Hi All,(Please advize if you can)
New to forum, looks great. My question to everyone/anyone is in regards to searching and finding the right software solution that meets my business requirements. In my role I am responsible for analyzing the business needs in terms of desired software. For example: Department/company requires and application to manage their consultants expenses. This is currently a manual process. I've drilled down from Executive Sponsors to stakeholders and have all the business requirements that need to be met. In my role I'm responsible for finding the solution/provider for this. This search for the right product is what takes the most time in all of my projects. Vendor, Market, App analysis is a no-brainer and doesn't take all that much time. It's this bloody weeding through 100's of vendors websites and other resources that takes forever and when you finally find a possible vendor half of what they say they offer is a complete lie. (see my frustration yet;-).
Anyway, does anyone know of a great repository, company or search tool that will assist? ie Top 10 vendors of Expense Mangement, that truly is a top 10 list and not just the first 10 sites that come up on a normal search. Gartner does some really good research but it's very expensive.
Appreciated.
T.
If you had data flow diagrams of what you wanted, and the vendors handed out data flow diagrams of what their products did, selecting the appropriate vendor would be relatively easy match up process. Unfortunately, vendors are not going to hand out data flow diagrams (or any other rigorous analysis artifact) of what there product does because it would be too easy for the competition or for clients to simply use such to develop their own copy.
So welcome to the world of Marketing "Imagery".
Tony
Software selection is like russian rollette, you might get shot!
However, you do have a few options:
1) Since you have a "greenfields" site, you can develop the application. An Agile development would probably suite. Software is normally a cost - in the old cost centre. You might have the opportunity to create an "expense software suite" that is world class that may even generate some revenue. Now there is a thought!
2) Use an ASP. Leverage their resources as an interim step towards your ideal system.
If you are a perfectionist, you wont find the ideal system; they just dont exist! I would go for the short strokes or the hanging fruit as some would say.
3) Contact one of the credit card service companies. They do provide expense management as long as you use their credit card. yep, they even throw in the approval and reconciliation process for free! Provide your consultants with a corporate credit card.
All the best.
warm regards,
K
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