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Right! You’ve had enough of manual timesheets and want to go digital. You might find exploring these questions useful in helping you to make the right choice for your business.
1. Enterprise scale or mid-market solution provider?
Enterprise scale solutions, such as end-to-end ERP systems, force change across an entire business. These tend to be difficult and expensive projects but may appeal if a business is considering rationalisation across all areas. On the other hand, mid-market solution providers readily offer limited scale deployments with an emphasis on integrating with your current IT investments. This usually wraps in lower cost, faster time to go live and quicker ROI.
2. How easy is it to use?
Internet enabled software of all types can usually be demonstrated online and the best providers offer pre-sales consulting. The best way to really get to grips with the usability is to evaluate it in the real world and shadow your existing system. Many online providers offer free trials that let your team really identify what works best for your organisation.
3. Is pre-sales consulting really necessary for a web-based application?
Rarely do timesheet systems operate in isolation. In order to automate timesheets, solutions as a minimum, need to integrate and exchange data with existing systems such as accounting, invoicing and payroll. In some cases more detailed integration may mean that the system needs to dovetail with Management Information Systems (MIS) or CRM. To ensure that automated timesheet investment delivers the best value, every prospective buyer of automated timesheets should fully engage with service providers.
4. What is to be expected of training and support for online solutions?
Easy to use, intuitive applications should minimise training requirements. The best providers back good online guides and FAQs with channels to real support people using webchat services or contact centres. Once browsers are up to date, issues with web applications reside on the internet side, either the connection between your business and the internet, or the internet cloud from where web applications are delivered. This makes it easy for dedicated cloud services specialists to ensure service continuity. Most web applications claim an uptime of at least 99.9%.
5. Why is it important to find out the cost of value-added services?
Many pricing plans are based on cost per user. But simply multiplying it by the number of staff is often not the total cost of ‘user-ship’. High quality pre-sales consulting, training and support services all require significant resource. Some may only offer online or email support with no access to rapid responses by telephone. Be certain of what’s bundled in because that good deal can look bad once the hidden extras are factored in.
