Let’s say it has been ten years since you last implemented your self-service customer portal and it’s starting to show its age. A lot has changed in the portal space since that time and you want to consider a new platform to support your ongoing digital transformation efforts. As you start to research what’s available in the market, you find that there are hundreds of potential systems, all at different price points and all that claim to be the best solution. As you get lost in the overwhelming amount of information or a lengthy RFP, you decide you need some expert help on the topic. That’s where Perficient’s Platform Select Jumpstart can save the day.
Platform Select
We’ve crafted a Selection Jumpstart that includes a well-defined process, a curated collection of common requirements from a variety of customers, and a database of vendor system evaluations all designed to help you move quickly to find the right system for your company. Here are some key elements of the selection process where our jumpstart helps tremendously:
- Selecting a system depends on knowing and prioritizing your specific requirements. Through our past work with a variety of clients, we collect and maintain a database of these requirements. All you have to do is prioritize which of those you need most, and which you don’t need at all. You don’t have to spend several months trying to identify requirements. Our jumpstarts typically start with 80% of the requirements you likely will want, and then we’ll add any new requirements that we help you identify.
Platform Selection Process
- Evaluating vendors and systems against those requirements can be challenging when you only get surface-level information from the vendors. You really want an expert analysis of how well each vendor really implements your requirements. Our Perficient experts work with the systems every day over their careers. Our experts evaluate each of the major, enterprise vendors and give an honest evaluation of each requirement. In the jumpstart process, we use that expertise to identify the platform vendor that will implement your requirements.
- We have developed an online system to quickly generate a variety of reports so you can understand how each vendor performs and you can narrow down to one or two vendors that best meet your needs. We also provide a structured process for vendor demonstrations, calculating the total cost of ownership, and enterprise architectures.
We have an RFP Process, what about that?
Elaine Hunt, a Principal Consultant at Forrest blogged about the demise of the traditional RFP: RIP, RFP – This Is Not Your 1990s Vendor Selection Process. Among Ms. Hunt’s points are these gems:
- RFPs are expensive and time-consuming – already stretched internal resources can take several months to get through the process
- The process is not always transparent or objective – sometimes our internal biases interfere with selecting the best vendor. And, vendors are often very good at responding positively to an RFP without revealing too much.
We overcome these problems by:
- Making the jumpstart process faster with 80% of requirements already identified and major vendors already evaluated
- We rely on industry/system experts for answers, not just the vendors. We can provide real-world experience about how the systems perform, including their strengths and weaknesses
- By prioritizing your specific requirements, we identify the vendors who perform best against your most important needs.
Our company requires an RFP, so how can the jumpstart help?
We like to be flexible and responsive to our customers. So, we can tailor the Platform Select Jumpstart to meet your needs. For some customers, we’ve used the evaluation process to help them narrow down to 3 vendors for their RFP process. By doing so, they eliminated the tedious process of evaluating ten or more RFP responses and were able to complete their RFP process much faster.
For other clients, we’ve come in after they used their RFP process to narrow down the vendor field. In these instances, we used the later phases of the Jumpstart to calculate TCO, identify how the finalists fit into the overall enterprise architecture, and established final demonstrations focused on the most critical use cases.
What platforms are good for a Platform Select Jumpstart?
Just about any type of platform decision can use our jumpstart solution. Using the jumpstart process, we’ve helped clients select the best system in each of these areas:
- Digital Experience Platforms
- CRM
- Digital Asset Managment
- Enterprise Content Management
- Enterprise Search
- Artificial Intelligence for Chatbot, Machine Learning, NLP, and Image Recognition platforms
- Commerce platforms
- Portals
- Event Management
- Social Networks
We also have many other platform types in the works, including
- Master Data Management Platforms
- Product Information Management Systems
- Contact Center Technology
For additional details or to request more information about the Platform Selection Jumpstart, leave a comment or follow the link below.
https://www.perficient.com/what-we-do/jumpstart/platform-select
