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Ayat mentioned previously the three main options you have when building or creating a new ecommerce operation (part 1 and part 2):
- Custom develop the site to meet your own requirements
- Utilize a hosted ecommerce solution
- Choose an e-commerce packaged solution
Each of these options comes with its pluses and minuses and the two parts series about the criteria you should choose when selecting the best solution for your own needs provides a good starting point. Elastic path’s webinar on the art and science of selecting an Ecommerce package selection is a must watch as well to get you started.
The third option of using an ecommerce packaged solution ecommerce solution is probably the most popular option with many companies. These solutions vary from the open source, free packages to the enterprise level solutions with all the bells and whistles. Enterprise ecommerce packages usually require hundreds of thousands of dollars in investments. The costs associated with these solutions usually involve two parts:
- the cost of software licensing,
- and the cost of customizing the solution to meet specific needs.
And although there is no real published data, most clients I talked to indicated that the cost of customizing the solution is usually higher than the software cost.
Giving the amount of time and money it requires; selecting the most appropriate solution becomes critical. And after working in the field of ecommerce for over 10 years, I can confidently state that there really is no “right” solution: each package comes with its own set of positives and negatives. Searching and discovering what works best with your company and meets your business objectives becomes key.
In my experience, the best approach to selecting the right solution for you starts with asking the different vendors to conduct a proof of concept (POC) on their software. POC is a process which a software vendor has to show how their package works and fits a particular set of requirements.
Being on both sides of the table; asking a vendor to conduct a proof of concept as well having to complete a few myself, I learned that there are many “tricks” software vendors can use and that you need to be aware of. These tricks are not necessarily dishonest but they might bend the truth to a certain limit.
So, how do you conduct a valid proof of concept?
There are several steps to conduct a successful POC. Each of them is important but the last step is the most critical.
1. Define minimum set of business requirements
The process of defining business requirements should happen prior to engaging any vendor. No entity that has interest in selling the software should be involved during that process. Your goal here is not to document all the requirements in the system, which is a process that can easily take months. However, your goal should be to focus on 4-6 different requirements that are critical to the success of any ecommerce solution on your site. Of course that assumes that you have the expertise and in house knowledge to create these requirements. Many companies think that they do, but unfortunately most do not. Well defined and clearly documented requirements are probably the most critical factor in the success of your project.
An example of one of these requirements might state: the system must accept different forms of payment (paypal, credit cards, Bill me later).
If you do not have the in house knowledge then consider hiring a external company to assist you in coming up with specific requirements for your project.
2. Translate your requirements into scenarios
In this stage you are expected to translate the business requirements into scenario that can be conducted successfully on your website. For example, we can take the above requirements and create a scenario where:
- a user logs to the website,
- adds items to their shopping cart,
- starts the check out process
- the visitor is presented with multiple payment options
Some companies skip this stage and feel that the requirements should be enough. But most requirements documents can be understood in different ways which may lead to a variety of implementation options that may counter the original and particular solution you are looking for. You will save yourself a lot of headache if you invest a little bit of time to complete this stage.
3. Ecommerce vendor selection process
Traditional RFP processes are utilized during this stage. You can invite different vendors to do quick presentations on their particular packages. I would stay away from talking about specific business requirements at this point. At the end of this stage, you should have 3 or 4 different vendors who you think can take on the project.
4. Proof of concept implementation
At this stage, release the requirement and business scenarios you created. Set a deadline that is not more than 5 days for vendors to complete the business scenarios. Each of the selected vendors will have the same amount of time to customize systems and prepare data to demonstrate how their system will work with your scenarios.
5. Invite the vendors for the second round of reviews
During the second and final stage you invite the vendors and ask them to demonstrate how your business scenarios. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of the evaluation process. But I will leave this to a separate blog.
What do you think qualifies one vendor over the next? Have you had any experience selecting software vendors.
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