Pre-Demo

Did they ask the right questions to better understand your organization?

Were they responsive to initial questions/concerns?

Did they ask what functionality you were most interested in seeing (and why)?

Demo Structure

Was the demonstration tailored to highlight the areas most critical to your organization, or was it generic?

Did the vendor make it easy to visualize how the system would work in your environment?

Was the discussion focused entirely on system functionality, or did it address solutions to organizational challenges?

How well did the vendor respond to questions and did they provide specific answers that relate to your processes?

Post Demo

Were unanswered questions promptly followed-up on in a timely manner and answered satisfactorily?

Were you given the opportunity to clarify and dig deeper on specific topics or areas of concern?

Is the path forward more clear?

Do’s and Don’ts

A few things to consider when preparing for your demo.

DO

• Remember that this is YOUR demo -- it should help drive your decision process, not be driven by the vendor’s agenda
• Be flexible and open to vendor suggestions for ways the solution might be able to improve existing processes
• Assess how much control your team has over configuration of critical functionality

DON’T

• Lose sight of the organizational needs sparking this procurement
• Forget to include potential users from different departments to offer multiple perspectives
• Settle for vague or “canned” responses to specific questions

How a vendor chooses to organize their RMIS demonstration can offer important clues on what type of client relationship you could expect from them moving forward. By asking a few questions along the way, you'll be able to add another dimension to your evaluation process.