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IT Suppliers Look a gift horse straight in the mouth!

As well as designing and developing web sites, I´m often called upon to help businesses in procuring IT systems. The systems required are usually quite comprehensive applications that are meant to help the client fully manage his business.

The systems usually come with sizeable price tags so the selection process needs to be carefully managed.

It just so happens I´ve a couple of these assignments on the go at the moment and so a number of software suppliers have been presenting their wares to a couple of different clients that I´m involved with.

When Presentations Go Bad.

Ok, so there are good presenters and bad. There are slick, experienced presenters who can motivate and inspire and there are those just beginning to hone their skills in the art of Death By Powerpoint. There are interesting topics and those that can induce immediate slumber. Presentations can be difficult to pitch and, often, difficult to watch.

Does it do what it says on the tin?

To help make these presentations as productive, meaningful and interesting to my client´s operational people, I normally ask the software suppliers to follow a couple of documented typical day-to-day scenarios and show how their product would support the scenarios.

The benefits of this approach, I believe, are:

• The software supplier gets a clear handle on what the clients expectations are.
• The software supplier gets to present their product in the most appropriate light for their audience.
• The client gets to see exactly how the system will operate "on the ground".

Show the Client What They Want!

What really makes me dispair is when a sales guy ignores the time and effort put in by the client to make their requirements and expectations clear, then puts all his time and passion into showing the features of his product that HE thinks are the most impressive.

So frustrating.