Find the right fit

Tailored trousers always fit better. Tailored - custom developed application just as well.

But, you can buy a a pair of jeans in minutes. And these days buying an off the shelve app is a matter of seconds too. There is no wait time and you know the price upfront.

With custom development, it is much harder to estimate price and time. Software projects famously fail at an alarming rate.

How can you choose the right brand or tailor?

We can stretch the trousers metaphor only so much. It rips apart at the seams, once we consider how we make sure they fit. It is easy with jeans, you put them on and they either fit or not (or they are too nice and you make em fit;). With software, especially apps that are used by multiple users in different ways (roles), checking the fit is a rather major undertaking.

Most app vendors will make time and demo the app for you. However, there is only so much you can see in an hour. And whether it makes any sense at all, also depends on how close the data in the demo matches your use case.

The point here is, that before you start shopping, it is critical to have a good way to check the fit.

There is no one size fits all solution. Off the shelve might be the right solution for your needs. But maybe a tailored solution can be configured for a similar pricepoint with a low-code platform. Or your needs are too specific and the solution is part off the shelve, part integration and part custom app.

Is it even possible to check the fit with a custom made solution? Yes, you should absolutely ask for a proof of concept.

Check the fit

How should you evaluate the fit? We have a few suggestions. Take them with a grain of salt, they are the best practice distilled from our experiences not a blueprint.

If your are ready to start shopping for an app. Find the answers to these questions first.

1. The new app will have to read/write (integrate) with these 3 systems. (Fe: Reading from Sharepoint, querying data from Odoo, generate pdfs). This is critical, app without data is useless.
2. The new app will have to support these 3 user types. Fe: teacher, manager, parent. How many of each of them are there. This is critical, because there might be hundreds of parents and therefore an inexpensive license could be make or break!
3. The new app will have to cover these 3 (per user type) workflows. What is it that the users have to accomplish. It is critical that you can describe the goal of what the user needs to achieve and the required steps.

The answers should be detailed and the 3 picked samples should ideally be the 3 top priorities. If you only have one type of user role, that’s fine, no need to invent anything here.

In other words, discuss and write down the utmost priorities in

1. integration - where is the data coming from and where it needs to go.
2. user-types - who works with the app (where: office, field, when: daily, weekly, etc.)
3. workflows - top priorities in a typical work day for each user-type.

And then write down details for each.

Establish priorities before shopping

Armed with the priorities you can go shopping.

1. Create a short list of vendors. Google is your friend here. There are also comparison engines. AI is also quite good at giving you a list of options quickly. Your best bet - ask around. Nothing beats true experience, and hearing a first hand account beats all the above hands down.
2. Check vendor web for data-connections and license options. We don’t recommend disqualifying a vendor, if there is something missing. Price is always negotiable. And if an integration does not exist, it is again mostly a question of money to build.
3. Ask vendors to prepare a tailored demo, with the prepared priorities. We strongly recommend that you take the time and send some real, but anonymized data along.

Evaluation process

People sell to people. I heard this sales proverb a long time ago. And it keeps popping up. One way to understand it, is that it doesn’t matter what you read on the web, what matters is the personal interaction.

Taken to extreme, some would argue that the product doesn’t matter, its all about the charisma and skills of the salesguy. I met a share of salesguys who thought that, I’m sure you too. Obviously, good people skills take you a long way. And it might just have been enough in the prehistoric, sorry pre-internet times, however I don’t believe charisma is all you need.

Do I mean objective product information, the cold hard facts, are enough? No. People truly sell to people. Business software is always part a thing you use and part a service. First you need actual humans to demo and explain the product. If you decide to buy, you need actual people for the setup and onboarding. And you need actual people to help you, when, not if, somethings go wrong in operation.

The moral of this story is, you don’t just buy software, you find a relationship. I’m sure you’ll agree that at the end of the day it is far more important to get a fast response from the vendor than an extra feature. One “constant” of software is that it keeps evolving. Having a responsive vendor partner, will naturally evolve the app the way you need.

If we circle back to the the question we’ve started with. How do you evaluate the fit? Well you need to check both the software and (maybe even more importantly) the people behind it!

Having said all that, it might look even more difficult to choose. But, it is not.

The proof is in the pudding demo

The very first clue is the response time. How long did you have to wait for an email or call from the vendor?

Next clue is, are they willing to setup a custom demo for you? If the vendor shows you a stock demo - that's a red flag. If they don’t do a demo at all - that's a red flag too.

Third clue, how fast did they prepare the demo? Was it days, weeks (months?).

Once you are in the demo call. Did they understood what your workflows are and what the goals are? Is there a domain expert on the call who understands your industry? Is there a technical person on the call who can explain how the software integrates with your existing systems? Are they asking questions about your workflows and IT? If they are not proactive, that's a red flag.

A great test is to ask about a workflow you haven’t shared with them beforehand. Are they able to come up with a solution on the fly?

Isn’t pre-sales just a show?

Now, you might argue that vendors will play a different tune during sales and afterwards. That’s true to some extend.
In Slovak we have a proverb, "Keď vtáčika lapajú, pekne mu spievajú" - "When trying to catch a bird, you sing nicely to her".

The custom demo is what will keep you grounded and ensures that you don’t get lured by the siren songs, charisma and bravado. Instead of pleasant smalltalk, the demo is about the vendor convincingly demonstrating they both want and are able to fulfil your needs.

If the vendor representative is knowledgable, attentive, asks good questions, there is at least hope there are more people like that working for the vendor. On the other hand, if the demo takes forever to setup and your questions are answered in a followup email after two weeks. Well it is unlikely the setup and support personal will be any faster or more knowledgable.

TLDR;

Distilled, what it comes down to is speed, interest and knowledge.

All are required. It doesn’t matter if the vendor has 30 years of industry experience if they take forever to respond. Still, I think the most important ingredient is speed.

• How fast do you get a response?
• How fast is a custom demo prepared.
• How fast is your technical/process question answered.

If we put the questions this way, it is obvious speed includes both knowledge and interest. No vendor is fast without caring deeply about the product and customers, and cannot be fast if they lack the knowledge.

Wrap

The way to buy the best business solution is to know the fit. You have to prepare and decide what your priorities are. Asking for a custom demo, is your best bet how to check minimum technical compatibility and industry competence. And most importantly you can check the speed!

If you are ready, let's talk) and we'll be happy to show you truly fast app development.