When purchasing contact center software, leaders often focus on external factors like evaluating vendors and comparing features. The external portion of the purchasing process takes a front seat. However, researching solutions can quickly fall flat if you don’t understand the internal purchasing process at your organization. You’ll need to understand approval processes, budget evaluation, and stakeholder priorities before acting on your contact center software of choice.
Let’s explore how you can master the internal purchasing process to avoid roadblocks during your buying journey.
Map the software purchasing journey
Organizations have unique ways of evaluating and approving major purchases, including acquiring contact center software. It’s important to understand each stage in your organization’s internal process to keep your buying journey on schedule. Following these steps can help you track your purchasing journey:
- Documenting the need for software. Clearly map out your evaluation of the need for contact center software. This should’ve been done at the beginning of your journey, but it’s important to have thorough documentation of organizational inefficiencies, poor customer feedback, or difficulty scaling operations. All challenges that can be remedied by thoughtfully selecting workforce software. Make sure there are measurable objectives tied to resolving these challenges, like boosting employee engagement levels or improving specific KPIs.
- Mapping stakeholders in the process. There will be several cooks in the kitchen when picking a software for your contact center. Tracking the stakeholders across multiple departments, along with their feedback, is needed to ensure internal processes are smooth. Typical stakeholders include Operations, IT, Finance, Procurement, and Customer Service. Scheduling a cross-functional kickoff at the beginning of the evaluation process will ensure alignment across teams.
Understand the budget approval process
You can find the perfect workforce management solution for your contact center but without financial backing, it won’t matter. To keep the buying process rolling, you’ll need to have an understanding of your organization’s budgeting and approval processes. When considering your organization’s budget, be sure to think about:
- Timing. Most businesses have an annual or quarterly budget, which means funds may only be available during specific times. Starting the purchasing process too late in the year could result in delays to starting your service.
- Approval thresholds. Understand approval and spending thresholds at your organizations. Purchases over a certain amount may require executive-level approval, which can take additional time to clear.
Build a strong business case to streamline approvals
Having a strong business case is essential to get approvals from finance and executive teams. Focus on a return on investment (ROI) and total cost of ownership (TCO) analysis put together when evaluating vendor coasts. Clearly outline these costs including implementation, maintenance, and training, using real data from your organization, if possible.
In addition to having a thorough financial breakdown, your business case should address:
- Strategic fit. How does this contact center software align with larger business goals? Provide specific examples of how this software will benefit your contact center’s goals.
- Risk mitigation. Address concerns like scalability, security, and different compliance requirements to emphasize the long-term viability of your software choice.
Pro tip: Vendors can help you build a strong business case by providing tailored ROI projections, case studies, and additional insights into how their solutions are perfect for addressing current challenges and future workforce needs.
Engage your internal stakeholders throughout the process
Navigating the internal purchasing process effectively includes stakeholder engagement. Engaging your internal team isn’t just a one-time effort but an ongoing conversation that promotes alignment and helps avoid roadblocks.
After identifying key stakeholders in the purchasing process, it can be helpful to define roles in the internal approval process. Defining roles can look like:
- Evaluators: Team members responsible for assessing a software solution’s usability and fit for the organization.
- Contributors: This may include subject matter experts (SMEs) who can provide insights into organizational needs.
- Decision makers: Individuals or teams that are responsible for evaluating vendor options and making formal recommendations on final choice.
- Final approvers: This role can include executives and finance teams that have a final say in funding approval.
Ways to improve stakeholder engagement
- Involve finance teams early on. The finance team should be engaged at the beginning of the evaluation process to discuss ROI expectations, TCO analysis, and budgeting requirements. Early and ongoing discussions will avoid disappointing budget-related hangups during final approvals.
- Don’t forget legal and IT teams. If a technical or compliance concern arises, legal and IT departments have the power to shoot down a software solution. Address compliance, integration, and security needs as early as possible.
- Tailor communication to your stakeholders. Adjust your messaging surrounding software evaluations based on the teak you’re communicating with. An IT team may not care about cost savings, but a finance team sure will.
- Build a communication plan. Create a thorough roadmap of the communication and information needed at each stage of the process, applicable to each stakeholder group. Vendors can also provide messaging to support stakeholder management, based on each team’s concerns.
Navigate the internal approval workflows
This will vary between organizations but one thing is consistently true: inefficient workflows will cause delays. Understanding the approval process can prepare your team to streamlining approvals as much as possible.
Key approval strategies can include:
- Building consensus before formal approval requests. Getting informal agreement on a contact center software can minimize pushback during a formal approval process.
- Set realistic expectations. Develop clear and realistic timelines for approvals that include communication plans with each stakeholder.
- Use concrete evidence to persuade. Supporting data is more likely to push decision makers to approve a purchase, as they’ll have evidence of a software’s value to improving KPIs or reducing operational costs.
Know how to negotiate and finalize contracts
The final stage of navigating internal workflows if negotiating terms and finalizing contracts with a vendor. While this may seem straightforward, you’ll still have to be cautious to avoid negotiation pitfalls. When negotiating terms and finalizing contracts with vendors be sure to:
- Look beyond price. Cost is important but it shouldn't overshadow other factors like support service terms, service level agreements (SLAs), and exit clauses in a contract.
- Collaborate as partners. A successful negotiation happens when organizations approach vendor relationships as a partnership. Focus on creating a beneficial scenario for both parties.
- Be prepared to walk away. If you cant agree on favorable terms with a vendor, be prepared to explore other options. This can also strengthen your negotiating position.
- Work closely with your legal team. Ensure your legal team thoroughly reviews a contract and addresses key concerns like security and compliance.
- Build a plan for implementation. Before finalizing a contract, confirm the vendor has an implementation plan in place for a smooth transition.
The internal purchasing process is just as important as analyzing software and evaluating vendors. By understanding the internal purchasing process, you can avoid common pitfalls like delays due to approval timelines and resolving unexpected pushback. Map out your buying journey, continuously engage stakeholders, and prepare a strong business case to finalize a smooth software buying journey.
Now that we’ve made it to the end of a buying process, we’ll explore some detailed case studies to give you real world applications of implementing new contact center software.
