Solution
A perennial question that many IT organizations are faced with is, "should we build an application that serves our business needs or is there a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) application available that will support our needs?" The answer to this question often requires an approach that provides an objective analysis of the application requirements to support the business need, overlaid with the current IT architecture, environment, and culture. Ascendum's BBA provides that melded approach to determining the "best" course of action based on client-specific criteria. Our process reviews and numerically assesses the degree of fit of a number of packages to our clients' business requirements. Following are the areas that are considered in detail through the course of a typical BBA:
- Identification of vendors that should be considered
- Top tier
- Point solutions
- Fit of applications to business requirements - high level
- Fit of applications to technical requirements and existing environment - high level
- Vendor fit - high level
- Alignment of software vendor's strategic direction for the product with that of the client
- Vendor's current client base
- Vendor's financial standing
- Numerical scoring of vendors' solution degree of fit to the business requirements
We can flexibly engage with our clients through the entire process or for assistance in specific steps of the selection process.
Client Challenges
- An organization seeking a replacement for a home-grown application from enterprise-wide scope to point solution and needing a formal methodology to making an objective selection
- A client being pressured to upgrade to a major new release of COTS software and who wants to make an informed decision of upgrading to the current vendor's new release or changing to another package altogether
Business Value
With the help of Ascendum's BBA process, our clients are provided the objective information to determine which approach will prove most advantageous.
