HR Technology Software selection is not like picking an app for your phone!
It is a crucial step to making sure you get the right vendor, with the right support, price and attitude, and the right technology and functionality that supports your business and HR goals.
The basic questions to answer to start the software selection journey include:
- What system and functionality do you have today?
- What do you need and want tomorrow?
- What’s your budget for implementation and ongoing fees?
- What vendors should you consider?
- How do you compare the vendors in an auditable, justifiable and complete process?
- How do you make the final decision on the right vendor and technology?
Our recent client project
We recently completed an HR/Payroll technology vendor and software analysis and selection with a midsize, multi-national business. The agreed upon goals of the selection project were to define a system that could support the business and HR strategy, provide reporting and analytics for data driven decision-making, increase user access with an enhanced, simple and intuitive user experience and improve vendor support response time, resource allocation, and service levels.
The first step was to define the project roles of the steering committee, project team, and stakeholders. The steering committee was comprised of senior executives, including the CEO, CIO, CFO, CHRO and others. The project team included subject matter experts in HR, HRIS, Talent, Payroll, Finance and IT. The stakeholder team included additional members from Finance and IT as well as managers and exempt and non-exempt employees/system users. Communication with each group was scheduled throughout the project. Project team meetings were held multiple times a week, steering committee meetings were held every 2 to 3 weeks and stakeholders were updated at least once per month. The in-depth project work and task definition were discussed in the project team meetings. The steering committee meetings made sure that the senior management team understood the process, agreed with the decisions of the project team and were kept aware of challenges and progress. The stakeholder meetings were an integral step in the change management process to make sure that future potential change champions understood the process, and the goals of the overall project.
Our timeline for the project was determined to be 90 days and was bracketed by our recommendation to be in the best bargaining position with a vendor. Often vendors offer incentives and are more flexible in negotiations at each quarter end period.
The overall steps of our process were:
- Define Project Scope and System Requirements through Discovery and Interviews with Leadership, Management, HR SMEs and Employee users
- Define Vendor Requirements, Internal Changes, Budget, and Metrics for Success
- Develop a Quick Request for Proposal (QRFP) to Share with Selected Vendors
- Facilitate a Discussion of HRIS Requirements and Possible Vendors
- Facilitate Internal Change Management Discussions
- Communicate QRFP for Vendor Response
- Facilitate Meetings to Review Vendor Responses and Identify 2 to 3 Vendors for In-depth Demos
- Create Agenda and Roles for Vendor Demos
- Schedule and Attend Demonstrations
- Populate Decision Matrix to Facilitate Vendor Selection
- Participate in Vendor Reference Checks
- Support Team in Vendor Recommendation
The interview process meant talking for about 1 hour with each project team member or steering committee member and talking for about 30 minutes with each stakeholder. This process was completed in 5-7 days and we used questions about system access, ease of use and possible improvements as well as more detailed questions based on the employee’s function and role.
The interviews led to the discovery of pain points and future business wants and needs for the system to improve.
The next step was project team meetings to review these findings and the development of a Quick Request for Proposal (QRFP) document to share with vendors. The project team also discussed which vendors to include. These were selected based on our experience as well as suggestions from the project team and senior management. Based on the client’s decision, the QRFP was sent to six vendors.
In addition, we started the discussions about change management based on the overall goals of the new system. For this client employee access and manager access to the system was a crucial next step. While a new vendor would potentially help with this access there were also internal policies and processes that needed to be examined. These steps could be started before the final decision of the new vendor.
Part of our role was to communicate with the vendors. This included answering questions about the QRFP as well as helping the vendors present their best response targeted to the needs of the client.
Vendor response evaluation
We led the project team review and discussion of the vendor responses to focus on which vendors to include in the next step, the demonstration phase. Then each project team member reviewed the vendor responses and rated those responses to come up to an overall individual score. We collated these ratings to define a vendor decision matrix. We helped the team concentrate on the most important functionality, price consideration and other criteria to determine which 3 vendors to include in the demo phase.
In addition, the QRFP was used to create a specific agenda for the vendor demos. The agenda was communicated to each vendor and kept the demos on track and on time and ensured that the same criteria would be used to evaluate each vendor. In person vendor demos were about three hours and each session ended with a list of questions for follow up during an additional online meeting review. These sessions allowed us to dive deep into any part of the system that needed further explanation, for example, the general ledger interface from a Finance perspective or IT security protocols from an IT perspective.
Each project team member then reviewed their decision matrix and scoring based on the demos and additional information gathered. In addition, the project team discussed any differences between the scores and thought through the analysis of each vendor to determine the right fit for the organization.
The process led to a thorough analysis of the internal needs matched to the market of possible solutions and determined the best vendor for the organization.
The client is on to the next step of contract negotiation and signoff. Look for more to follow as the project progresses.
We can help you with software and vendor selection. Let’s talk!