Tips for attending exhibitions

Before the exhibition

1. Draw up a list of objectives for visiting the exhibition. Define what you wish to achieve eg to get an overview of certain types of software, see the latest software functionality, or to meet certain vendors.

2. Plan your visit. Make a shortlist of exhibitors, vendor demonstrations, educational or other sessions you wish to see. Don’t consider spending all day in vendor software demonstrations - they may end up sounding and looking alike and you may end up being totally confused. Plan a balance of visiting stands, meeting vendors, discussing your requirements, as well as attending demonstrations.

3. Mark the locations of the stands / demonstrations you wish to see on an exhibition layout planner so you know your way around the exhibition floor and can save time / avoid getting lost when you are there.

4. Attending with colleagues can help to determine which software to investigate further. However, plan in advance who is attending, who shall see what and when. Aim to cover all items, with colleagues splitting up to cover different parts of the exhibition.

5. Determine how you will get to the exhibition - so that you arrive on time and are able to complete everything. If you are attending for more than one day and need overnight accommodation, book well in advance of the date(s) required.

At the exhibition

6. Follow your visit plan. Ensure you cover the areas you wish to see. Don’t get side-tracked once at the exhibition - you can use any time left over at the end to visit other stands which look interesting.

7. If attending with colleagues - use the opportunity to quickly obtain a large amount of information and to network / create new contacts for later use. Work the exhibition - don’t just stay together or treat as a day out of the office!

8. Take a copy of your outline system requirements* with you - to refer to and / or raise key points with vendors / exhibitors.

9. Take plenty of business cards - to hand out to exhibitors and to save filling in their forms with your details.

10. Take a pen and small note pad for jotting down key items, demonstration notes, points of interest, contacts etc.

11. Attending exhibitions can be tiring. They can be hot (particularly in poorly ventilated demonstration rooms) and you may do a lot of walking. Be prepared - wear comfortable clothing and take regular refreshments throughout the day.


After the exhibition

12. Review the information you have obtained and write up notes / ideas as applicable. Discuss with colleagues. Then determine which software vendors you wish to follow up on and investigate further.

Accounting technology conferences and expo

There are many benefits of attending an accounting technology event - especially if you’re considering replacing your accounting software. These include:

•     improving your knowledge of the accounting software market, the latest trends and what’s available
•     checking out a software vendor’s latest offerings- in a low-key, informal way
•     comparing multiple vendors quickly and efficiently, in just one day

And it would be even more beneficial if you had details of what you need from your new accounting system. Gathering requirements and preparing a spec doesn’t have to be hard - the Accounting Software RFI/RFP Template can help you quickly and easily gather your requirements and prepare a requirements specification (and also a RFI and RFP).

Clicking a link below, will take you to the event website, where you can obtain more details such as the expo or conference contents, who’s exhibiting, locations and whether it’s chargeable or free to attend.

Although every attempt has been made to make the above calendar as accurate as possible, this cannot be guaranteed. For more details, contact the promoters directly.

Add a conference / expo - If you know of an Accounting Technology conference or expo which would be a useful to link to, please email brief details to info@axia-consulting.co.uk

Making the final software decision

Here is an easy process to follow to help you decide.

Steps:

1.  Gather all the information for each potential vendor and prepare a summary of the key criteria for each.

2.  Bring your project team together to jointly review the information, the summaries, discuss the pros and cons of each of the potential vendor solutions.

3.  Then, jointly rank each of the vendors against your key criteria.

Notes

(i)  Software functionality. Clearly the most important criteria, so focus on your key functional requirements and where the solution(s) from each vendor, differ from each other.

(ii)  Implementation. Even the best software will not work well, with a poor implementation. So you need to be very sure that you either have the skills, experience and resources on board, or can acquire these from the vendor, or other service providers, or by retraining existing employees.

(iii)  ROI (return on investment) / TCO (total costs of ownership). Re-check both calculations for 7 year time scale, for each vendor - as each vendor solution may have different benefits as well as different costs.

(iv)  Maintenance and support / SLA (Service Level Agreement). Be sure of what you are getting for your annual (or regular) payments, that it is appropriate and represents good value for money.

(v)  Software technology. Should be forward looking technology and either match that of your business or heading where you are heading. However, some forward looking technologies may be closer to where you are heading than others. (Solutions or vendors using old technology should have been removed at the RFI stage).

(vi)  The vendor. Their business strength, business and product direction, and how well you get on with the vendor are important. Equally, so is a process or arrangement to protect your investment in the software, should the vendor themselves be acquired or taken over by another organisation.

(vii)  In this example, we’ve included 6 key criteria for the project as a whole. You may have more criteria and may also wish to use some form of weighting and scoring rather than simple ranking. If so, amend your table accordingly.