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

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
The Rapid Application Selection Framework Sample Deck
The Rapid Application Selection Framework Deck

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
The Guide to Software Selection: A Business Stakeholder Manual

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
The Software Selection Workbook

4. The Vendor Evaluation Workbook

  • The Vendor Evaluation Workbook provides a reusable scorecard system for ranking and comparing vendors.
  • This practical template can accelerate and improve your selection process.
  • It is a reusable workbook for each of your software selection decisions.
Name Actions
The Vendor Evaluation Workbook
The Rapid Application Selection Framework

Testimonials

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.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada viaPublication

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 ...

Royal Canadian Mint viaPublication

This indicated there was the material we needed available. Challenges scheduling.

eHealth Saskatchewan viaPublication

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...

Northeast Credit Union viaPublication

The workshop was well planned and executed. Tom was an excellent facilitator and the output has exceeded expectations.

Hollister Incorporated viaPublication

Thomas was extremely helpful and vast amount of knowledge

Insearch Ltd. viaPublication

Rapid Application Selection Framework looks to be very good and the presentation by Thomas explained it well.

PowerNet Limited viaPublication

Thomas is fabulous. His knowledge and experience shines through!

Massy Group viaPublication

Sai was great. Clearly explained the process and delivered when he said he would.

Bruce Power L P viaPublication

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...

Erie 1 Board of Co-op Education Services viaPublication

Pleasure to deal with always. Extremely knowledgeable and wonderful guidance from start to finish.

Irving Oil Limited viaPublication

Unfortunately don't know what kind of time or monetary impact that was had but the work from Thomas and Infotech, and their information provided a fantastic framework to go into the selection process and assisted us with finding the tool that we feel wil...

Westmoreland Mining LLC viaPublication

Best: all of the information provided was very relevant to the scope of the pending project. Worst: nothing. I can't think of anything negative.

Modesto Irrigation District viaPublication

The advisors/analysts Samuel Leese and Ugbad Farah have been extremely helpful and professional. This process has been more beneficial than I expected. Thank you!

Doctors Without Borders Canada viaPublication

Best part is the scoring tool (spreadsheet) Worst part is the absence of any European research data on the candidate SaaS providers

Sint-Trudo Ziekenhuis viaPublication

Tom did an excellent job.

Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc. viaPublication

We have yet to complete this work due to delays on our side. However, we are still interested in pursuing the selection through this framework.

City of Prince Albert viaPublication

I appreciate being able to leverage the expertise of Info-Tech's analysts. I have very limited experience in the IT world and their support in helping me deliver excellence to my customers in their project implementation is unparalleled.

Philadelphia College Of Osteopathic Medicine viaPublication

Very attentive listener. Work very quickly.

Caribbean Public Health Agency viaPublication