The Rapid Application Selection Framework
Select your applications better, faster, and cheaper.
Member Challenge
- Selection takes forever. Traditional software selection drags on for years, sometimes in perpetuity.
- IT is viewed as a bottleneck and the business has taken control of software selection.
- “Gut feel” decisions rule the day. Intuition, not hard data, guides selection, leading to poor outcomes.
- Negotiations are a losing battle. Money is left on the table by inexperienced negotiators.
- Overall: Poor selection processes lead to wasted time, wasted effort, and applications that continually disappoint.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Adopt a formal methodology to accelerate and improve software selection results.
- Improve business satisfaction by including the right stakeholders and delivering new applications on a truly timely basis.
- Kill the “sacred cow” requirements that only exist because “it’s how we’ve always done it.”
- Forget about “RFP” overload and hone in on the features that matter to your organization.
- Skip the guesswork and validate decisions with real data.
- Take control of vendor “dog and pony shows” with single-day, high-value, low-effort, rapid-fire investigative interviews.
- Master vendor negotiations and never leave money on the table.
Impact and Result
Improving software selection is a critical project that will deliver huge value.
- Hit a home run with your business stakeholders: use a data-driven approach to select the right application vendor for their needs – fast.
- Shatter stakeholder expectations with truly rapid application selections.
- Boost collaboration and crush the broken telephone with concise and effective stakeholder meetings.
- Lock in hard savings and do not pay list price by using data-driven tactics.
Research & Tools
| Name | Actions |
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1. The Rapid Application Selection Framework
- A complete framework to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of software selection
- All necessary training and tools for IT leaders and business stakeholders
- Adopt this framework to:
- Improve the effectiveness of software selection.
- Reduce the time to select software.
- Reduce the cost of the applications you procure.
| Name | Actions |
|---|---|
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The Rapid Application Selection Framework Sample Deck
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The Rapid Application Selection Framework Deck
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2. The Guide to Software Selection: A Business Stakeholder Manual
- This guide has been built to share with your business leaders and stakeholders.
- It provides a clear methodology that sets expectations with stakeholders and encourages them to uses software selection best practices to improve selection results.
- This customizable guide helps you train and guide your business stakeholders as they participate in software selection projects.
| Name | Actions |
|---|---|
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The Guide to Software Selection: A Business Stakeholder Manual
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3. The Software Selection Workbook
- This critical template helps you capture and document your selection process and decisions.
- This practical template streamlines your selection workflow and provides easy-to-follow guidelines with practical examples.
- It is a reusable template for all of your software selection decisions.
| Name | Actions |
|---|---|
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The Software Selection Workbook
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4. The Vendor Evaluation Workbook
- The Vendor Evaluation Workbook provides a reusable scorecard system for ranking and comparing vendors.
- This practical template can accelerate and improve your selection process.
- It is a reusable workbook for each of your software selection decisions.
| Name | Actions |
|---|---|
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The Vendor Evaluation Workbook
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Testimonials
Having a framework we can use is the best part.
The best part was the simple structure of the framework and focused discussions. The worst part was the vendor comparison discussion as it did not focus on our existing investments.
My experience is still ongoing. However, the best parts have been the resources and suggestions given by Yaz. The structure of the process is already reassuring. Still, the additional assistance of the documents, quadrant reports, and one-on-one advice...
The RASF methodology was very helpful. The guidance and support we received from Yaz and Ben was excellent.
The Info-Tech analyst has moved us through the process quickly and efficiently. The analyst has also covered key points for us to consider and assisted us in distinguishing must have features from nice to have features. Given that most people on our inte...
Yaz was professional and very detailed. Very satisfied.
Overall, good engagement and the Info-Tech analyst understood the intent of the engagement and vendor analysis. The committed timeframe for delivery greatly exceeded expectations. No concerns related to the engagement.
I like the engagement with Yaz they are very useful. Constructive criticism: A proper introduction at the beginning of the meetings in front of clients about the reasons why the engagement is happening and explain the upcoming scope would be great ...
This indicated there was the material we needed available. Challenges scheduling.
Thomas was knowledgeable and very helpful in narrowing the field of vendors to the 4-5 we should be concentrating on. He supplied us with a vendor demo template and helped refine it for us over the course of the engagement. Would highly recommend to ot...
The workshop was well planned and executed. Tom was an excellent facilitator and the output has exceeded expectations.
Thomas was extremely helpful and vast amount of knowledge
Rapid Application Selection Framework looks to be very good and the presentation by Thomas explained it well.
Thomas is fabulous. His knowledge and experience shines through!
Sai was great. Clearly explained the process and delivered when he said he would.
The engagement provided information from the websites of vendors with the perspective of the analyst. It was advantageous to have conversations about the vendors without having to engage 12 or more by our team. We will be evaluating XDR and what it provi...
Pleasure to deal with always. Extremely knowledgeable and wonderful guidance from start to finish.
Unfortunately don't know what kind of time or monetary impact that was had but the work from Thomas and Infotech, and their information provided a fantastic framework to go into the selection process and assisted us with finding the tool that we feel wil...
Best: all of the information provided was very relevant to the scope of the pending project. Worst: nothing. I can't think of anything negative.
The advisors/analysts Samuel Leese and Ugbad Farah have been extremely helpful and professional. This process has been more beneficial than I expected. Thank you!