10 Jul Can’t Keep Up? 7 Ways To Simplify Your Software Choices
It can be difficult to keep up with the sheer amount of software options out there, and that’s before you even get into the different versions! The whole thing can be overwhelming. Every software package claims that they do it all, that they’re the best, that it’s the last purchase you’ll ever make.
The question is how do you know which one is really the right one for your company?
And if you don’t find your decision overwhelming, at the very least it can be time consuming. You’re most likely looking at software for your whole company, and you want to make an informed choice. Here are 7 easy steps you can take to make sure you are making the right choice in program, whether you settle on custom software development or an off-the-shelf solution.
What are your wants? What are your needs?
Before you start comparing software packages and custom software designers, focus on the most important aspect: your own company. You already know that you need a software solution. Maybe you don’t need a complete overhaul, but at the very least, there are some changes that can be made to improve your business.
What made you realise there were improvements that could be made to your company? Make a simple list of things that could be improved by better software. From there, come up with things that need to be improved.
Give yourself two columns: Wants and Needs. They don’t have to be particularly long lists, but the more detailed you get, the easier it will be when it comes time to compare different software packages. And when it comes to custom software development, the planning and communication stage is the most important.
If your developer and you aren’t on the same page, then you simply won’t get the product that you need to give you the business advantage that you are after. Plus, this will help you save money – and that usually puts everyone at ease – we’ll tell you how.
Get yourself a budget, and learn how to stick to it
According to a study from IAG Consulting:
“Companies pay a premium of as much as 60 percent on time and budget when they use poor requirements practices on their projects.”
60% on time and budget from a lack of requirements!
Surely going over budget isn’t the company’s fault, though, right? Wrong – it stems from a lack of communication. After coming up with your list of Wants and Needs, figure out how much you are willing to spend, and then follow these simple steps from ZDNet to stay within budget:
- Write it down
- Expand the requirement into a set of features
- Share the planned features with the business to get their feedback
- Rinse, lather, repeat until the technical team and the business are on the same page.
At the same time, you also have to factor in the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). If a particular software package is less expensive at the beginning, but will charge monthly licensing fees, it might be more expensive in the long run.
It’s not a popularity contest
Just because a particular software might be ubiquitous in your industry doesn’t mean it’s the best answer for your company. In fact, choosing a software that is different from the rest of the competition has the power of giving you an edge that your rivals will not have access to.
That’s not to say that you should choose different software just for the sake of being different. But by utilising your specific requirements (did you make your Wants and Needs list yet?) you are more likely to choose the exact software that you need to make your business run in the most efficient manner possible.
The question you need to ask is this: what are your business’s needs? Don’t just ask what the needs are of your whole industry.
Plan for the future
Think your Wants and Needs list is complete? It might be complete for this week. But what about six months from now? What about six years from now? Your choice of program needs to grow with your company.
One of the advantages of custom software development is the program’s ability to scale with the your business.
Malcolm Cowley, CEO of the Performance Horizon Group, states in a CIO.com article:
“As companies expand into new markets, their software should be able to scale accordingly.”
It can be difficult to think that long term when your company has needs that must be met NOW, but in order to have the most success (as well as to be the most cost effective) think about the specific direction you would like your enterprise to take.
What’s the usability like?
What does the user interface look like? Is it familiar to your employees? Generally, the less training that needs to be done, the better. It will save you time and money. And speaking of saving time, if the user interface isn’t intuitive – your employees and you will spend more time just figuring out how to use the software.
You are most likely looking to get a new software solution to increase efficiency within your company. You can’t increase efficiency if the program itself is less efficient to use. At the same time, you want your employees to be happy.
Nobody likes having to use a program that is simply just a pain to figure out. There’s a reason 57.76% of desktops still run Windows 7 as opposed to the measly 12.88% that run Windows 8.1. Well, maybe there’s a few reasons, but a big one is usability – without the Start bar, people were wasting too much time just figuring out how to launch programs in Windows 8 and not actually doing any work.
What software do you have now?
This goes hand in hand with the usability question. You want your employees to be able to effectively use the product right away – is it possible to find a solution similar to your current programming option?
More importantly, will your new software work within your current system? You don’t want to spend all of that time and money on new software only to have it render all of your old work obsolete, or even inaccessible.
Key Performance Indicators
We’ve talked about planning and making a list of your business’s programming requirements, but you also need to work with your software development company when it comes to milestones. You want your business to be successful.
But your software will be an investment: you want to make sure it is successful too. Come up with key performance indicators (KPIs) specifically focused around your software – both after it is completed and during its development process. This way, you will be able to stay on budget and also track the effectiveness of your software.
This will be better not just for you, but for the software developer as well – it is just one more link in your relationship that will ensure that you have the most efficient product possible.
Whether you are choosing between custom software development companies or between boxes at the (digital) store, the most important thing you can do is to be prepared. After all, you and the rest of your employees will be using this software for hours and hours at a time.
There’s nothing to stop you from getting the complete package, as long as you are sure what that complete package consists of. Hopefully, this list is a good starting point and will allow you to make your own decisions about the software package that your enterprise needs.
