The Importance of Selecting a Vendor, as Well as a Software

Pat Stricker, RN, MEd
Senior Vice President
TCS Healthcare Technologies

Usually you think looking for a new software involves just that – evaluating different software products to find the one that best fits your needs. While that is true, you have to realize that you are also selecting a vendor and you need to be sure they also fit your needs. The product and vendor come as a "package."

Think of the software system as the "heart" of your program. If you were having heart problems that limited your ability to perform your normal daily activities and continued to worsen, even with medications and treatments (work-arounds), would that be acceptable? Or might you, at some point, consider having a heart transplant in order to improve and save your life? While this is a little dramatic, it does correlate with how important it is for your business to find the right software system (the "heart" of your program), as well as the right vendor (the surgeon) to help revive and improve our business processes.

When looking for a software, it is imperative to list goals, objectives, and specific requirements that define exactly what the new system has to have. However, how often do businesses take that same approach when considering the vendor? The vendor is usually an "afterthought." This can be a drastic mistake. The vendor is going to be your partner (a term I prefer much more than "vendor") for years to come, so you need to make sure you are choosing, not only the best product, but the best partner.

Your partner will not only help you implement your product to meet (and hopefully, exceed) your needs, but also be there after the implementation for years to come in helping you meet ongoing business needs and challenges. They need to be committed to providing "best in class" software that keeps up with, or is ahead of, industry changes through the years, while also being committed to working with you to maintain and change your system to assure you can achieve your business goals.

So, how do you go about looking for and selecting the partner (vendor) you need?

Just as you develop criteria for goals, objectives, and specific requirements that the software needs to have, you also need to develop the same type of criteria for the vendor that you want as your partner. Formalize the criteria into a vendor checklist that is used to evaluate the vendor at the same time you evaluate the software. These are some of the key questions you should ask to develop the criteria for your checklist:

• How long has the vendor been in business? While it may initially seem more important to find a new vendor who has the most innovative software, that may not be the best approach. Can you be assured they truly have the knowledge and experience in the industry? Have they been part of the past and grown with the industry? Have they met previous challenges and been able to provide software that has changed and improved over the years as the industry has changed?

• Who are their current clients? Are they similar to you? Do they have the same or similar business needs? What is their client retention rate? Have you asked for references that you can call or visit? If so, have they responded and how do the clients view the vendor? If they are not willing to share references, be careful! Why won’t they give you that information?

• Do they have experienced staff? How long has the staff been working for the company? What is their overall retention rate? These things show their level of knowledge and experience in the product and how to implement and use it.

• How customer-oriented is the staff? Are they eager to meet your needs? You should be able to get a feel for this during your conversations with them and during the demos. Have they configured the system for the demo to show how your specific workflows would work in the system or are they just giving a "canned" demo to show features? Spending time to include client case scenarios or workflows in the demo not only shows that the software can meet your needs, but it also shows the vendors level of commitment to meet your specific needs.

• Have they encouraged you to define your goals, objectives, and specific requirements for the new software? This is critical, since these are the reasons you need new software. Be careful if they don’t seem to be encouraging you to define these needs.

• Do they have the ability (and knowledge) to successfully implement the software? How many successful implementations have they had over the years? Have they ever had a failed implementation? If so, this should be a big red flag! Find out why this occurred.

• What are their processes for implementations? Do they have a tested project management plan?

• Will they have a defined project manager assigned to your implementation? How many successful implementation have they managed? Are they encouraging you to have an assigned project lead responsible for your side of the implementation? This is a sizable investment in the future of your program and needs to have staff responsible on each side to manage the project.

• Are they encouraging a realistic timeline for the project? This sets expectations and a path for your project that keeps you and your vendor on track. If the timeline is too fast, it could be that they just want to do it quickly and move on. If it is too long, it may be to increase costs.

• Do they have specific milestones identified for the project to keep it on track and on time? These are essential for a successful implementation. If not, your project can easily experience delays, "scope creep," and/or increased budgetary costs.

• Is the vendor encouraging you to keep the same business processes in place now with the new software, because it is faster and easier to implement the new system? If so, be careful! This may be faster and easier, but it is like building a new home that is exactly like your old one with the same layout, appliances, flooring, furniture, etc.You wouldn’t do that, so why would you want to bring over outdated, work-around workflows into your new system? A study done by Cisco Systems demonstrated that companies that took the time and effort to change, automate, and streamline their business processes had a significant increase in productivity (25-30%), while those who did not actually lost productivity (6-9%). So, the vendor should be encouraging you to take the time to revise, automate, and streamline your workflows to make them fit your current and expected future business needs. While it does take a lot of time up front, it is critical and more than worth it in the end.

• Do they encourage user acceptance testing procedures? Do they have a process for this? It is imperative to test actual procedures during the implementation period, so problems can be identified and corrected before the system is launched.

• What is the technology road map for your product? How much time do they devote to development of new innovations versus just fixing bugs or providing routine updates? How often do they release new versions or updates? If it is too frequently (every few months) or too long (longer that every year or two) ask why. Do they charge for updates?

• Can you configure the system yourself to make needed changes or do you need the vendor to customize the system to make the changes, thereby resulting in extra time and cost? The vendor should be able to teach you to make most changes yourself, without requiring code changes by the vendor.

• What do their vendor’s financials look like? Are they investor or owner owned? What pricing models do they use? Do they have extra charges? If so, be sure to calculate those into the final cost to make sure you are evaluating the total cost for all vendors. Do these costs fit with your budget?

There may also be other specific requirements that you have for the vendor, so make sure you include those in your vendor checklist. They are going to be your partner for years to come, so this is a critical component in selecting new software. You need to feel confident that they will be able to help you not only implement the product, but be there after you launch it to help you maintain and change it to meet your ongoing future needs.

Pat Stricker, RN, MEd, is senior vice president of Clinical Services at TCS Healthcare Technologies. She can be reached at pstricker@tcshealthcare.com.