Choosing the Best Financial Software

March 3, 2008

The selection and implementation of a new finance system is a critical decision. Despite consolidation in the industry, it is still a complex task. Here are some key questions to ask.

All packages are not created equal. These four sets of steps ensure that the organization will get the suite that best fulfills its needs.

This article will pose a series of questions at different levels that, taken together, will help the IT department achieve the goals that management has laid out.

Stage 1: Getting Started Question: Why does your business need a new finance application? You should be able to list a number of key requirements that are not being met or will not be met in the future. You should try to assess whether each requirement has a financial value and if so, what that value is. Question: What are the risks to the business of doing nothing? The benefits of change must always outweigh the pain of not changing, so application vendors will ask you what would happen if the business were to do nothing.

Question: Are there opportunities to co-ordinate this change with other projects? You should be aware of any other projects that are currently being assessed or implemented within your business and the impact that your choice of application could have on those projects – and vice versa. Stage 2: Know Your Business

Question: What are the general business requirements?

Replacing your financial accounting application is no longer a simple matter of implementing an application that will produce a set of accounts. Many software vendors also offer applications other than core accounting ledgers, which allow you to derive additional benefits from their implementation.

Question: Are there any resource or time constraints?

For a successful implementation, you will need the involvement of a specialist consultant from the vendor, since they are familiar with implementing their system successfully. It is also vital that your own specialist staff commit time to the project.

Stage 3: Preparing to Meet Potential Vendors

Question: Who can provide me with what I need?

It is worth your while thinking about the key attributes you are looking for in a vendor and its product. This should be followed by some careful research into the market, e.g. via the Internet or directories and, finally, a series of questions should be prepared for vendors.

Some examples of these questions:

What application areas do you cover?How long have you been in business? Which clients do you have in my market sector? What proportion of your turnover is spent on development of your applications? What kind of support do you offer? What is the average implementation time for your application? What technology platforms (operating systems, databases) do your applications run on? How many concurrent users can the application support? Are you multi-lingual in both your application and support/implementation services? How frequently do you make a major release?

State 4: The Next Steps:

The last step is to follow a proven selection process. Steps include the following: Collate requirements from relevant departments. Summarize to create a ‘Request for Information’ (RFI) Send RFI to about 6 suitable vendors. Evaluate responses. Shortlist three vendors. Arrange for a pre-meeting with each vendor. Attend demonstrations/workshops. Select a preferred supplier, with whom you will go forward with further detailed evaluation. Contact their reference sites. Undertake a project planning meeting with vendor. Negotiate pricing and contract.

Steve Pugh is CEO of CODA Financials, Inc in the Americas. He is responsible for CODA’s US commercial operations covering the marketing, sales and support of CODA-Financials and other products. He also sits on the CODA Executive Board and holds executive responsibility for the CODA Global Support function, working closely with support managers around the Group to ensure that the support service provided to customers is of a consistently high standard worldwide.

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