the most important feature is effectiveness.
by jody grunden
building the virtual cfo firm in the cloud
whether you purchase a one-time software license or pay for a tool on a subscription basis, the cost of software can add up quickly. it’s necessary to conduct a thorough analysis of any new software program before you decide to buy it, and you need to constantly evaluate the effectiveness of the tools you’re using.
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we have learned that we want to be sure we’re getting the most out of our software, that our tools remain the right fit for our needs and that they are cost-effective.
prior to purchasing a new software program, we typically do three things:
- we participate in a demo with the software provider. this is a great way to dig a little bit deeper than what you can find on their website. within an hour, you can learn all about the features they offer and ask any questions you have.
- if a company or provider offers a trial, we take advantage of that opportunity. often, we think a product will meet our needs – all of the features sound just like what we’re looking for – but when we actually use the product for a few days, we realize that it’s missing key functionality that we need. the trial allows us to identify that and determine whether or not it’s truly a good fit.
- if the new program is being considered by the leadership team, but will be used by others within the company, we’ll bring in key people – those who will be using the product – to help us understand the full process and any possible limitations the program might have from the user perspective.
five questions to ask when considering new tools
- why do we need/want it? if we’re considering switching from one software program to another, it’s important to evaluate how much additional benefit this new program will bring us because, ultimately, we’re swapping a known issue for a potential unknown issue.
- does it accomplish what we need/want? obviously, we want to be sure the new product accomplishes the key need we identified, but we also want to be sure it provides all of the functionality and benefits we receive from the current product that is already being utilized.
- is it user-friendly? we want to be sure the new product makes sense from a user standpoint. it should be easy to use and help the team member or client accomplish their goals.
- is it cost-effective? we review pricing up front to weed out any programs that are simply outrageous and not worth evaluating any further. however, if the cost is reasonable and within the range of other similar products, we wait to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the new software until we’ve considered everything else above.
- do we have buy-in from leadership? once we’ve determined the need, decided that the new product solves a problem for us and evaluated the ease of use and cost, the recommendation is then presented to our leadership team. it’s important to us that new products make sense to everyone who will weigh in on that decision and that we achieve the needed buy-in.
we ask these five questions when evaluating new tools and they’re also a guide for us when considering the effectiveness of any of our existing tools.