. |
| Member Organization | Guided Implementation | 2/10 | N/A | N/A |
Honestly, I'm not sure what we were expecting here, but this one really didn't hit. I think we were looking for more specific information about LIMS systems, not so much generalized information about the selection process.
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| Member Organization | Guided Implementation | 10/10 | $20,009 | 10 |
The work was very well done and provided valuable information - and we saved a ton of effort on our part. This really helped us to narrow our research and see a good overview of the market.
A couple of the committed deadlines were missed with a few days of delay.
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| Member Organization | Guided Implementation | 10/10 | N/A | 20 |
I feel like the information that was provided was fantastic. There was plenty of time to allow me to ask questions as well. I have no negative feedback.
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| Member Organization | Guided Implementation | 8/10 | N/A | 2 | Best part - It's available on software reviews on info tech site and others are consuming same information Worst part - none |
| Member Organization | Guided Implementation | 9/10 | N/A | 10 | Good CVL with lots of information. |
| Member Organization | Guided Implementation | 10/10 | N/A | 10 | Great meeting and I am excited to see the CVL. |
| Member Organization | Guided Implementation | 10/10 | $65,549 | 50 | Indicated previously. |
| Member Organization | Guided Implementation | 9/10 | $34,499 | 20 | |
| Member Organization | Guided Implementation | 9/10 | $2,000 | 5 | |
| Member Organization | Guided Implementation | 9/10 | N/A | N/A |
Our first initial meetings were unclear of what Info-Tech was providing us and had come off as sessions advocating for Purview which left many confused. However, when Seva joined and started to lead the calls and direction he made the RASF process clear and provided the team with a lot of knowledge and aid. The workbook evaluation he provided was very helpful as was the insight on how to evaluate these vendors.
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| Member Organization | Guided Implementation | 8/10 | N/A | 5 | insight into our provincial Neighbours and how they fill this need. |
| Member Organization | Guided Implementation | 8/10 | $275K | 23 |
Once we start with this framework process, it will be very valuable. I will say that during this session, it was a lot to take in, so I'm looking forward to receiving the documents so that I can go over them myself.
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| Member Organization | Guided Implementation | 9/10 | N/A | 5 | |
| Member Organization | Guided Implementation | 10/10 | $15,921 | 47 | |
| Member Organization | Guided Implementation | 10/10 | $2,720 | 5 | Great partnership and engagement. |
| Member Organization | Guided Implementation | 8/10 | N/A | 20 |
I appreciate the efforts although it could have been better if the research made clear if the possible providers have past engagements with retail electricity suppliers / deregulated electricity business.
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| Member Organization | Guided Implementation | 9/10 | $36,750 | 20 | simple and easy, we asked and the outcome was delivered |
| Member Organization | Guided Implementation | 9/10 | $13,600 | 10 | |
| Member Organization | Guided Implementation | 10/10 | $34,000 | 20 | No bad parts at all. Well informed discussion, all questions answered thoroughly. |
| Member Organization | Guided Implementation | 10/10 | $8,000 | 3 | No worst parts, everything was a huge help, and the large amount of information was found to be extremely valuable. |
| Member Organization | Guided Implementation | 8/10 | $34,000 | 20 | Best - quick turnaround Worse - making sure our requirements were complete |
| Member Organization | Guided Implementation | 5/10 | N/A | N/A |
It seems there was a mismatch between our intended purpose for the call and what was actually booked. Hriday, who was filling in for a colleague, was polite and offered some helpful points. However, he was unable to provide the specific value we were seeking in terms of developing a repeatable process for application selection and implementation at our company. We will follow up with our account representative to explore other options.
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| Member Organization | Guided Implementation | 8/10 | N/A | N/A |
We appreciate that Kieran has a broad base of knowledge and has a pragmatic and logical approach when applying that knowledge. We loved the deck Kieran shared. It had great information in it. From a less experienced team member, it was hard to follow. He seemed to focus on what requirements gathering would look like for larger/more complex projects and did not ask as many good follow-up questions.
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| Member Organization | Guided Implementation | 10/10 | $5,440 | 7 |
Very easy communication and understanding of our requirements by Yaz, the expert in this case. Solid report and presentation of the report, including answering all questions we had. Overall, an excellent service.
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