Working in the digital age, consultants have more choices than ever before as to the technological tools that can help them to run their firm more efficiently. But this vast array of choice can prove difficult in itself – making the decision on what software to buy takes time and effort. Implementing a new system isn’t always straight forward, involving the divisive and unavoidable factors of change and disruption – luckily, Metis is on hand to talk you through our 6 key pointers for selecting the software that’s right for you, and making the transition to a new software system as seamless as possible.
1. Buy outcomes, not features
Few people have got the time or resources to undertake a full, formal software comparison and selection process. Our suggestion is to make a short list of all the outcomes you need to achieve e.g. 'efficiently manage my sales meeting,' or ‘on-board a new person and get them set up’. Then use focused, 1 hour demos of relevant products to see how easy it’s going to be to achieve those objectives. By expressing what you want in terms of the outcomes you’d like to achieve, rather than a rigid feature set that a new product must deliver, you’ll select your product based on more realistic and useful targets and aims. You might wish to involve your finance person and a regular user too in your trialling process to make sure that varying team needs are met.
2. Be prepared to embrace change
Mobile and cloud software has unleashed a wave of innovation that mean recent products will have new ways of doing things that may not look like the specific features in your existing systems and processes - in fact, they may even be better. Don’t hang on to the idea of long standing processes and ways of doing things – what seem like crucial processes now were probably workarounds to deal with the weaknesses of previous systems. Your new product will not be bespoke, and you’ll need to be flexible to get the best from it.
3. Don’t expect swiss army knives
People often think they’re going to find one system that does everything they want, end to end. However, most modern developers are focused on doing a small range of things really well, and having open integrations with other best-in-class specialist systems. You have to look to clunky, older enterprise software to get lots of things in one system, and those come with a high cost, both financially and in terms of usability. Combining 3 or 4 best-in-class tools is the modern way to produce the cocktail of results that your business requires.
4. Avoid direct installation on a server or a PC
With most innovation hosted in the cloud these days, if you’re looking at something that has to be hosted specifically for you, you may want to think twice. Most businesses understand the benefits of the cloud now: anytime, anywhere access, no capex costs and instant upgrades amongst others so unless there’s a very good reason to host in-house, it’s best avoided.
5. Don’t over-buy
Like everything else, software comes in tiers that are targeted at certain sizes of organisations. More complex, feature-rich software can come at the cost of poor usability, and much higher costs of ownership. Big systems often require big projects to implement them, and a significant percentage of someone’s time to administer them. Look to buy the size of product that is sufficient for your enterprise, rather than over-reaching.
Have a plan for implementation
Your implementation plan should not involve ‘parallel running’. Select well, prove that the new software can deliver your outcomes, and then plan to cut over to your new system. Think of yourself as a General burning bridges behind you to make sure the team have no option but to embrace the new. Going may be a bit bumpy for a few weeks, but like all good Generals, with forward thinking and contingency planning, your battle aims will be achieved.
Have you got your own tips and tricks for buying new software? If so, we’d love to hear them.
Metis - Software your consultancy can rely on
Metis was built by a small team of entrepreneurs who have founded, grown and sold companies like yours. We know what it’s like to manage all stages - from when there are just two of you, to when you’re dealing with hundreds of people in multiple teams. Metis is the distillation of the lessons we have learned along the way. Our mission is to make businesses like yours more successful. If you’d like to hear more about how we can help, get in touch.