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Episode 33 - Part 2: The key factors to consider when choosing a software supplier with Gavin O'Neill
51 Plays1 year ago
In part two of this episode, Gavin O'Neill, a digital transformation specialist and former CEO of GoReport, joins us to discuss how to choose the right software supplier as part of your digital transformation journey. Here are the key takeaways:
Cost vs. ROI: The importance of weighing costs against the potential return on investment to ensure value.
Scalability: Why it's crucial to choose software that can grow with your organization and adapt to future needs.
Integration and Interoperability: How well the software integrates with other systems is vital for seamless operations.
Security Considerations: The importance of prioritising cybersecurity and understanding the credentials and protocols of potential suppliers.
Ownership and Focus: Evaluating who owns the software company and whether their primary focus aligns with your business needs.
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Transcript
Introduction to Software Supplier Selection
00:00:00
Speaker
So for part two, I'm joined again by Gavin, who's the CEO of Go report. And we're we're discussing in this episode or this part of the episode, ah choosing a software supplier and how to get that right. So we've we've already covered in the first part, what is digital transformation and then how how to understand when's the right time and so on.
Key Factors in Choosing a Supplier: Cost vs ROI
00:00:17
Speaker
I suppose if I kick off, I think there's a few key things that are worth considering when you're looking up a supply. And you you can correct me on this in a minute. um If you think I've gone wrong yeah taken the wrong points, you've you've probably covered both sides of this sort of customer and and supplier side. But i think I think the key things that people may not always focus on is things like, yeah cost is obviously something people look at when they're looking at a supplier. So how much am I going to have to spend to to use that solution?
00:00:45
Speaker
And then when you're comparing two different suppliers or three different suppliers, it's easy to sometimes sometimes focus on the cheapest. um ah Arguably, the problem there is the supplier not showing their value if if you're going for cheapest, but really should be focusing on return on investment. What's that product actually going to deliver for you? So yes, you could spend less, arguably easier to get a return because you don't have to recoup as much. but But um the the likelihood is it's not gonna have the functionality and so on that you need for it to actually be of of benefit. um yeah A higher price on hopefully should offer more than a cheaper one.
Scalability and Integration Considerations
00:01:20
Speaker
And then I think often something that you see as well as people buying for now, so ah I suppose scalability is what I'm i'm i'm touching on here, but but we're often it's easy to focus on right right now I need this level of functionality in order to be able to achieve what I want to do.
00:01:38
Speaker
And of course, if you then have future growth plans, whether that's going into other types of survey or ah scaling the number of people you you service or team size, can the product work with you for that? If not, suddenly you're now having to look at a completely different digital transformation of like, how do I move supplier, which is um yeah and another another topic, I think. um And then you yourself some of the big topics are around, like you know like we've discussed ah already, integration and interoperability is a word I can never say. and but But how do those products talk to each other? Because you know I think there's it's a nice idea to have one one core product that that does everything for you. But you know the reality is you're always going to have to use some specialist systems to to power yourself. So accounting software, if you look at zero,
00:02:29
Speaker
Um, zero does loads of, you know, invoicing in the accounting side, but it doesn't process payments for you. Um, Stripe goes and does that, but then Stripe doesn't do the accounting software. They each specialize, even though they're effectively in payment processing of different forms. Yeah. Um, yeah they specialize. So you have to then have those connections between the two. So I think there's, there were a lot of factors like that. And then there's the less glamorous side, like security, you know, that's got it matter incredibly important.
Approach to Vendor Selection
00:02:56
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. yeah how How well your data is looked after. and
00:03:00
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, on those, you know, cost versus the yeah ah ROI, scalability, both scalability in terms of, can it evolve with my needs? And is it actually scalable if this product is successful and it has loads more customers? Does is it still does it still perform effectively? Or does it grind to a halt because that business can't and the software vendor can't um keep up with the the success kind of thing? And, and um you know, integration, interoperability, all of those things, I think, I think in answer to the question, know you know is it a is it important? you know How important is it when you choose your your software vendor? The answer is it's incredibly important, but it's also not something that should scare you. um And I think and you know that's for me, that's the key point really is that the vast majority of people who are, and you you know in my experience, who I've engaged with, and even in the very larger implementations where I've sat on either side of the the fence,
00:03:57
Speaker
You may have people who've done it before, but the vast majority of people making this decision have not implemented software before and have not, you know, this is not their day-to-day world evaluating software companies.
Evaluating Long-term Vendor Value and Risk
00:04:09
Speaker
And so if you look at all of our websites and all of our and how we advertise ourselves, we'll cover all of those things like cost versus ah ROI, value, and scalability, flexibility, um you know, why we're different kind kind of thing. But, ah you know, fundamentally, I think for the customer, and you know you when you When you choose a software supplier, it's about really understanding, are they going to help us meet the challenges that that we've got and and how are they going to do that for us? And I think when you and you know when you choose a software supplier, you should be thinking about you want to deliver benefits and value consistently over a long time period. you know it's not ah It's not a sell and be done.
00:04:51
Speaker
and and and a business should always have that as a consideration. But I think sometimes I see that that what that leads to is ah almost a paralysis of analysis where you just don't make a decision to move forward. And and you know I've been there myself in choosing vendors and particularly on larger scale ones where and all you end up doing is denying the business the opportunity to resolve its challenges. And you're missing out on however many years of benefit you would have got had you had you made a decision. And I think you know what that really comes down to for anybody investing is how are you managing your risk? you know The last thing anyone wants is to be associated with an investment that doesn't return value. you know they're used There used to be a phrase, and no one ever got sacked for buying IBM you know back in the sort of the mainframe computer days, where you know if you go with the industry leader, nobody could ever accuse you of you know um making the wrong decision kind of thing. you know Great for IBM, probably not great for um for innovation. um
00:05:48
Speaker
at that time on ah on a wider basis. and But I think she you know to your you what we've always talked about is yeah what's what's the first thing somebody asks us is what's what's it going to cost me? What's it going to cost? And what we as vendors want to do is well but we will be open and transparent on every aspect of costing, but we need to understand what your challenge is in the first instance in order to say, are we right for you? um you know there is ah you know that that sort of um you know All of our marketing and our messaging should have led you to the point that we are right for you, but we we want to validate that on your first interaction. Are are we the right type of business for you um to to help you meet those challenges? so Let's talk about that first quickly um and then get that on the table and then talk about the value. you know What is it that you get from it?
Understanding Client Needs Before Costs
00:06:35
Speaker
and Then you overlay the full minutia of the detail of the costs.
00:06:39
Speaker
And that's how you get to an informed decision as as quickly as as is conceivably possible. And that's why you see a lot of software vendors will say that we don't want to give you the cost right away because we don't quite understand your problem. And you want us to understand your problem. OK. You know you want to fully understand you want us to be working really hard to make sure that you don't run the risk of failure. And and you know that that's difficult to come across in normal interactions and the normal interactions with salespeople. But that's That's what you should be striving for, really. um And you know in soft pure software terms about managing risk, and I think given the nature of an industry where you know a lot of startups are common in software, and a lot of startups fail. um there's no There's no denying that. Or they they maybe fail, or they maybe feel and they fail to exist in the form that they started. They may pivot into to something else. They may be consumed by other businesses.
00:07:38
Speaker
Um, or, or they may, they may kick on and change their focus. Those are all risks that you have no control of when you invest in in a product. And in my experience, it actually doesn't matter whether that product is relatively new or has been around for 15 or 20 years. I've seen, you know, changes that are outside of your control. And that's really where you want to be thinking in terms of managing your risk. You want to be thinking about your exit strategy, um, at the very start, you know, you should be thinking about, um, you know, what happens to my data? if either one of these, either us or our vendor are no longer interested in an ongoing relationship.
Subscription Models and Client Satisfaction
00:08:15
Speaker
How do we practically move forward with that? And that's that is one of the benefits. you know Both of us are annual subscription-based services. We know that ah if we don't keep our customers happy, they don't come back um next year and the year after and the year after. were We're only interested in keeping people for the long term um and and we have to prove it every year.
00:08:36
Speaker
and But you know equally, if they decided to go somewhere else, it's not because they're locked in to us. it's you know it It has to be a choice where they're making because they're we're delivering for them. um and And I think that in any digital transformation, you need to consider that. And that's why people talk about stickiness. You know you want stickiness to be from a vendor perspective. You want stickiness to be because you're really delighting your customers. You don't want stickiness to be because it's too hard to move away. Cause that's, that's generally not a great, you know, in any walk of any walk of life or any part of our self is not a great situation to be in. It doesn't feel particularly good. Um, so I think all of those things that you say are very, very important, but it still comes back to, you know, does have you got enough confidence that this vendor can help me, um, uh, meet my challenges, you know, does it deliver a lot of systems will make claims about what they offer, but does it really add benefit or, um, or just more process for you is the business progressive.
00:09:34
Speaker
Are they continuing to evolve? are they Are they interested in your sector that you work in? Are they working with lots of other people in that sector? And and and you know particularly now with the way software has evolved into, and do they play nice with the other vendors in your in your workflow, really? And that's the thing. you know We all have competitors, but if there are other software companies that are serving a different part of your workflow, like Surveybooker and GoReport, do yeah Do they play nice? and Not to say they play nice, but do they actually do those extra hard yards to to really try and solve those problems for you and then bring you a solution as ah as a client? and that
Innovation and Ecosystem Adaptability
00:10:14
Speaker
Those are the things that you you need to think about. yeah i think I completely agree with that the point of you you want to find a supplier who makes it easy for you to leave.
00:10:23
Speaker
There's ways of getting your data out and moving it elsewhere and and in the right formats. But you don't want to leave because yeah they're they're they're performing. They're doing what they said. And you know our um our mantra has always been um to be progressive and and and to to play nice. you know So like what would I mean by that is exactly what you said. we're We're continually adding in more features based on what we think will be helpful, based on what we've been told will be helpful. um but but we're we're also building an ecosystem that allows you to ah plug and play. so you know
00:10:56
Speaker
whether that's yeah report writing, whether it's pushing stuff into accounting software, whether it's analytics, whatever it might be. um that That is key. And if you end up with a choosing a provider that's sta stagnant and isn't investing in the product, then you're going to be falling behind competitors that are using other systems. so Yeah. um I mean, there's often you know there's ah off the term used in business about sweating the asset effectively. you know you've You've reached the end of your development cycle and just wanted to shift more units of it effectively. and
00:11:28
Speaker
in software terms, that can never be the case for a business to be successful in the long-term because our underlying platforms change. and you know The technology we all, you know um you know that we base our platforms on, ah you know whether in our instance, you know the Apple environment, the Apple ecosystem or any other environment, they move forward. And so you need to keep pace with those and also overlay on top of that what value there is to a client. And I think, you know ah from ah from a you know strategic leadership point of view in our business and with them you know my my leadership team, we spend an enormous amount of time talking to other people in the industry and talking to other vendors in the industry, both competitors and you and um and and potential partners like like yourself. And um we we we don't do that for a chat. We do that to consider how can we make our clients' lives better. And and I think
00:12:25
Speaker
ah I
Vendor Evaluation and Exit Strategies
00:12:26
Speaker
don't think people, you know from a user, I wouldn't expect them to understand how much work goes into that in order to get to a point where we actually have a viable solution that they would use. I think sometimes people think, well, can I not just do X or Y? But we've done the detailed work that says, but actually, there's there's a step between X and Y that is not in either of our control. Your control is a user. And therefore, us producing a solution is not going to be something you're going to be able to use. and So it's always about constantly trying to find those those ways forward. And if you if you are with a vendor that either doesn't have the resources to do that, and there there for for other reasons, they're not focused on your sector or they're not focused on that part of the business, then yes, that can become a problem. and But if it's still meeting your challenges today and you have an exit plan, should you need to use it, then
00:13:22
Speaker
neither of those things should be a concern for you today in choosing the vendor effectively. You know you have to you have to look at what today looks like. Does it meet my challenges today? Do I have a way out? Have I managed my risk? Do I know what the trigger points would be? In which case I can now go forward with with a really, you know like I say, informed decision, but with also a plan, um and should it not ah go the way that we that we want. In time, no that's that's very different from ah an implementation feeling. an implementation shouldn't fail. um and that's you know They can do for a variety of reasons, but um you know the the you know that's a different set of challenges that should you know no implementation should should really fail. I think they're all really good points, but one there's a couple of other things I want to discuss actually around this and choosing to spar in a second. but
00:14:10
Speaker
ah it sort of sparked a a thought in my head, which is the other option, which is not choosing a supplier at all, i.e. self-build. And I think that can sometimes be seen as a ah holy grail or ah an you know exciting proposition building or anything. But um you know as we for well know, um and as you said, yeah when you were reviewing those just integration aspects, um It's very easy to look at software and get what just needs to do this. And there's so much more that goes on behind it than just press button and something happens. There's scenario planning
Build vs Buy Decision
00:14:41
Speaker
and everything else. And I think yeah some sometimes, and I think more so in rare cases, it can be a good idea to go and build your own thing. I think the reality is it it then takes you off from focusing on what you're trying to do, surveying. um And now you're trying to
00:14:57
Speaker
you know, spend a lot of time and an effort and resource on building and testing and releasing, and then realizing it doesn't work and changing. and um So I think on the whole, where you can choose a supplier, choose a supplier, and then you can focus on, you know, yeah you what you're wanting to do, not software. yeah Yeah, you have to remember what your day job is, you know, what are you yeah what are you paid for, you know, businesses, you know, ultimately, um the the luxury of even having a conversation like this is because someone's prepared to pay you for your value. effectively and whatever it is, the the service or solution that you offer. um I think the the build your own debate is, and I mean, obviously, ah I would say it probably happens to a lesser extent in the surveying industry in my experience than it does elsewhere um in that, and I think that's maybe more of a ah reflection of the context and demographic, you know the surveying industry or surveying as a profession and is,
00:15:53
Speaker
you know, it lends itself to the sole to medium size enterprise style shape of business um with, um you know, surveyors working in very large and commercial environments, you know, surveying is a, you know, a specialism service within a very large, large company. So it's still, you know, in that context, it happens less, but it does still happen. And we do still come across it. And and my experience of other solutions is it happens an awful lot. And it's, you know, it's always a, anywhere where you have and somebody who is of that mind. it's It's a question that needs to be asked or answered. And I think and you know there are many instances where internal or bespoke development resources are tremendously valuable to a business's competitive edge, and particularly where you have large businesses with multiple um divisions and stakeholders and around integrations and filling functional gaps. There's there's no doubt I've experienced that.
00:16:49
Speaker
But to to to internally develop and deliver a scalable product that is secure, can evolve with your needs over over many years, and you know is ah is a very costly venture and carries significant risk for a business. And actually, it's a much riskier proposition to build your own than it is what we were previously talking about, which is choosing a vendor that you then choose to move to another one. It's much, much riskier to to build your own. I know. i've I've led teams that have done it both successfully and and less successfully. So I know i know what the cost is um with that. But my first rule has always been, you know why would you to redevelop something internally that already exists? you know Ready exists is proven and is a fraction of the cost it would take to build it yourself. And I think and if you ask those questions first, the decision becomes very clear. And what you have to make sure, though, is that
00:17:42
Speaker
You don't mask things like internal development resource cost as not a cost to the project. It's a huge cost to the project. um And you know you and I both know what it's taken to get our businesses to where we are and what it's taken in terms of cost investment. And we know um you know we we know that that that's not something that can be replicated. And why would you, if you could take that and build on it if you wished, and or or just take it and use it for its value. um That's always always been a puzzle. and It does happen, and but much, much less. so i mean When I started um in an engineering company, we had a development function within the business because at that time, the only way to make various pieces of software work was to develop functional tools within your business. and that That transformed in that particular business over my time there there were that
00:18:38
Speaker
that needed to be used less and less because we were able to plug in tools that, you know, from other vendors that could do it um and and shift that expertise into people who do it every day rather than as a distraction from from our day job.
Security and Certification Importance
00:18:52
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. I think there's a couple couple of points you touched on, one just before this topic ah this topic and one one just now, which is around, um I suppose, sort of the risk and security aspect. um and ah Where I say you touched on it isn't on the startup aspect, so you could you could choose a startup, or you might even choose an an established firm that just hasn't put a focus on it. but
00:19:13
Speaker
um Obviously, security is a huge risk in the cyberspace day-to-day. there's Unfortunately, if you sign up to certain newsletters, you're constantly hearing about you know another hack here and there. And Ticketmaster recently, wo half a billion records of ah data lost. um So you know it happens to the best. But I suppose the risk is when you're choosing a supplier, you need to focus on, are they doing you know anything around security? Or are they just focusing resource on marketing and some some feature development? yeah Yeah, I think yeah huge hugely important. I mean, we we both have um ISO 27001 certification for our um for information security management. And I think going through that exercise is a tremendous eye-opener for even you know ourselves who consider ourselves experienced practitioners. And it doesn't mean that you... um you know What it really means is that you're doing everything within your power to prevent something happening, but you're also putting in place a mechanism where you're
00:20:13
Speaker
response, rapid response to situations arising. That's from a protect your own business point of view, but very, very important for us to protect our and our client data effectively that that that we hold. And I think that and when you've been through those those sorts of exercises and you've invested in that, and it kind of maybe draws your eye a little bit to other people who claim to do it, but but are you know um ah focused in in um other areas of of growing their business. now the The first thing is every business has to start somewhere. So you know you and I both know some some great solutions that are coming through even in the surveying profession doing slightly different things than that what we're doing that we consider as part of our our our ecosystem and they're doing great stuff. And they, although they haven't invested the time in their certification processes and whatnot, they are very experienced ah or they are utilizing extremely experienced resource from elsewhere to support them on that on that journey.
00:21:12
Speaker
and ah But that comes with a higher risk than working with a company that's more established. um So and I think the you know the the focus of your business, and you have to consider all aspects, even the unglamorous stuff that people take for granted. you know There should be you know ah somebody buying us should take for granted that we look after their data, but they should also ask, how? you know what what How can you demonstrate that you do? You don't have to understand every single process that we have, but you should ask us the question, you know what do we do to make sure that their their data is is is is protected and that we're doing everything that we can? And we're also helping them and advise them. So and you know those those things take investment. um They take ah consideration at all aspects of development. So security is baked in to everything we develop. And again, we utilize experts in the field. you know We practice what we preach.
00:22:10
Speaker
We don't try and do that all internally. we We bring in people who are experts in this, who do it every day, and they challenge our guys to be to be better um and and and to do better. Yes, I definitely agree. It's an opening experience. As you go through it, you learn learn a lot as a company, and um but it puts you in a much stronger position um to to to deal with things better. I think um i suppose as part of that, is there's and we've touched on ISO 27001, so that's a a type of accreditation to look for. It's a good one, I'd argue. um you know It's not self-certified. you You have to go through external audits with various different ah different people throughout the year. so
00:22:49
Speaker
um Yeah, you are marked on your homework, not self-marking. But yeah there are other recuditations which um potentially aren't as strong. So it's understanding what they mean rather than not saying they're good or bad, but you know cyber essentials and cyber essentials plus have very different levels of what's reviewed and I say 27,001 and so on. So yeah they're all good things to to look for, but just understanding what they actually have behind them. Yeah. And look, you know, I would, I would recommend that any, um, you know, having been through, uh, being through the process, um, from instigation and you utilizing, you know, um, the, the, the expertise that we brought in one of the things, um, you know, I, I'm a engineer by, by background, you know, quality management, quality control, um, risk management, all of those things are sort of baked into your, your engineering profession effectively. And, you know, I've been a around the times where.
00:23:44
Speaker
going into businesses where and quality was deemed as a almost like a desktop document exercise, you know, follow the quality process, et cetera. And it was one of my first jobs was to ah better align the quality process with what people actually did in a business, and which were often not the same thing. And so I think one of the big learning points for me is sort of a an advocacy for making sure everybody pushes for their vendors to be and to be certified is that you know it's been a tremendously valuable experience for us as a business because it is baked into the way we do work. It's not something that's done to and report on our work. It is very much a consideration at each point of how we do our work and therefore it's it's much more aligned and whenever it's not aligned, it's very easy to see where it's not and to adjust accordingly. One of the main things is a no-blame culture in our in our business and we've seen that
00:24:42
Speaker
And, you know, our clients have have fallen foul of and sort of fishing exercises in their own environments. And so we'll, you know, as soon as we're aware of it by so something coming to us, we're immediately onto them to say, look, I think this could be a problem for you. And in our experience, this is a, you know, ah a good next step action kind of thing. and And, you know, in that way we can, you know, at the end of the day, you know, the whole point of our activity here is to avoid disruption of the service. and and to make sure that your your data is protected. And those things take take effort, they take investment, they take costs. And it's not often something that is um afforded to very small startup style businesses, um but no and you know should be a consideration in everything you do.
00:25:29
Speaker
Definitely. ah There's one one last point I've got and then I'll see if there's anything I missed. But um I think in terms of finding um potential vendors in the surveying industry, there know there are there are resources out there like the RixTech partner scheme ah that you can have a look at. And I think it's a good place to start in terms of seeing what might be available to you to to to look at.
Finding Vendors: RixTech Partner Scheme
00:25:48
Speaker
I think they're just the only thing to and be aware of, I think there are sort of sometimes misconceptions that partners on there have been vetted in in some way. um But it's more, you know, as Ricks have, you know, say themselves, it's it's ah a directory to be able to look up as a starting point and see what's available to you. But from there, you do need to then go and look at, you know, um what are those different points we've covered around interoperability or certain standards or security, etc. um Yeah, before making a decision. Yeah, I mean, I think the, um the you know, obviously,
00:26:19
Speaker
and If you, in and and any walk of, and i was ah I was investing in a spin bike um recently um as ah as part of a recovery from a knee operation. And you know when you go and you look for and something that's not not necessarily readily available on the high street kind of thing, and you have to think about something that um ah you're investing in. And there are no shortage of reviews of, you know, top 10 bikes of 2024 top 10 bikes, 23, whatever. And there must be, you know, 25, 30 that I found on the first hit of everybody's alien on very few of the bikes actually matched from one vendor to the next. So you have to, you when you're searching for something, you have to be careful to, um, ensure that your source is actually a validated thing. And obviously they're the Rick's tech partner number was not a validated, um,
00:27:12
Speaker
I think it it is a directory listing, which is good from the perspective of here are all of the people that are in the industry, and but but not so in terms of ranking you as to to what you what you do. So I think, you know, how do we we look at that? Well, we we obviously, we want to um and make sure that we make ourselves available to to the profession, you know, through being a face-to-face at conferences and events and sponsoring and those sorts of things. and We want to make sure that, and ah you know, the referral network is is strong. you know there's you know I would always encourage and ah ah anybody coming to us to ask people who already use our software and also ask people who who use other pieces of software or use um who've chosen not to use us because I think you you have to make your own decision when you're choosing a vendor um and and you should have you know balanced opinion. That's what an informed decision is all about. And and also, you know you know ask our guys ask our guys you know if what are the other options? now
00:28:10
Speaker
Some might say, well, we don't have any natural competitors. I think that's a standard phrase that every software vendor has. But the reality is there are um we think we do things differently. And we shouldn't be we shouldn't be shy of saying, other other people do it. And you might want to have a look at them. But you know here's how we do it. and you know Our job is not to comment on them. Our job is to tell you you know how we do it and why we think that's good to meet the challenge you've expressed to us. and But I think the um ah in terms of of the sources, and you should do You should do that. You should look at our case studies. You should look at other people's case studies. You should and ah you know challenge your vendor to say, look, why you you know why what and ah you know how do you find the vendor in the first place? Well, that's down to our marketing and lead generation and how much we put our name out there. And hopefully we we appear at the top of the list and or near the top of the list of a lot ah lot of things and when you're when you're looking to solve your problem. But and you know yeah, fundamentally, I think and
00:29:08
Speaker
your journey starts with asking the questions in the first instance and you're going to ask a lot of questions and our job is to be well prepared for the questions that you ask. Definitely. I think we've covered quite a lot there in terms of things to consider um from yeah finding the right person to how do you leave. Is there anything we've missed on on that topic, do you think? I think ah think it is important to talk about ownership of ah of a business.
Ownership, Data Handling, and Mission Consistency
00:29:34
Speaker
I think in terms of and ah it is Back in the day, who you would have um your main source of information of a business would have been the sales rep coming to visit you, dropping brochures off, that kind of thing. and Obviously, there's a there's a lot of um ah research you can do on on your own. and And I would always advocate that you consider ownership as as part of that. and And that's particularly in my experience in the software industry, because and I think it's important in two ways.
00:30:03
Speaker
And the first way is you should consider who owns the software you use in terms of your of your data. you know this is That's particularly relevant, I think, in terms of whether the owner might be a competing or conflicting organization to your operations. And indeed, of the I think a big part of that is if the software is a primary focus of the the owning business or a sideline to the business, because I think that that gives you I'm not saying it's good or bad. I'm saying it's another data point that you should be considering in terms of whether it enters a long-term solution for you. and And, you know, where do you start with that? The privacy policy on a website is always a good place to to to start on that and to just and do a quick, quick, quick search, a quick company-side search just to understand what sits behind that flashy website that's that's in front of you. And I think, by the way, that's valid in any purchase you make anywhere really and is is is important.
00:30:59
Speaker
And with regards to wider ownership, and you know it is a unique thing, maybe not a unique thing, but certainly it feels very prevalent in the software industry where many companies will change shareholding over their over their lifetime. GoReport included, you know that's that's happened three, four, five times in GoReport's lifetime without any matter of difference to our to our customers ah at all. Now, it may or may not be important depending on whether it does affect the core strategy of the business and it's ability to evolve. And, you know, I've experienced that were, you know, working for four or five years with the business was perfect. They changed ownership and changed focus. And therefore, and the the relationship wasn't the same over time. And that's where your exit plan comes in. You know, a controlled managed transition from one from one vendor to another is is important. You know, we go report have been providing solutions for 13 years at this point.
00:31:56
Speaker
And there have been many, many great people that have contributed to that journey over time that aren't in the business today. and you know they've They've come and gone, often without overlapping with each other. and But what remains constant is the company mission and the focus in serving our clients, the focus on our solution. I'm obviously here you know on this podcast as a face and voice of Go Report, and but my team are all on board with the same desire to serve our customers that that I have as ah as a CEO. And as a CEO, I'm probably the least important person to our to our customers. you know it's ah the The focus of who they deal with every day, the product and solution we provide, the resources we have to support them is the most important, regardless of whether I was the CEO or anybody else was, or regardless of who you know theoretically owns our company or who owns our company or or doesn't, you know to a vendor choosing. None of that, you know it's a point of interest to them, but as long as we're delivering, that's the most important thing.
00:32:54
Speaker
But the the ownership, like like I said, the ownership from a from a who owns from their focus point of view um should be um should it should always be a consideration. Yeah, it's a very good point. It ties back, actually, to the first point we made. I think we're around, um you know is it progressive? Does it deliver? And um you know what it's doing right now and where it's going to be will be affected by by stuff
Ensuring Vendor Progressiveness
00:33:16
Speaker
like that. um Yeah, and also stay two data considerations always. Yeah, it's it's interesting. like um i've been at Go report for five years now coming up in five years. And, um, you know, obviously we, we, you know, we talked about before the the industry conversations that we have and who's around about that. There, there've actually been three businesses that ostensibly provided the same solution ah as us that were, that existed when I came in into Go report that don't exist at all anymore. Um, and I think you, that can, that can create a fear, um, that's much bigger than the reality for,
00:33:53
Speaker
um for our clients choosing a solution. Like I said, you don't you don't it's not about whether that is a risk, because it's always going to be a potential risk. It's about how you manage that risk and how confident you are that it's not going to be a problem for you. And yeah that's where we put the you know weep at the time and effort you put, you know our vendors give us their challenges so that we can we can openly talk about it to so that they understand or what we are and who we're what we're about kind of thing. Awesome. I think, um, I think that covers it all nicely. There's, um, yeah, there's obviously a lot to consider in terms of choosing the right person or the right company, I should say. Um, but I think that gives a nice framework in terms of something to work from. So, um, yeah, join us for part three and we're going to be looking at how to achieve a successful transformation process. So we've covered what's digital transformation, how to choose someone, but then how to make it successful coming next.