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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Testimonials
It was quick and efficient as it both didn't take a lot of our time to explain the need and the results came back fairly quickly. No "worst' part to call out as the engagement exactly met my expectations due to good communication up front and was exactly...
Very helpful & easy to work with. Also, very reactive...always got back to us in a timely manner. The suggested approach & vendor demo script he provided, saved us a lot of time. Thank You.
Was a good overview of the RASF, but wasn't quite the detail we were looking for regarding PPM tools
It has been helpful to have the analyst provide templates and advice that keep our project team on track.
Having a framework we can use is the best part.
The best part was the simple structure of the framework and focused discussions. The worst part was the vendor comparison discussion as it did not focus on our existing investments.
Kieran skillfully allowed the conversation to continue naturally and then bring us back to the agenda. We walked away with a lot of direction for the work we need to do.
My experience is still ongoing. However, the best parts have been the resources and suggestions given by Yaz. The structure of the process is already reassuring. Still, the additional assistance of the documents, quadrant reports, and one-on-one advice...
The RASF methodology was very helpful. The guidance and support we received from Yaz and Ben was excellent.
The Info-Tech analyst has moved us through the process quickly and efficiently. The analyst has also covered key points for us to consider and assisted us in distinguishing must have features from nice to have features. Given that most people on our inte...
Yaz was professional and very detailed. Very satisfied.
Overall, good engagement and the Info-Tech analyst understood the intent of the engagement and vendor analysis. The committed timeframe for delivery greatly exceeded expectations. No concerns related to the engagement.
I like the engagement with Yaz they are very useful. Constructive criticism: A proper introduction at the beginning of the meetings in front of clients about the reasons why the engagement is happening and explain the upcoming scope would be great ...
This indicated there was the material we needed available. Challenges scheduling.
Thomas was knowledgeable and very helpful in narrowing the field of vendors to the 4-5 we should be concentrating on. He supplied us with a vendor demo template and helped refine it for us over the course of the engagement. Would highly recommend to ot...
The workshop was well planned and executed. Tom was an excellent facilitator and the output has exceeded expectations.
Thomas was extremely helpful and vast amount of knowledge
Rapid Application Selection Framework looks to be very good and the presentation by Thomas explained it well.
Thomas is fabulous. His knowledge and experience shines through!
Sai was great. Clearly explained the process and delivered when he said he would.
The engagement provided information from the websites of vendors with the perspective of the analyst. It was advantageous to have conversations about the vendors without having to engage 12 or more by our team. We will be evaluating XDR and what it provi...