March Madness and Software Selection

It is March and with that comes one of the best sporting events of the year – March Madness. It is so fun to watch 68 teams play a single elimination tournament. There is a mix of large and small schools, traditional powerhouses and new upstarts in the tournament. The great thing is that every team has an equal chance to win. In fact on any given night any team can beat any team – and you never know who will be this year’s Cinderella.

SoftResources’ approach to software selection is similar. When we do a software evaluation project, we start with a long list of software solutions – which could be 20 or 30 viable possibilities that include established vendors, niche players that focus on a certain industry, and up and coming vendors. Our mantra is that if a vendor is not on the long list, it will never get selected!

We then use the Key Requirements to evaluate and quickly eliminate vendors to get to the Elite Eight. At that point we spend hours on the phone with the vendors analyzing their fit to determine the “Final Three” Short List of vendors, and bring them in for scripted demos. Additional due diligence is done on the finalist and the best fit vendor is selected.

Just like in the NCAA tournament, when we do the research on the vendors, we are frequently surprised at which vendors end up on the Short List. We have found some incredible hidden gems of vendor solutions that were an excellent fit for a client that they may not have thought about prior to engaging us. Of course we also see the major vendors win their share of projects as well, but it is important to evaluate all of your options so you can find the right solution.

You are most likely not thinking about software as you cheer on your team during the NCAA tournament, but now you know what we think about – and we look forward to helping you select the right software.