Selecting software vendor

Oliver writes on a wide range of topics that tie in his passion for technology and his deep understanding of the regulatory requirements. Montrium is a knowledge based company, that focuses on leveraging its deep understanding of GxP processes and technologies to provide cost-effective solutions to life science organizations.

Here are some high level questions your team might consider to help weed out vendors that might not be a good match as you develop your initial list of potential vendors: Which reviews should I trust? How do the strengths and weaknesses of the platform and features compare to my requirements?

Does the vendor have the scale and customer satisfaction to meet my needs? Have I considered all vendors — even newer and smaller ones? Below is an example from Litcom that explains the best way to weight and score vendors: To understand how to create this system, Litcom has also created the useful breakdown sheet below. About the Author: Oliver Pearce. LinkedIn Twitter. Market research and first vendor filtering The goal of this step is to get a first short list of vendors, for which you want to start a Request for Proposal leading to step 3.

Scan the market for possible vendors that could match your requirements. Sometimes this can be very easy — in case the players in the market are well-known. In other instances this might be more difficult, for such cases specialized market research companies can be a good help or alternatively look for an independent external consultant, which has done similar vendor selections already before.

Last but not least google it, it can give you answers to almost everything you are looking for. In order to make sure that you can compare apples with apples later on, the RfP needs to have a clear structure and make it clear to the vendors to what and how to respond.

An RfP should contain the following elements:. Evaluate responses Before reviewing and evaluating the responses of the vendors, build an evaluation sheet based on the RfP which again reflect your requirements. By weighting each of the criteria and evaluating each vendor response against these criteria, you will get a total score per vendor. Below generic example gives you some illustration on this:. This is why I always recommend to include — whenever possible — a PoC in the selection process.

If you choose to do so, you should mention this in the RfP, including the time when you will issue the PoC Scenarios to the vendors. Look at the total scores and the killer criteria and make a ranking of the vendors. So think about where your company will be in five years. How well will this vendor be able to support your company then? Can the vendor handle a bigger client? One in multiple locations? Additional hardware platforms? Yes, you can always switch vendors, but even amicable divorces can be disruptive.

Communicate, communicate, communicate. Make sure they know what you want. Ensure you let them know when things change. We now pronounce you client and vendor. You may shake hands. Categories: Blog Thought Leadership.