Technology Evaluation: How Can You Stay Ahead of The Competition?

What is a technology evaluation process?

At its core, a technology evaluation process is a repeatable way for you to quickly identify which tools will save you time, improve your product, or help you better serve your customers.

New technology evaluation processes can take many forms such as:

• • A list of important questions

• • A plan to test new tools before you buy

• 
  
  • A vendor requirement checklist

Whatever form it takes, having a sharable set of technology evaluation criteria helps everyone contribute ideas productively.

Beyond that, setting up a standardized technology evaluation process saves you time. With it, even new employees will know what to look for.

For context, here’s a technology evaluation example that is used by Montrium, a company that provides a cloud content management platform to life sciences businesses.

 

Montrium Cloud Vendor Evaluation Checklist (Source)

     1. Data Security & Risk Management

     2. Compliance

     3. Customer Services & Support

     4. Accessibility and Availability

     5. Pricing & Fees

     6. Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity

     7. Due Diligence

 

What steps go into a good technology evaluation process?

Here’s your five-step technology evaluation checklist which can help you make tech decisions you won’t regret.

 

Step 1: Initial proposal

First, you need to do some research to share this potential tool more broadly.

• • Identify the need: Why did this tool catch your eye? What specific problems will it solve?

• • Nail down the costs: How much will you have to pay? How hard will it be to integrate?

• • Evaluate the provider: Is the provider reputable and reliable? What do the reviews say?

Ideally, anyone in your company should be able to put together this proposal and it should be a quick process to veto any ideas that, at a glance, aren’t worth the time and cost.

 

Step 2: Alignment with business objectives

Second, the tool needs to be tied to your bottom line.

• • Review business goals: Does this raise profits, improve customer experience, or save us time?

• • Check tech compatibility: Does this tool work with our technology stack? How?

This step makes sure the tool serves your business. It also helps you avoid shiny new technologies that aren’t very useful.

 

Step 3: Cost and benefit analysis

Then, once the value is clear, there needs to be a look at the costs.

• • Potential ROI: How do the long-term benefits compare to the ramp-up time?

• • Competitive Analysis: How does this compare to other solutions? (cost, effectiveness, ramp-up)

• • Security: Does it meet your security standards?

Discuss these points in a team meeting or group chat to surface any concerns and gather different perspectives. This analysis should follow a written technology evaluation criteria template that you can consistently apply across any tool to help learn the important information quickly.

 

Step 4: Trial and testing

After that, the proposal is ready for testing to go beyond the sales pitch to see if it actually improves things.

• • Start small: How can we trial this quickly and cheaply?

• • Real conditions: What is a real workflow we can test this in?

This step is critical to understanding if the technology will perform as expected in your unique environment. Ideally, have someone on your team who is detail-oriented in order to get high-quality feedback on how the tool feels to use.

 

Step 5: Decision and implementation

Lastly, it’s time to pull together all of the learnings so you can make the right call.

• • Make the decision: Based on the analysis and trial, is this worth buying?

• • Plan rollout: How are we rolling this out internally? How long will that take?

• • Monitor and adjust: How will we tell long-term that this is working well?

Make sure to set regular follow-ups to ensure the technology continues to meet your needs and provide value.

To summarize, your technology evaluation process steps should include:

Are there ways to speed up technology evaluation?

If you’re looking to accelerate your search for tools to improve your productivity, consider joining the ViB Community. You’ll get tailored recommendations for your business needs and be connected with hundreds of high-tech professionals who can help you discover tools built for companies just like yours.

 

How can templates simplify your technology evaluation process?

There’s no need to start from scratch. The questions you’re thinking of have been asked time and time again. You can find existing templates to help you quickly check that new technologies are useful and viable for your business. Templates can save you time while also ensuring you ask all of the important questions.

 

What templates are available?

1. 1. Software vendor requirement checklist template (Example) – This list of questions helps ensure that new software vendors are compliant, usable, and supported. It also makes it easy to compare multiple options.
      2. Vendor risk assessment templates (Example) – These comprehensive templates ensure that every vendor you work with is secure, and that any risks are identified up front before you commit to working with them.
      
      • • Benefits: Anyone in your company can do the research ahead of a big discussion.
      • • Usage: Before discussing as a team, you can have a sanity check on whether a deal is even possible with this vendor.

1.  

3. You can also make your own technology evaluation scorecard (using the above examples)

• • • • Make sure to include detailed questions that you would ask someone if they raised this idea in a meeting.

• • • • Add a rating scale from 1-5 for questions that require making judgment calls.

• • • • Use the overall score as a rough indicator of how much time you should spend investigating and trying out the tool.

• • • • Benefits: Saves your team from working with a tool that would be hard to integrate.
      • Usage: Before signing up for a software service, double-check it meets the company’s needs.

 

How do you efficiently use templates?

If you’re using a pre-built template, make sure to tailor it to your business needs. That way future users of your technology evaluation process don’t get stuck looking for information that isn’t needed. Imagine yourself discussing this document and adding any questions you still have. Ideally, you should be able to make a decision directly from a completed template.

 

What are some examples of how companies are using technology evaluation processes?

Let’s look at a couple of case studies and examples of the technology evaluation process in action!

 

How does Google evaluate new vendors?

Google has several steps in its vendor security assessment process:

1. Questionnaires: to assess the culture, position, and any other potential concerns.
   
2. Remediation: where vendors can improve their products to meet Google’s standards.
3. Remediation: where vendors can improve their products to meet Google’s standards.
4. Penetration testing: to verify the claims in the questionnaires.
5. Design review: to understand how this tool will fit into Google’s long-term business and tech stack.
6. Contractual protections: to ensure long-term engagements meet both parties’ needs.

At a high level, these are basically assessing risks, testing to prove a new technology’s claims, and then making a decision about how to proceed.

By being clear and up-front about what new vendors need, Google saves themselves time and reliably creates vendor relationships that support their business.

 

How can choosing the right technology drive business impact?

Another technology evaluation example comes from 92NY. 92NY is a world-class community center specializing in art and culture. They give people a place to connect with each other. They used the ViB Community to discover new security technologies they needed. After trialing the technology, they ultimately saw an estimated 20% improvement in their security.

Whether the results are positive or negative, having a clear process helps you make good decisions consistently. Merchants Grocery also highlights the need to test before you buy as going beyond the sales pitch lets you really decipher what product is best for you.

 

Why is technology evaluation more important than ever?

The importance of technology evaluation criteria is growing due to more tools being released than ever before. It is crucial to be clear about what tools need to do for your business to cut through the noise. 

By writing your own technology evaluation process you can:

• • Improve productivity: The right tool multiplies your team’s output. Accessible technology evaluation resources let your team help you stay on the cutting edge.

• • Remove distractions: Clear vendor evaluation criteria helps to quickly and consistently decline tools that are not a good fit.

• • Avoid regret: Nearly 60% of companies in the US reported regretting one or more of their software purchases in the last 12-18 months according to Capterra. A clear process helps you avoid someone on your team making an impulsive decision you will have to live with for years to come.

Luckily, you don’t have to hunt for useful technology alone!

The ViB Community is a network of tech-savvy professionals who are constantly hunting for the best new tools. By sharing knowledge and making connections, you can discover the specific tools you need quickly. Using your new knowledge, you’ll be rewarded for evaluating technology by finding the right tool to accelerate your business.

You can join the community right now by signing up here.