Getting alignment throughout the software selection process

An important aspect of software adoption is to ensure alignment across the organization.

Selecting the right software is important for any business. But it is even more important that the selected software is adopted and used in the organization to reap the anticipated business benefits.

An important aspect of software adoption is to ensure alignment across the organization. To accomplish this, we need to consider the needs and wants of four important entities in an organization. We involve representatives from business, IT, architecture, and procurement to get perspectives on four different questions:

1. Does the software have the required capabilities? Business
2. How can the implementation be de-risked? IT
3. How does the software integrate with the current and target IT landscape? Architecture
4. Can we build a trusted partnership with the vendor? Procurement

Holistic view

Each representative brings in their own view, supported by stakeholders from their teams. Combining the views on the different questions leads to a holistic view on the needs and the wants of the organization. Here we need to make sure that the needs and the wants are mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive. The needs and wants are prioritized to ensure a validated selection process instead of a never-ending wishlist. As we will have many sessions throughout the process, the facilitator needs to be unbiased and make sure each view is treated equally. This will result in a balance between the needs and wants from the different entities.

Alignment

Based on our experience, merely combining the different perspectives on the questions is not enough. We need to align the representatives, their perspectives, and the stakeholders they represent. We spend most of our time on getting this alignment, as this will be the start of getting the software adopted. People tend to adopt the software better, when they trust their colleagues involved in selecting the software. Throughout the process it is crucial to get the representatives into the same room, as well as stimulate them to reach out to their stakeholders.

Ensuring that everybody is aligned throughout the software selection process is truly a success factor, but also to work with proofpoints instead of requirements to rate how well a vendor delivers on a specific capability. And to work with the vendor to build partially configured prototypes to be assessed, and to ensure it integrates well with the existing IT landscape. We also highly recommend to use a company-wide standardized approach to the software selection process to allow for clarity and honesty on how the decision is going to be made.

Contact us to learn more on how our Software Selection service offering can help you to focus on adopting the software to the organization at an early stage in the process.