STEP FOUR:
Gathering detailed information and evidence

Getting information from your vendor

You’ve pinpointed how new software can remedy pain points across your team and in your firm. Next you need to back this case with all the facts and figures you can get.

Although you might have some of these already, what’s outlined in this chapter will make a major difference.

Please note that you cannot do all this in isolation. You need the vendor to help you – so if you haven’t reached out to them yet, now is the time.

Functionality
Customer care
Training
Future software development
How the solution has helped other firms like yours

With their help, you will evidence:

By the end of this chapter, you will have next-level confidence in your solution. Proposing your case to the decision-maker will feel less like a test and more like a formality.

Looking at software functionality in a brochure or on a website is one thing; it’s another to make sure it actually delivers.

You might find the solution doesn’t quite do the job – or that it does even more than expected!

Spend time collecting every question you might have about your chosen software solution. Consult with your team to ensure you have all bases covered. Then, take those questions to your vendor. For example, task them with finding numbers on performance, get them to explain workflows, and make sure you know how data is held and shared.

Functionality

Integration – one of the most important parts of a software decision

Integration is something you need to ask your vendor about. This is, essentially, understanding whether the proposed software shares information easily with other parts of your digital system.

The more things are integrated, the smoother your workflows. For example, consider data flowing between your accounts production and tax solutions. When the two integrate, information is shared seamlessly. You save a lot of time that would have been spent re-keying data. When the two solutions don’t integrate, your workflow has
to stop.

You might have to log into another system and then laboriously retype information. Not only does that lose you time, but it also increases the likelihood of mistakes.

Scalability is important.

The functions you need today might not be enough tomorrow. Check if there are additional features that you can add, should you need them.

If the solution doesn’t grow with you, then it’s important to be realistic about scope. A solution that doesn’t scale might force you to do this whole process again in a couple of years.

User numbers, sometimes called “seats”, are another important part of scalability. How generous is the vendor with licences? For example, you might need a paid licence for someone senior to manipulate data and dashboards but complementary seats for those who need to be feeding into the system but not doing the sophisticated work.

It’s important to document what happens after the ink has dried on an agreement. Does the provider have a dedicated team to help ensure the software brings real value?

Figuring everything out on your own makes for a much more costly exercise than what’s on the invoice. You might have to waste staff time and hire an IT expert if things go wrong.

Customer care

Training

Assuming you have the support to get the software integrated into your existing setup, will your staff know how to use it? Depending on the size of your firm, you might need an internal expert to undergo initial training and then pass that understanding onto others.

As the person championing the new solution,
that might be you.

Furthermore, are there any resources you can quickly dip into if you want a quick answer from the vendor?

Intuitiveness goes a long way with software. For example, at IRIS we do train new users, but we also try and make our software work like an accountant; you complete a job from left to right across a series of tabs that resemble the main accounting workflows. If you have any questions, you can reach out, but we also have lots of information online. It’s very easy to look anything up when you want more depth.

The vendor roadmap

If there’s a regular fee, you should be buying into a service, not a static one-off piece of software. What you invest in should be supported and continue to grow. So, here’s the big question: is the vendor continuing to put time, effort and money into the solution you’re currently exploring? In other words, are they as invested as you will be?

How frequently is the product updated?
Is there a published roadmap or release schedule?
How did they handle recent regulatory changes, like MTD?
Can they show investment in the areas that matter to your firm (for example, AI, cloud, and compliance automation)?

Try to find out:

To illustrate this commitment, roadmaps (mentioned above, in point two) are pretty commonplace in tech. The vendor should give you a sense of direction and an idea of when things will be implemented.

Gather next-level evidence that will drive
your business case

Major changes need major evidence to back them up. So, what other information can you give to your decision-makers? Vendors should be able to help you with this. Here are three examples.

Demos

There’s nothing like telling your firm you have seen a digital solution in action. Book live walkthroughs of the software you are looking at. Bring colleagues who'll actually use the software.

Case studies

It’s always good to see the experience of other firms with a digital solution fully documented. Remember, a case study from a similar firm carries more weight than one from a household name in a different market. So, what relevant, written case studies can the vendor share with you?

References

Written case studies are helpful, but they only take you so far. Ask to speak directly to a customer who's been using the product for at least six months. Vendors will routinely put a serious prospect in touch with an existing customer for a candid conversation, and the vendor will deliberately stay out of it.

You'll learn more in twenty minutes than you will from any amount of marketing material.

Prepare an exhaustive list of questions before you go in. As a minimum, ask them what works, what doesn't, what the onboarding was really like, and whether they'd invest the same money in the same way again.