Reinvent Your Applications Vendor Selection Process To Fit Cloud Deployment Models

Application vendor selection remains mired in a bureaucratic process that has lost relevance in today's quickly changing application market. In the world of cloud computing and software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications, business process pros will find it far more relevant to analyze life-cycle ownership costs rather than merely calculating licensing and implementation costs. Another game-changing development involves the increase in process flexibility and configuration, making software flexibility as relevant for selection as prebuilt capabilities. Forrester recommends a four-phase vendor selection process, driven by business process professionals, that dispenses with the traditional request for proposal (RFP) mechanism and focuses on proving the software's ability to support key business process scenarios and the flexibility to change the business process. Where SaaS is the likely deployment model, the objectives should include limiting selection risk with proof-of-concept trials and reducing vendor lock-in.