Expert Advice for Medium and Midsize Businesses
- March 31, 2014
“The (R)Evolution in IT Buyer Behavior”
by Jim Lein, Oracle Midsize
To understand how IT buyer behavior is changing, we need to remember where we’ve been. Put yourself in a time machine and imagine life in 1999--not that different to life in 1963 and the office of Don Draper in Mad Men. Men still wore suits to the office every day; women wore dresses. Except I don't think Don had casual Fridays.
BTW- the image above is inspired by, "Mod Men : The World of Mad Men Through a 21st-Century Lens", by Doug Levy, Staff copywriter and editor for the Shutterstock blog.
Just like Don's office demeanor would not be appropriate today...IT managers shouldn't be making software selection decisions like they did in 1999. Back then, everyone was worrying about Y2K like it was the resurgence of the Black Death.
Back in the last century, Don Draper might have thought it was OK to knock back three martinis at lunch. And sometimes IT managers thought it acceptable behavior to spend a hundred grand and six months picking a software solution.
Back then, here’s how the IT buying process proceeded:
- Appoint a Selection Manager
- Gather Requirements
- Write An RFP (Requirements Document)
- Circulate the RFP
- Review Responses
- Build a Short List
- Vendor presentations
- Negotiate
- Purchase
The trouble with this software selection process: takes too long, costs too much , and may produce inconsistent results.
IT buyers today have so many more resources at their command--social networks, online peer groups, software review websites, and-most important of all-years of experience. Yet everyone I speak with tells me that RFPs are getting bigger, harder to produce, and harder for vendors to respond to. Shouldn't the process be easier?
Next up...Enterprise Software Review Sites - What Role Will They Play?”
Next week, ll be sharing what I learned from conversations with the founders of three of the most popular and innovative software review and advice web sites:
- Don Fornes, Software Advice
- Godard Abel, G2 Crowd
- Vinay Bhagat, TrustRadius
In this series:
- The (R)Evolution of IT Buying Behavior--including steps in the traditional software buying process
- The Death of the RFP?- the basics on software review sites
- How Software Review Sites Are Like Apples-including how such sites are not all the same
- A Two-Way Street for Software Vendors?-including why you won't find every product on every software review site