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.

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.

IT Project Proposal

The 2 main types of internal IT project proposal for replacing business systems, such as a CRM system are:

•    outline proposal for system selection and system replacement in principle – to obtain approval for limited funds to undertake the system selection process
•    detailed proposal to implement a replacement system – carried out at the end of the system selection process – to obtain approval for much larger funds to purchase software, hardware, consultancy, training and implement the chosen system

If your organisation has a defined internal project approval process or framework, you will have to closely follow it if you wish to obtain project approval. If there is no defined process, you will have greater choice as to what and how to include in a proposal. But this probably makes it harder, so consider the following points when preparing your IT project proposal:

Ensure you fully understand the business and end user needs for the project. If you have yet to prepare more than a ‘back of the envelope’ spec of requirements, these RFI/RFP Templates can help you to quickly and easily prepare your requirements specification, RFI and RFP. Make sure the business and user needs (requirements) are crystal-clear in the proposal.

Understand what the other key project drivers are eg cost containment, time scale, project quality. Once known, make sure you give this adequate emphasis within the proposal.

Next, consider the proposal recipients ie the executive management / board, what they are looking for, the information they require and what is important to them and the organisation. Then provide the information they require eg if they want details give them, if not don’t. If you are unsure what they want – find out, before preparing the proposal. Picture them going through your proposal with a checklist – does your proposal tick all the boxes?

RFI RFP Accounting Software

The Accounting RFI/RFP Template will:

Save you time identifying and gathering your new software / system requirements because thousands of carefully researched criteria are listed. Simply choose those you need and set priorities for each criteria. Then quickly prepare your RFI and RFP by just filling in the blanks. And as the templates are available in MS Excel / Word, you can quickly and easily amend to your precise needs.

Save you effort as you don’t have to start from scratch. The templates reduce the effort involved with specifying requirements and preparing RFI’s / RFP’s.

The standardised format also helps software vendors to more clearly understand your requirements and more easily respond to each requirement, using the space available within the template. So you will receive clearer and improved responses. And consequently, spend less time and effort evaluating and comparing vendor responses.

Save you money as you can use the template yourself. There’s no need for extra staff or resources to help you specify your requirements or prepare your RFI and RFP.

Reduce the risk of selecting the wrong Accounting System by providing clarity and transparency. You can see your requirements, easily evaluate and compare vendor responses and so identify the best solution(s) for your organisation.