You’re probably contacted by technology vendors every day in your role. You’re viewed as a potential buyer, and each vendor claims that their solution is the next best thing — promising to save you time, money, or provide a unique advantage to your business. But how can you decide which solution will solve your problems and work best for your organization?

MNP’s digital advisors have extensive experience in recommending new technology to meet the needs of various organizations. In our experience, the following questions can help guide the selection process when choosing a solution for your business:

• Does it solve the problem?
• Does it fit into what the organization is doing already?
• Will it need to be replaced in the next several years?
• Is it the most cost-effective solution?

Essentially, it all comes down to what your organization wants to accomplish — and that should always start with the business problem you are trying to solve. Your organization may want to reduce costs, increase efficiency, or improve collaboration between employees. It is important to remember that technology is just a tool, not the solution itself.

However, you may run into additional challenges during your search to find the right technology for your business. Many organizations struggle to identify the problem they are trying to solve or encounter unexpected pushback from employees — especially if it is transformational change.

These are just a few of the obstacles you may encounter on your journey toward implementing new technology within your organization. The right partner can help you overcome each of these challenges — but you need to ask the right questions to ensure you choose the best partner for your journey.

Pushback from IT is one of the most common obstacles on the journey to implementing new technology within an organization. Some of the reasons for this resistance may include that the solution is outside of the IT department’s skillset or doesn’t fit the architectural design of the organization.

However, it is essential not to discard a potential solution because of these reasons. Strategies and architectural design continue to grow as the organization evolves — and need to be revisited from time to time. If the proposed solution can solve a pressing business problem and add value to an organization, then it should be fully explored to determine if it is the right fit.

All the employees within your organization must be on board with the new solution for the technology to work as intended. The right partner can help you overcome internal resistance, provide training to update your IT department’s skillset, and ensure your solution will solve your business challenges.

The right partner should have knowledge of most vendors, the experience to filter through vendor claims to determine what each solution will accomplish for your organization, and ensure the solution you choose will be cost-effective both now and in the future.

Your partner should be able to identify the problems you are trying to solve and be willing to work with you to get everyone in your organization on board with the solution. Selecting the right partner can save you from spending thousands of dollars a year on a solution that isn’t the best fit for your business. But how do you find the right partner to meet your goals?

It is essential to ask the right questions to help you identify which partner is the best fit for your organization.

These five high-level questions can help you filter through prospective partners to gauge their level of experience and determine if they are the right fit for your specific needs:

1. Do you have experience with my business problem?
2. How did you solve this business challenge for similar organizations?
3. What is the difference between these two vendors?
4. Which of these products or solutions gets us closer to achieving our organizational goals?
5. Have any similar organizations experienced challenges or been successful with these products?

Leveraging the experience your partner has gained from working with similar organizations will ensure you find a solution that aligns with your business goals. The right partner will recommend technology solutions that solve your business problem and meet your needs both now and in the future — enabling your organization to grow and thrive.

You may encounter many obstacles on the path toward implementing new technology within your organization — including pushback from IT, determining which vendor has a solution that will meet your needs, and finding the right partner to support you on your journey. The five questions above can help you identify whether a prospective partner has the right experience to find a solution that will meet your organizational goals.