You glance at the clock on the wall and feel your frustration rising; it’s 9 p.m. and once again, you’re still at the office.

You never imagined that so much would go wrong when you implemented your company’s new electronic time entry system two weeks ago. The software continues to crash, causing the jobsite foremen’s time entries to become lost, which leads to frustration, unrest, and distrust.

You’ve spent every day on the phone with the vendor frantically trying to resolve the issues so that you can pay your employees. The vendor had promised a simple and easy integration along with knowledgeable 24/7 support. However, you cannot get the vendor to make the changes and its average response time is more than a day. As you review the contract language, you realize there is very little recourse for the lack of support and slow response time.

Every CFM has run into a scenario similar to this one. So how can this be prevented, and what is the right process for selecting information technology (IT) partners that provide solutions along with customer support that meet and/or exceed expectations?

This article will discuss key steps in selecting the right vendor and solution for your company.

Determine the Core Business Need

The first and most important factor in the selection process is to determine the core business need to be met. According to Stephen Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, “Begin with the end in mind.”