Part seven: Buying general automation platforms Not all General Automation Platforms are created equal. Here’s advice on selecting the right solution for you. Our recommended purchase process: Step #1 Document your project goals that your IT policies will mandate. Also, Step #5 Evaluate vendors against your Writing down your goals will focus your attention consider the responsiveness of the vendor to requirements on the details that matter. It will also help you enhancement requests. You don’t want to be Create a vendor long-list by researching product communicate the goals to your stakeholders. beholden to a slow to respond vendor. comparison sites, asking friends or reaching Include a list of qualitative and quantitative articles. Whittle down this long-list to a short- metrics that you are looking to achieve. list of two to four vendors. Engage your short-list Step #4 Identify your stakeholders vendors and schedule demos, trials or a proof Make sure that you involve your economic of concept. Make sure that vendors can support Step #2 Create a timeline of milestones decision-maker in the decision process. You your current requirements but also have the Jot down your ideal sequence of events from the wouldn’t want to spring it on her to sign off on flexibility to support your future needs. vendor selection process to configuration, go live a significant investment. Make sure that you and first value. This practice will keep you moving identify anyone that has the potential to block the forward at a deliberate pace and help you from agreement and make sure they are on-board early getting bogged down in the minutia. in the process. Finally, define up-front with your stakeholders how you intend to run the process Step #3 Define your requirements and make a decision. Think broader than just feature requirements. How vital are more general concepts like usability, flexibility, and scalability? Consider support and training requirements. Consider the security, compliance, resilience requirements 44