But whether you’re looking at off-the-shelf solutions or something more customized, a natural part of your process should be analyzing what exactly you want the software to be able to do and – ideally – what process it follows in order to do it. Maybe your sales force is spread all over the country and everyone is using a different method to track customers, so a centralized client relationship management tool is in order.īusiness needs vary wildly with the size and nature of the company, existing systems and processes, and – of course – the specific function of the tool itself. So what are you trying to solve for? Perhaps you need to continuously update content on your website and are looking at implementing a content management system.
But even if a piece of software is given to you for free, if it does not meet any of your needs or address your challenges it is effectively worthless and – worse – could actually cost you in the form of retraining staff, changing your processes to adapt to the software, and so on.Īs we go into this decision making process the golden rule here is: understand your business needs and make sure the solution is a good fit.
Yes, there are many considerations that make up “business needs,” and they span functionality, budget, return-on-investment, and so forth.
