When it comes to defining success, it all comes down to defining your business requirements. Price management projects can be stressful and even risky if you don’t handle them the optimal way. It is important to think through the process carefully and ask the right questions.
Take a look at the following questions, and make sure that you have them adequately covered:
- What does success mean to you?
- Can you think of any ways to measure your success?
- What are your criteria?
- Who are the stakeholders, and what are they seeking to gain?
- How can you really satisfy these stakeholders as well as department representatives?
If there are criteria that impact multiple stakeholders, you’ll want to prioritize them. For example, you may find that management and pricing both want a strategic view of pricing. And perhaps pricing, management and sales want consistent price lists, an aggregated way to view discounts and a central source of information. When you see that more than one department has a need, then you’ll ultimately be more successful if you can achieve these multiple stakeholders’ goals.
You’ll want to set up meetings with representatives from all stakeholder departments – sales, marketing, management and IT. Also, you’ll want to specifically discuss how they can improve pricing in your company and document current problems. When you come to know the problems, you can better understand the solutions.
Learn Your Company’s Priorities and Then Talk to Vendors
Companies that need price management software usually look to different vendors before they make a decision. When it is time to evaluate software systems, be sure to rank your priorities. By investing the time to evaluate multiple vendors, you are increasing your chances of making the best choice possible. Before getting presentations from different vendors, make sure you know what is most important for your organization.
If you simply give the vendors a long list of what you are seeking, they won’t know what your priorities are. As a result, there is no way they can provide demonstrations of all the key requirements on your list.
Take the time to put your requirements in a ranked order – this is one of the most prudent time investments you can make in the process. When you achieve this goal, you will be able to narrow down the best vendors for you, and potential vendors will be able to better address your specific requirements. At the same time, you’ll learn which of your vendors have truly listened to your needs.
In the end, you’ll want to choose the provider that can offer you the solutions for the criteria that you’ve ranked most highly. When you choose a vendor that is in line with your established criteria, things will proceed much more efficiently. Implementing the project itself will be fast and painless.