In the late 1900’s, we mean, the 90’s, there was an ad campaign: There’s No Wrong Way to Eat a Reese’s. There’s many examples of these ads online if you want a headrush of nostalgia, but it’s pretty straightforward – each ad features some celebrity or expert eating a Reese’s peanut butter cup in a new (and ridiculous) way.
There are a few takeaways here. First, Reese’s cups are delicious. Second: Even when you know what you must do, there’s always a million ways to do it. So how do you choose the best way?
Finding a technical solution
When you’re purchasing a new IT solution for your company, you know what you need to do. Regardless of what you’re buying (be it a new contact center solution, a managed SOC, some SD-WAN devices), you know your goal, to eat your Reese’s peanut butter cup.
Now the question remains: You know what solution you need to buy. But what product are you going to buy?
Today, there are over 150,000 SaaS companies, all claiming to be the single greatest tool for you. And honestly, that number is already out of date – Forrester estimates there will be over one million SaaS companies by 2030. In the time it took you to read this paragraph, another SaaS company just joined the marketplace.
All these hundreds of thousands of SaaS companies are competing for your attention. How are you supposed to tell them apart?
Can’t you just go with what you know?
Maybe. But even that gets tricky. If you stick with an incumbent provider, how do you know you’re not missing out on costs savings or new features and functionality?
On top of that, different companies have different strengths. Your current UC provider may be a great partner for your company. But if you’re shopping for a Microsoft Teams direct routing partner, they may not be the best fit for you – that’s an entirely new product.
Can’t my team just do some research?
Yes! You can. And you should! Each member of a buying committee typically brings 8 sources to the table when considering new technology. That means if you have just three people evaluating new solutions, you’re going to be combing through over 20 different sources of information. But the typical buying committee has six people. So that’s 48 different information sources to look at.
How do I know if I’m choosing the best product for me?
At CXponent, we believe the best way to choose a solution is to talk to someone who knows the marketplace. A third party can help you cut through the noise from vendors, the stasis from your current state, and the confusing research from your team. A third party:
– Evaluates your needs and business goals
– Compares them to the market leading solutions
– Identifies the vendors that make the most sense
– Helps you compare them
What does this look like?
– You need an SD-WAN solution, but your current WAN vendor is telling you it’d be too expensive to change your network
– You’ve looked at a handful of managed security companies, and even toured a few SOCs, but you can’t tell if there’s any real difference between them
– Your contact center agents complain about email pops, but you don’t know where to look for a tool that integrates the two
– You need to replace some old PBXs at a satellite but are unhappy with your current UC provider
– Everyone on the buying committee for a large-scale CCaaS project believes a different solution is best
What do I get from CXponent?
Expertise. Our channel relationships mean we understand the vendors. We understand their solutions. Let us help you understand them too.