We're
in the market for a Learning Management System (LMS) to supplement our
Education team's efforts. My team put together a wonderfully detailed, 2 year
roadmap of every possible feature we might want in an LMS. I believe it was a valuable exercise and I
applauded their work. It's important to
understand where you're headed before you start walking (or running) a certain
direction. However, sending an
exhaustive 30 page Request for Proposal (RFP) to the top 20 LMS vendors would
simply lead to a protracted evaluation of vendors using unrealistic criteria
that none of them could fulfill to 70% of our satisfaction.
We
need an LMS and we need one soon. So
while being careful not to be short-sided, I paired the 30 page list down to
our core needs, the minimum or fundamental system requirements. I then sent this list (under 2 pages) to a
small handful of the leading LMS vendors.
The Good
The
first vendor had a shocking, unheard of, but quite refreshing reply, they said --
"From our continuing conversations, the
emails and documents shared, and our meeting on Monday, the only viable
solution for you would be another alternative to us. Using our consultative services to build out
all that Fellowship requires would be expensive compared to the cost of adding
an LMS to what Fellowship currently has.
I know that you are currently looking into other LMS providers. I think this is the right path in order to
meet your timelines. I am sorry that we
do not have more to offer at this time.
Please keep us posted on your progress.
I will let you know of any updates that happen on our end." WOW!
An open and honest reply! I sent
the gentleman a thank you note the same day.
The Bad & the Ugly
The
second vendor came into our offices today to "demonstrate" their product
offering. We were sorely disappointed in
seeing yet another "show up and throw up" product demo. Keep in mind they had our short list of
requirements for well over a week. Also
keep in mind that they had never met any of us before. They began the meeting by going through a
standard list of slides about company history, clients, philosophies, yada,
yada, yada. Fortunately for us (bad for
them) their presentation froze up their computer four slides into their
presentation (Had they never ran through these slides before?) Luckily this
accelerated us into the "demo" portion of the meeting. We stopped them before they began and asked
if they needed any clarification about our business or our requirements, their
answer was flatly "no".
Skeptical,
we let the demo proceed. 5 minutes into
the presentation it was clear that they had NO idea what we did or what we
needed. They were simply using a
standard demo. While their product
supposedly supported "Promotional Codes" (a CORE requirement of ours) their
demo database did not include any examples of them in use. We asked them to demonstrate it and they
stopped, stuttered, muttered and then tried to reassure me "it's there, trust
me". We asked how they supported another
couple key requirements and they droned on about custom fields and custom
development.
I
rolled my eyes in utter frustration, stood up, packed my things and politely
explained to the vendor how they missed the boat. How could a vendor seeking our business be so
stubborn as to ignore a simple set of requirements sent to them a week before
our meeting? Why would they not spend a
few minutes customizing the demo to our questions? If they have Dell and other large customers
as reference-able clients then we can safely assume they can do the "basics", I
don't need that demonstrated. We wanted
to see how they met our core requirements.
The vendor just "showed up and threw up" the same old generic demo they
always have. Any tough questions that
caused them to detour off their familiar and well-worn path caused them to
short-circuit like a robot on Lost in Space.
Lessons
Learned (for the vendors)
A)
Run
through your slides at least once or twice before showing up so it doesn't
"freeze up" or "crash"
B)
Don't
bring your presentation on a thumb drive and then look at me with puppy dog
eyes expecting to use my laptop
C)
If
you know my requirements ahead of time then PREPARE / CUSTOMIZE the demo around
those requirements!!!
D)
Start
the meeting by asking us, the customer, questions about our business and our
needs; Ask us what we'd like to see in the demo; Know your audience!
E)
Don't
waste my time at the beginning by droning on about how great you and your
product are in the first demo; Demo what
it does and how it can meet my needs.
Once I see if you can do what I need then I'll evaluate your viability,
stability, etc.
F)
Don't
cut me off before I finish stating each of my questions and say "we can handle
that with a custom field" (if your vendor keeps saying that RUN AWAY!)
G)
Listen,
listen, listen. Listen to the customer! (Did I say listen?)
In
the next blog I'll speak to some tips on evaluating vendors.
- Curtis S