Here at TEC, we spend a lot of time talking about how easily software selection projects can go wrong. One mistake we see over and over is that companies fail to properly define their functional and technical requirements—the things that their new software must do and support.
That’s a big problem—because accurate, well-defined requirements are a critical part of any selection project. Get them right and you’re on the road to success. Get them wrong, or take shortcuts, and you risk making a bad choice. Worse still, you may not even know how bad a choice it is until after the implementation—when it’s too late.
But putting your requirements first isn’t always easy. Software selection is a juggling act, and your requirements aren’t the only ball you need to keep in the air. You’ve also got to analyze reams of data from vendors (some of it fact, some of it marketing hype) to find out if their products actually meet your requirements. And you need to make sure that you’re analyzing those data the right way—using the right tools and a proven methodology.
That’s where TEC’s Evaluation Centers come in—helping you stay focused on your requirements without dropping anything else.
So What Is an Evaluation Center?
Our Evaluation Centers are dedicated, online environments for software selection. Each Center contains everything you need to compare a particular type of enterprise software solution, and include:
A structured method for defining and prioritizing your requirements: The Evaluation Center interface lets you work from a model of industry standard features and functions where you can identify the features and functions you need and set priorities to define their relative importance. Structuring your requirements this way makes it easy to see how well vendors support them. But more on that in a moment.
Detailed vendor information: We ask vendors in dozens of industries to respond to detailed requests for information (RFIs) so we know how well their solutions support thousands of industry-standard features and functions. Once it is vetted by our analysts, this information ends up in our knowledge bases (KBs), along with articles, white papers, and other relevant data.
Every Evaluation Center gives you access to one or more KBs, so you have up-to-date information about hundreds of vendor solutions at your disposal—information that would be, at best, difficult and time-consuming to gather on your own.
That’s a big problem—because accurate, well-defined requirements are a critical part of any selection project. Get them right and you’re on the road to success. Get them wrong, or take shortcuts, and you risk making a bad choice. Worse still, you may not even know how bad a choice it is until after the implementation—when it’s too late.
But putting your requirements first isn’t always easy. Software selection is a juggling act, and your requirements aren’t the only ball you need to keep in the air. You’ve also got to analyze reams of data from vendors (some of it fact, some of it marketing hype) to find out if their products actually meet your requirements. And you need to make sure that you’re analyzing those data the right way—using the right tools and a proven methodology.
That’s where TEC’s Evaluation Centers come in—helping you stay focused on your requirements without dropping anything else.
So What Is an Evaluation Center?
Our Evaluation Centers are dedicated, online environments for software selection. Each Center contains everything you need to compare a particular type of enterprise software solution, and include:
A structured method for defining and prioritizing your requirements: The Evaluation Center interface lets you work from a model of industry standard features and functions where you can identify the features and functions you need and set priorities to define their relative importance. Structuring your requirements this way makes it easy to see how well vendors support them. But more on that in a moment.
Detailed vendor information: We ask vendors in dozens of industries to respond to detailed requests for information (RFIs) so we know how well their solutions support thousands of industry-standard features and functions. Once it is vetted by our analysts, this information ends up in our knowledge bases (KBs), along with articles, white papers, and other relevant data.
Every Evaluation Center gives you access to one or more KBs, so you have up-to-date information about hundreds of vendor solutions at your disposal—information that would be, at best, difficult and time-consuming to gather on your own.
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