Step #6 Talk to references Ask your finalist vendors for references of customers that have similar needs to yourself. Interview those references for technical and non-technical factors. Understand how the vendor delivered success overall. Step #7 Make a decision You’ve compared capabilities, evaluated ROI, and assessed the value-added services of vendors. Now it’s time to bring it all together and choose the vendor that will help you to be the most successful. Step #8 Get started Now you can roll-up your sleeves and dive into the exciting world of automation. Get access to the APIs that you’ll need for your process. Either start building workflows yourself or ask for configuration assistance from your vendor. Once you have your first workflow made, be sure to validate the Additional factors results. Once it’s validated, you can set it and forget it and move onto your next automation. Remember to evaluate vendors for more than features and functions. Much of your success will depend on other factors such as: Step #9 Iterate and improve Is support by a human available? General Automation Platforms, like most software, has a Do they offer configuration consulting? learning curve. The chances are that you’ll think of new and better ways to accomplish and automation in six What kind of documentation and training is available? months from now. You might want to go back and tinker with older workflows to make them more comprehensive. How responsive is the vendor to questions and requests? Subscribe to a vendors blog to stay abreast of new product enhancements as well as new ideas that can inspire you to make greater use of your GAP. 45