Small business leaders need help selecting an application that can support them in achieving their business goals and growth. Also, an application selection process can take months, potentially impacting the business' productivity, growth, and revenue.
Most of the time, small businesses do not have dedicated resources for the application selection process, but if they do, then they don’t manage it effectively and efficiently. Moreover, without a repeatable application selection framework, businesses are unable to extract the value that applications can provide to business in achieving desired business outcomes.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

Help your client adopt a formal methodology to accelerate and improve software selection results.
Improve your client’s business satisfaction by including the right stakeholders and delivering new applications on a truly timely basis.
Become a trusted advisor to your clients – 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.
Assist your clients in vendor negotiations, and never leave money on the table.

Impact and Result

Deliver huge value: Info-Tech's repeatable and scalable software selection framework delivers enormous value to your clients. This framework employs a data-driven business stakeholder collaboration and contract negotiation approach to select the right application for an organization in 30 days.
Reduced Effort and Boardroom-Ready Deliverables: Info-Tech Partners report that the laborious effort of creating customized deliverables for each client is alleviated using standardized deliverables in this blueprint.
Increased Credibility: You increase your trust and credibility with your clients and prospects when you show them aa repeatable, implementable, and data-driven framework to select applications for businesses. Leverage Info-Tech’s brand power as a research and advisory firm to bolster your customers' confidence in you.

Offer “The Rapid Application Selection Framework” as a Service Research & Tools

Executive Brief – A storyboard that will help you offer “The Rapid Application Selection Framework” as a service to your clients.

Read our concise Executive Brief to find out how you can deliver a repeatable and scalable application selection framework as service to your clients while meeting their business needs and expectations.

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.

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.

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 your software selection decisions.

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.

Offer “The Rapid Application Selection Framework” as a Service

An approach to software selection that saves time, saves money, and above all, is repeatable.

Technology Partner Research Center

Selecting software is a painful experience across businesses

Selection takes forever.
Traditional software selection drags on for years – sometimes in perpetuity.

”RFP” overload kills momentum.
Time is wasted documenting an endless list of table-stakes features.

Vendors put on dog and pony shows.
Glossy presentations and slick salespeople obscure real product features & capabilities.

Stakeholders aren’t satisfied.
Stakeholders grumble that deployed solutions don’t meet critical needs.

Decisions aren’t data driven.
“Gut feeling” and intuition guide selection, leading to poor outcomes.

Negotiations are a weak link.
Money is left on the table by inexperienced negotiators.

The result?
Wasted time. Wasted effort.
Applications that continually disappoint.

Small businesses take months to make application selection happen

Application selection consumes valuable time from key resources

One study analyzed 1,971 software projects from small and medium businesses

Software selection data

Average for a small business to select and implement software: 5 to 6 months
Top reason to implement new software: Support growth and increase efficiency

(Source: Software Path, 2020; Selecthub, 2018)

As a business evolves in today’s digital world, there is an increase in the demand for new, modern and more feature-rich software to stay competitive and innovative in the market.

Selecting and implementing the right software within an acceptable time frame is more important now than ever before.

Delays in implementing software can cost business in productivity, growth and revenue.

Info-Tech Insight

Small businesses have very little experience with or exposure to the vast array of business applications. Moreover, these businesses lack an official procurement function. The decision makers who are involved in the software selection process are busy working in their business, and the rigor of software selection is usually an unwanted distraction.

Software buyers are surrounded by biased sources, leading to poor decisions around software selection

Biased content, anecdotal evidence, and preconceived notions toward software vendors can lead to software discontent.

Biased & subjective inputs	VS.	Unbiased & objective inputs
Biased content marketing		Independent market reports & research
Marketing collateral		Third-party data-driven comparisons
Sales demos		Investigative interviews with existing customers
Industry peers using the software		Testing & trial configuration
HPPO (Highest paid person’s opinion) & “golf course effect”		Clearly defined selection process & methodology
Internal team players		Consultant can bring valuable software knowledge and experience

Pie chart titled 'The wrong influences lead to compromises' with 27% being 'No compromises' and 73% being 'Compromised made'.

Only 27% of small businesses exceed their expectations with new software after purchase. (Source: TechRepublic, 2021)

Consultants are needed for software selection but are highly sought after

Many small businesses are new to business software selection – these businesses need help!

57% of small companies are first-time business software buyers (Source: Software Path, 2020)

The technological shift of small companies toward business software solutions is due, in large part, to their digital transformation. This change will deliver on business growth and accomplish long-term goals for these businesses.

Consultants are only used 17% of the time to help navigate software selection processes
Pie chart of all the different roles that participate in software selection. The 17% allotted to 'External Consultants' is separated.

Pie chart of all the different roles that participate in software selection. The 17% allotted to 'External Consultants' is separated.

More small businesses need consultants to help select software that meets most of the needs of the organization. (Source: Selecthub, 2018)

Leverage your Info-Tech partnership to overcome challenges in building software selection engagement

If you are challenged with….	Then we encourage….
Inconsistent or inadequate methods to assess your customer’s application portfolio	Using Info-Tech’s Diagnostic Program, which assesses the client’s IT processes against our Management and Governance Framework.
Lack of data-driven research in a specific market to provide unbiased analysis	Using SoftwareReviews’ Data Quadrant Report and Emotional Footprint Report to provide an unbiased view of product and vendor insights.
Lack of repeatable methodology to approach software application selection. Inability to scale an approach to applications of various sizes.	Our Rapid Application Selection Process – a repeatable way to conduct a complete software assessment.

Improve key software selection metrics using Info-Tech’s rapid application selection framework

Selection process elapsed time	Selection and implementation project satisfaction	Application portfolio satisfaction score	Dollars saved from initial quote
30 Days	85%	70%	$100K
Weeks, not months	Measurable results, not hidden frustration	Portfolio awareness, not flying blind	Hard savings, not list price
A simple measurement of the number of days from intake to decision.	Use our Customer Satisfaction Report to measure stakeholder project satisfaction.	Use our Application Portfolio Assessment tool to annually measure application satisfaction.	Use our contract review and negotiation report to benchmark and optimize your technology spending.
FASTER	BETTER	BETTER	CHEAPER

The Rapid Application Selection Framework (RASF) is best geared towards commodity and mid-tier enterprise applications

Not all software selection projects are created equal – some are very small, and some span the entire enterprise. To ensure that IT is using the right framework, understand the cost and complexity profile of the application you’re looking to select.

The RASF approach is best for commodity and mid-tier enterprise applications; selecting complex applications is better handled by the methodology described in Implement a Proactive and Consistent Vendor Selection Process.

RASF Methodology

Commodity & personal applications

Simple, straightforward applications (e.g. OneNote vs. Evernote)
Total application spend of up to $10,000; limited risk and complexity
Selection done as a single, rigorous, one-day session

Complex mid-tier applications

More differentiated, department-wide applications (e.g. Marketo vs. Pardot)
Total application spend of up to $100,000; medium risk and complexity
RASF approach done over the course of an intensive 40-hour engagement

Consulting Engagement

Enterprise applications

Sophisticated, enterprise-wide applications (e.g. Salesforce vs. Dynamics)
Total application spend of over $100,000; high risk and complexity
Info-Tech can assist with tailored, custom engagements

Implement Info-Tech’s modular and fast-moving Rapid Application Selection Framework to select the right software for your client organization

Five key phases add rigor to your selection efforts while giving you a clear, fast-moving methodology to follow.

Awareness

1.1 Proactively lead technology optimization & prioritization

1.2 Scope & define the selection process for each selection request action

1.3 Conduct an accelerated business needs assessment

1.4 Align stakeholder calendars to reduce elapsed time & asynchronous evaluation

Education & Discovery

2.1 Understand marketplace capabilities & trends

2.2 Discover alternative solutions & conduct market education

2.3 Evaluate enterprise architecture & application portfolio

2.4 Validate the business case

Evaluation

3.1 Gather & prioritize requirements & establish key success metrics

3.2 Conduct a data-driven comparison of vendor features & capabilities

3.3 Narrow the field to four top contenders

Selection

4.1 Create a weighted vendor selection decision model

4.2 Conduct investigative interviews focused on mission-critical priorities with top 2-4 vendors

4.3 Validate key issues with deep technical assessments, trial configuration, & reference checks

Negotiation & Configuration

5.1 Initiate price negotiation with top two vendors selected

5.2 Negotiate contract terms & product configuration

5.3 Finalize budget approval & project implementation timeline

5.4 Invest in training & onboarding assistance