Choosing the right software company is not an easy task to pull off, even if it seems to be at first glance. Since you are investing both time and money, you definitely want a product that perfectly fulfills your requirements. Whether you are selecting a company to develop and implement a package tracking system or automated mail, you want to ensure it has a wide-ranging impact on your department and the entire company.
Unfortunately, many business owners tend to fail when making the right choice. It could be due to lack of experience, or perhaps they are just too lazy to do their homework. It is really easy to get lost in a sea of proposals, especially when you are making decisions from hasty evaluations.
When choosing the right software company, you undoubtedly need to pay attention to what is important. With that said, let’s take a look at some tips for choosing the perfect company.
1. Tell Vendors What Exactly You Need
A common mistake that business owners make is to ask what vendors can do for them. Are you able to set up this type of integration? What can your software do when it comes to this process? These questions do not really help you with your goal. What you want to do rather is tell vendors in detail what exactly you need. For instance, you are dealing with a software company that provides a helpdesk ticketing system. Rather than asking what the software offers, intsead, voice out your reason for being interested in it in the first place. Perhaps you want to improve the quality and speed of your IT team’s service, or maybe define routing rules, due dates, escalations, and priorities, among many others.
By better understanding your problem and needs, you can keep a vendor on the right path. Even more so, you can check whether the software it provides can deliver the solution to your problems. The right software company is more than willing to talk more about you and your needs than themselves or the product they offer.
2. Ask About Relevant Experience and Technologies
This is where you want to look at the respective portfolios of your short-listed vendors, from what projects they do to the type of business niches they service. If they have performed a great project in a business area related to your niche, chances are, it will be much easier for them to organize the work for you. What is more, you will appreciate the fact that they already have the solutions that can address your issues, and all of these have been tested in place.
Also, you want to ask the vendor about the different technologies they are planning to use for the overall improvement of their software. Do they want their automated mailing system to branch out to social media networks? Is the vendor interested in adding a technology or two to further improve its software’s escalation system? The right software company already has these things in mind. And while they are far from implementing these ideas, they already have concrete knowledge about the future of their product.
3. Open to Communication
Have you ever been in a situation where you are really interested in a product or service but you just cannot grasp it? It seems the people behind the company are not just interested in doing business with you. Or maybe they are, but they do not just have the ability to communicate so well. Your vendor should be open to communication regardless of when and where. Every time you have a question about their product, they should be willing to step out and help you. This is most especially the case if you think their software can significantly improve a certain area of your company’s business process (e.g. customer support, sales, retention, etc.).
When you are interested in a product or service, it is given that you want to know more about it. You want to feel secure that you will get your money’s worth. If the vendor is incapable of giving you time and effort to meet and sit down with you, then maybe you are better off to a different provider.
4. Excellent Support Options
A good software company is one that provides you with flexibility in terms of running the software in your own IT department or hosting it externally. Regardless of your decision, it should be willing to adjust and implement the software based on what you feel is right. For instance, you think it is best to host the software externally for now since you do not have enough manpower to handle a new process.
Your vendor should know right at the get-go what your capabilities are. In fact, they should not wait for you telling them what you really want to do. After all the sit downs and talks, they should already have a better understanding of your company’s capabilities. Is it best for the company to handle all technicalities involved in software for now? If not, is the vendor willing to provide you with a support option, such as providing remote support to help you throughout the implementation of the software?
5. Read Reviews
This is without a doubt the most important element in this article. At the end of the day, you want to know about the kind of reputation your vendor has in the industry. This is where you would want to read reviews from a vendor’s previous and/or current clients. Thankfully, the Internet is enough to provide you with this essential information. You can visit forums or review sites that talk about the software company you are interested in.
See what other people are talking about it. You will know about what these individuals did before hiring the software company or what process was used to turn a project into a reality. Even more so, you can tell whether a software company is bad or good based on the experiences these previous customers have with the vendor. It can really take up time, but it is going to be worth it!
