Focus on Needs
When evaluating and selecting a new loan and lease software application for your business the overall objective is to ensure that the intended program will satisfy all of the stated business needs. Ultimately by addressing those needs, the software should improve productivity by streamlining work flows and processes as well as support business growth.The critical factor in your ultimate success is in making certain that the software solution models your business processes as closely as possible so that you are not adapting to the software but rather it reflects your business model as closely as possible.
Know the pitfalls
Sounds reasonable enough, but often in the course of a software evaluation a shift of too much focus on price and delivery can deter you from the primary goal of evaluating functionality to needs.When evaluating a loan and lease software, the key driver must consistently be on the needs of your business first and foremost. Any other factor leading the decision making will inevitably end in a system that doesn’t do what you needed it to do in the first place. That will result in user frustration, erosion of trust in the software and creating work-arounds to get around problems all of which become more challenging to undo once the damage has been done.The software price range will be determined by what you can afford based on business volume and revenue. However, once you have identified potential software in your realistic price range, the differences in price quotes should be a secondary consideration to the needs being met. It cannot be overstated that the loan and lease software is a valuable investment to your organization since it will impact your core business operations from sales to accounting. When done right, it will return big benefits such as savings from reduction in errors, enhanced customer service and products, better use of users in more strategic roles and a long-term booster to growth. Any budget constraints can be addressed by ensuring that the price is leveraged against results and progress, allowing time to help spread out any differences in cost making them negligible at the successful completion of the project.
Delivery priorities should never drive the software selection where an unrealistic timeline to evaluate, assess and implement a system jeopardizes the ability to do it right. In the end you are sabotaging your own success and any reputable vendor will push back in order to present a more realistic timeline. A loan and lease software implementation will take anywhere from six months to a year (sometimes more) depending on factors such as complexity, customization needs, data conversion and your own internal company work load and priorities.
Work with the right partner
Choosing the right software partner will be the catalyst that will either break or make the project. Having first determined that the software meets and satisfies all of the stated needs, the software partner you choose must demonstrate knowledge about your industry and have a successful track record in similar implementations. The software vendor must also have the advisory, implementation, support and program customization capabilities to complete the initial implementation and to safeguard the future value of the software through ongoing support, maintenance and enhancements.
Summary
Ensuring that the needs of your business are at the forefront of any software evaluation is the critical component to ultimate success. All other factors must support that goal not allowing price differences and timeline to overtake the decision making. Finding the right software partner to execute the implementation will be the captain that steers the ship to its final destination to success.Note that the process of determining and assessing business needs are another topic in itself. Follow us for more future articles on how to ensure success for your loan and lease implementation.
