Choosing a system

Selecting a new system can be tough - and all the more so if you have limited or no IT experience.

You know what you need to take your business to the next level - but you might not know how to communicate your message to potential vendors in language that they can understand. And when a vendor proudly tells you how great his system is you can't be certain that you have asked all the "hard" questions and that they have been fully answered.

Our strength is helping you to find the right solution specifically for YOUR business.

The first step is to define your business requirements in detail. This will help to clarify and solidify the things that are important to you - and will be used to explain to potential vendors what your minimum expectations are. It's worth bearing in mind that your requirements are likely to include things that are not directly related to business process such as how much you are prepared to pay, the number of people who will be using the system, whether you'll need a lot of support from the vendor, user training etc.

Secondly will need to develop a "go to market" strategy. Depending on the size and complexity of the project - and your purchasing policies and procedures - this could be as simple as a request for quotation or at the other end of the scale it could be a large-scale tender process conducted over many months. An important part of this process is developing an evaluation criteria so that you can be confident that you can properly assess each of the responses you receive.

Next you will need to enter into negotiations with your preferred vendor. Most often these negotiations will focus on detailed services, technical functions and implementation arrangements as well as pricing issues.

Finally, you will be able to engage your vendor so that installation and implementation can commence. Unfortunately this is where many IT projects go off the rails. In the first instance the challenge is to ensure that the vendor delivers everything in the contract. The next is to be careful that you, as the system owner, don't inadvertently ask for additional functionality that was not originally asked for (this is called "scope creep"). Finally, you want to be sure that there is a mechanism in place to formally deal with variations - you need to be sure that any variation is needed, is specified properly, is affordable and does not unreasonably impact the overall project. 

The APCS team can help and advise you throughout your journey to a new system. Our consultants can work with you and your team to "flesh out" your requirements and suggest alternatives that may make your system a better fit for your business. We can manage your entire procurement process - from developing documentation through to evaluating vendors and products.

Our project consultants can manage the entire process and will ensure that the vendors deliver a system that is fit for purpose and exactly meets the agreed specifications.

Most importantly, you can be confident that APCS people will quickly become part of your team. We work best alongside you with our sleeves rolled up and we pride ourselves as not acting as external advisors who may have all care - but accept no responsibility.