It happened again just before Christmas.
Another Not for Profit (NFP) reached out to me for some advice in choosing a CRM. Unfortunately, they had already gone through this process TWICE in recent times.
So why did they fail before?
TWO REASONS:
- The first time, they hired a consultant who worked for a company that did CRM implementations with specific vendors. As such, they would never have recommended a CRM without the ongoing financial benefits.
- In the second case, they went directly to a single vendor who was obviously incentivised to make the NFP’s requirements fit their software, even if it didn’t do this well.
In both cases, the CRM was not the right fit for this Not for Profit’s needs.
Specifically, the cost of modifying the CRM to meet their needs would exceed the cost of buying a fit-for-purpose solution that could meet most of their requirements out of the box.
What does vendor-agnostic mean, and why should you care?
So, what exactly does vendor-agnostic mean?
It means that you can trust the advice of your consultant to recommend software solutions that are the best for your organisational needs without being influenced by a vendor’s partner commission, referral fees or financial benefits for ongoing implementation work.
Failure to choose a vendor-agnostic consultant could result in the same scenario I shared at the beginning of this article.
What are the advantages of working with a vendor-agnostic consultant?
A vendor-agnostic consultant can help you:
- Save time by identifying a short list of software that best fits your needs.
- Save you money by reducing the customisation requirements and ongoing maintenance costs.
- Create a true apples-to-apples comparison of vendor proposals.
- Reduce both financial and operational risks by understanding the gaps between your needs and both the software’s and vendor’s capabilities.
How to find a vendor-agnostic consultant?
Finding a vendor-agnostic consultant is difficult because software companies can make it very enticing to partner with them, creating conflicts of interest.
I cover the full stack of software applications and have worked with over a hundred vendors in the last few years – many have offered me financial incentives to “partner” with them, i.e. “We’ll pay you to send us new business.”
To find and work with a vendor-agnostic consultant, the best resources will always be referrals from similar organisations. Not only will you have an immediate reference of the consultant’s capabilities, but they will more likely be a NFP sector expert too.
Another source is the software vendors themselves. I know this may sound contradictory, but in the NFP sector, most vendors really do want the best outcomes for clients.
I regularly get referrals from vendors with prospective customers who either need independent advice or more business consulting work than they can provide themselves to prepare the organisation for the technology change.
Final Thoughts
A vendor-agnostic consultant has your organisation’s best interest in mind, not their own.
While you may benefit from a vendor-specific consultant during the design and implementation process, your organisation should choose a vendor-agnostic consultant to help you in the selection process.
This will save you time and money and reduce risks (not to mention pain!) from making the wrong software decision.
As a vendor-agnostic consultant, I regularly help Not for Profits select a CRM and other systems. Let me know if you need some help.
P.S. If you found this article helpful, you might want to read this one too:
- Why the greatest CRM could still fail to meet your needs.
- What’s the cost of a new CRM?
- Why Australian Associations should avoid business CRMs – Roundbox Consulting
Tammy Ven Dange is a former charity CEO, Association President, Not for Profit Board Member and IT Executive. Today, she helps NFPs with strategic IT decisions, especially around investments.