James HolincheckNaomi Bloom’s recent posts (here and here) on scripted scenarios were a good memory jog to write this post. I have thought a fair amount recently about the business application software selection process and I think it is going to change significantly over the next few years. First, let me say that scripted scenarios are not going to go away – the vendor demos will.
Consider the following scenario. Let’s say you were going to buy a car and you were unsure which car to buy. Maybe there are three or four that are in the size and price range you want (your short list, if you will). You would likely go to dealers for each car and do a test drive. You would get behind the wheel and drive the car and get a feel for how it operates and what you like and do not like (or would like to change depending on the options) about the car.
Now, let’s think about it how it would work if a car test drive was like selecting business applications. In this case, you would have the car salesperson drive (demo) the car for you while you sat in the passenger seat and asked questions. You could have each car salesperson drive the car along the same route (scripted scenarios) to see how each car handles the course you have outlined. You would be able to compare “apples to apples” and probably gain some insight into what differentiates each car in terms of the driving experience. However, you would not really know how well the car you select drives until you actually buy it and drive it home from the lot.
It sounds sort of ridiculous when put this way, but this is exactly how most organizations buy business applications today (and have for many years). The emergence of SaaS and Cloud Computing is going to change that. It will literally put the customer in the driver seat. Instead of vendors doing scripted scenario-based demos, I see vendors setting up “sandboxes” where customers can run their own scripted scenarios with coaching and assistance from the vendors as needed. Pretty much every vendor in the market today has a SaaS or hosted offering. So, there is no reason that vendors cannot set up these customer “sandboxes”. Also, cloud computing infrastructure will help make it more economical because vendors will be able to scale their compute resources up and down based on demand.
Old ways die hard. Am I way off base? Is it too much work, too difficult, or does it take too much time to do a proper test drive of business applications? What do you think?
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5 responses so far ↓
1 Naomi Bloom December 10, 2009 at 2:30 pm
If you take truly architectural SaaS, with enough scale to have gotten much of the cost out and sufficient operations automation, and add interrogatory configuration http://infullbloom.us/?p=589, you get very close to the point at which, and not just for SMEs, the cost of “drive your own” scenario-based demos for even complex business applications will be VERY possible for customers and affordable for vendors. I’m on the case with several vendors, as I presume you are too, and look forward to taking our industry in this direction
2 Tweets that mention The End of the Scripted Scenario Demo Era -- Topsy.com December 10, 2009 at 4:04 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jim Holincheck, Jim Holincheck and larrydunivan, Neil Jensen. Neil Jensen said: RT @jimholincheck: Blog post: "The End of the Scripted Scenario Demo Era" http://bit.ly/6Inqm4 or http://bit.ly/5OEPQG [...]
3 Suddenly December 11, 2009 at 2:56 pm
[...] Gartner analyst Jim Holincheck references similar thinking (see comment.) The important point is here: The emergence of SaaS and Cloud Computing is going to [...]
4 Dave Runta December 11, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Nice post. Off-base? No. But INMO, we will have both.
These systems are large and complex….especially as they continue to get increasingly configurable. It takes too much time to learn and configure several systems to approximate a customer’s workflow and business environment to allow you to identify the appreciable differences in each system. This puts a practical limit on the amount of vendors you can compare at that stage.
And since often, many of the stakeholders/decision-makers are not users or even SME’s, you will need a round of guided tours to show off their best features and respond to inquiries and discussion in a group setting that mixes specialists and higher-level managers. Thus the role of a sales engineer will not go away. Scripted scenarios allow people who will not be in the system everyday to participate fully in the discussions contrasting the differences.
But you are right, the sandbox is coming for use by your core project team on your final 2-3 vendors and they will report out on their findings to the larger selection team before the final decision. That portion of the process should be heavily weighted and will allow for a selection with fewer surprises.
Thus the normal process becomes 1) RFP, 2) Demo and then 3) Sandbox comparison….and you will cut the number of vendors down after every round.
(Where it becomes hard is when you have to take into account the capabilities of a “coming release” upon which you would implement and isn’t available for anything more than a high-level demo. i.e. Taleo 10)
5 Naomi’s “Killer” Scenarios: Work And Workers December 28, 2009 at 1:52 pm
[...] is supported by an interrogatory configurator, prospects can do much of this scripted scenario execution themselves, without much vendor involvement, as suggested by my colleague Jim Holincheck in his referenced [...]