Green Beacon brings decades of experience with CRM solutions across industries and company sizes to this endeavor. In working with your stakeholders to identify potential vendor solutions, you can leverage our experience implementing, customizing, and integrating various marketing-leading CRM solutions to reduce the time and effort required to select the very best CRM solutions for your business.
Typically the Product Selection process starts with a Business Strategy workshop to define the vision, key processes, and functional requirements that will be used to evaluate each vendor's solutions.
Request for Information / Request for Proposal (RFI / RFP)
Green Beacon and your project stakeholders will use the defined requirements to develop a list of potential vendors who should receive the RFP. The Green Beacon team will call each of the vendors to discuss the RFP in detail, and establish the appropriate contacts who should receive the RFP. Green Beacon also develops a formal document outlining the process for responding to the RFP and what information should be included.
A critical component of the requirements document is a Requirements Matrix that identifies all of the critical business and technical requirements for the vendor evaluation. Each requirement will be weighted according to the business value of the requirement to the business users, and the relative priority of the requirement to the overall solution. Typically, the matrix includes:
- Vendor Evaluation Criteria (Financials, Industry Expertise, etc)
- Product Fit via comparison of Business Requirements to Product Functionality
- Expected Product Costs (Software / Maintenance, Hardware, Implementation Services)
The process document, including the requirements matrix and the business requirements specification, will be sent to the vendors. Specific channels - meetings, email and contact information, etc. - will be provided for questions, and a due data will be communicated.
Vendor responses will be compared to Green Beacon's results, and synthesized into a final weighted matrix. Any areas of concern will be highlighted (e.g. where vendor and Green Beacon results vary widely or where questions exist about fit or functionality).
Product Evaluation and Selection
During Product Evaluation and Selection, Green Beacon and the project stakeholders review the project findings and the vendor responses. The joint team determines if it is possible to eliminate any vendors or products from the process, and reviews the areas of concern to determine what steps should be taken to resolve the open issues.
Green Beacon will then schedule product demonstrations with each of the vendors to better understand how the products will address your functional requirements, and resolve any areas of concern or outstanding questions.
Finally, Green Beacon will develop a final product recommendation based upon the vendor responses, demonstrations, and your requirements. The recommendation will be reviewed by the project stakeholders, and, once finalized, will be presented in a formal meeting with your project and executive stakeholders.