Commissioning new business software often requires a substantial investment. It is not just the purchase of software, but also an investment in hardware, infrastructure, services of the software partner and of course all the time and energy that your own people put into the project. You want to recoup that investment by making the organization more agile and successful with the software. When you pay attention to these 5 crucial issues, you can properly assess the risks of your intended software investment.
1. Supplier continuity
There is never any certainty that your software vendor will still be around in a few years, but you can run some checks on the vendor's continuity. Is the company successful? Do they have a lot of customers? Are those customers working with the same products and versions you want to invest in? Is the knowledge documented and distributed internally or is there one whizzkid you depend on? Answering these questions will help you more accurately assess whether your software partner can continue to support, advise and guide you through upgrades and optimization processes.
2. Continuity of software
Your software vendor is one thing, the software package is another. Again, it is advisable to consider the success of the system. Is it used by many customers? Also, the specific version your organization wants to start using? Require your software partner to have an escrow agreement; the source code of the software is then housed with a specialized escrow party so that the future of your automation is guaranteed. Also pay attention to the basis of the software; is it fully developed in-house or based on an existing, successful software solution? And are there any developments being made to the system, will there be new releases? Or is the product already end-of-lifecycle?
3. Technology used
Pay close attention to the underlying technology of the software. It should be compatible with your existing IT environment. Is the technology widely used? Will it be supported for a long time to come? If you choose a stable platform built on a proven successful technology, your software solution will have more future prospects than if you choose an unknown or outdated technology or a new technology that is being experimented with.
4. Amount of customization
The software solution you want to invest in will undoubtedly not fully meet your needs and requirements. But the question is how you will deal with that. Are you going to try to solve this with a large amount of expensive and complicated customization in your system? That could cause problems with support, training, documentation, upgrading, etc. It is wiser to choose an industry-specific standard solution that may lack certain features, but supports your business just fine. Only opt for customization if it is of real benefit.
5. Degree of complexity
How complex is the software your organization wants to invest in? Ideally, it should be an extremely user-friendly and intuitive system that every employee can get up and running quickly. Or is the setup illogical, or the user interface incomprehensible? Are there many integrations with other software packages? Are there interfaces with suppliers, partners and customers? Keep in mind that the new software in your organization will be used by a diverse group of employees and that complexity may hinder acceptance of the system.
Teun Arts is Service Manager at Dysel and ensures that customers make optimal use of the software's capabilities, now and in the future.
