Hi everyone, welcome back. In this lesson we're going to talk about vendor selection for your ear p project. My name is Jennifer Nicholson. At this point, I'm going to assume that your business has already developed a robust understanding of its needs. This assessment will vary considerably between organizations, you need to consider not only your existing business model, but any other possible changes in the future. For example, if you are acquiring other businesses are looking to grow significantly.

How will these new businesses be integrated into your new earpiece system? The business needs analysis is very important to hammer out prior to talking to vendors. The choice of vendor for your earpiece software is critically important to the success of your project. And all vendors lie. You heard me all vendors lie. According to their salespeople, whatever you need, they can do it and they can do it more quickly, easily and at a lower cost than anyone else.

Fit for your industry in business ensures a relatively smooth transition from old to new solutions which are efficient and intuitive speed up the learning process fosters a sense of entropy being an improvement and contribute to organizational competence therapy software vendors need to be evaluated along dual pathways. The first is the most obvious one is their MRP product the right fit for your industry and business model. The second is less tangible and therefore more difficult to evaluate. Is the vendors culture the right fit for your culture. Determining the fit of the software product for your business is the more important decision but should also be the most objective. Using an off the shelf product with minimal customization is usually the best idea.

As all the bugs have already been worked out. Your vendors should be able to put users in front of you from your industry, who make you feel positive about the strength of the product. You may not find exact industry overlap, but another business who is similar processes to you is really the most important thing. I can't stress how important verifiable references are here. You need to talk to people who have implemented the same system with the same implementation team to ensure that this really is the right system for you. And I'm sure some of those people who have used the system over time and all the bugs have really been worked out.

Construct a basic numerical scorecard around the critical features deliverables you need, and use the scorecard when comparing products. This will help you defend your choice to your executive and board as this as an objective measure of what it's appropriate. Be careful when someone with no particular track record in your industry tries to find market share by offering you a rock bottom price. And remember that there is no amount of money in your company sufficient to fix a bad earpiece solution. Pick a vendor who judge will survive for a long time and has a great ongoing support system for you. Bear in mind that there are going to be two very distinct phases of your relationship with your earpiece software vendor.

During the sales cycle, you will be the most important person in the world. There'll be no request to large and no question too small, that does not elicit an almost immediate response. After the sale though, the actual business relationship begins. And that is the relationship that you must do your best to gauge. You should feel positive about your vendors that they are ethical, honest and would never intentionally mislead you. You should feel like they consider your well being important, and you will be able to work together through unexpected problems.

Selecting an SRP vendor is a big strategically important decision involved as many peers and viewpoints as you can possibly manage. feel good about being able to articulate the reasoning for your decision and your choice numerically if possible. don't expose yourself to risk without commensurate rewards. Picking the right ear p vendor is a huge step towards a successful project. When trying to pick any RFP vendor, I strongly recommend hiring a consultant who really understands your business, what you really need, what software is available to meet your needs, and can work with your vendor on your behalf to get the best price and service available. We use a team from one of the big four accounting firms when I did my implementation, and it was an excellent decision.

Depending on the size and scope of your LRP implementation. You may also want to use an independent consultant to help during your implementation. Not every therapy project requires a full time consultant. Whether or not you need consultants depends on how much it has knowledge you have about your earpiece software, and to what extent the software can be self taught how much time you have to complete the project, and how many modules and end users you were trying to implement at one time. At this point, you've got your external resources aligned. In the next lesson, we will be in discussion about how we align our internal team For the RP implementation, thanks for joining me