Why Irresponsibility And Inefficiency Are Devastating For Your IWMS Selection Procedure
As you all know, I have been involved in quite a few sales cycles for Integrated Workplace Management Systems (IWMS). I have always felt a healthy reluctance against 750-question Request for Proposals (RFP’s) Questionnaires.
It seems to me that making life miserable for all people involved (except the consultancy firm managing the selection process) has become normative, and I think it needs to be stopped immediately. IWMS Software selection projects have become unnecessary complicated.
There are two reasons for this:
- Irresponsibility
- Inefficiency
I’ll explain.
Irresponsibility. Lacking a sense of responsibility; Not liable to be called to account by a higher authority.
Writing a 750-item questionnaire is only to ensure people can’t be held accountable for any problems down the road. You can recognize irresponsible people very easy. Irresponsible people avoid all decisions that would jeopardize the status quo.
Unfortunately, that is exactly what you want to achieve by implementing an IWMS. Change the status quo. Change Facility Management and Real Estate Processes. Therefore, you should make decisions instead of questionnaires. Don’t focus on all the details. Adapt as you go.
Inefficiency. The quality, condition, or fact of being inefficient. An inefficient act, design, or procedure.
Particularly when external consultancy firms are involved, selection procedures are extremely inefficient.
Why?
They benefit from inefficiency.
A large amount of meetings, meeting minutes, decision documents, reports, etc. guarantees a lengthy selection procedure. It also guarantees a lot of consultancy hours. These hours (let alone the costs associated with these) could have been used far more wisely.
Summary
It seems that over the last couple of years the procurement process of IWMS systems has become an industry of its’ own. People tend to forget that need to buy a software solution for their business problems instead of a procurement solution.
Therefore, I offer you this piece of free advice:
Don’t let the procurement process become more important than the business outcome!
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[...] Particularly in the RFI,RFP, RFQ phase, organizations tend to include every single aspect they can think of as a requirement. Quite often questionnaires exceed the 750 questions. I have always felt a healthy reluctance against these questionnaires. [...]