The acquisition of a Risk Management Information System (RMIS) is a project that presents serious long-term implications for your organization.  Here are some of the risks along with proven ways to improve your satisfaction with your new RMIS, regardless of which vendor you select:

THE RISK – Selecting the Correct System for Your Organization.

There are approximately 12 vendors in the market today who purport to have a broad-based RMIS.  How do you select the right system for your organization? The key risk is that you end up with a legacy system, or with a RMIS that will soon become a legacy system.

MITIGATION

Due diligence is critical.  Don’t wait for a list of hand-picked references from the vendors.  Begin conversations with your peers early in the process.

1. Ask your peers detailed questions about their experiences including their implementation(s), scope of their project(s), support teams, day-to-day processes within their system(s), ability to do new things or ability to use the system to help with team goals and organizational vision, ongoing costs or additional costs for upgrades, new features, etc.
2. Compile a list of things you want to accomplish with your new RMIS.  Ask your peers if they can achieve those things with their system.
3. Invite 5 – 6 RMIS vendors to provide an hour and a half web demonstration for a select group of people in your organization. (see http://www.rimsmarketplace.com/sites/Risk+Management/Software for a representative list of potential vendors)  Ask the vendors to concentrate on features that they believe differentiate them from their competitors.
4. Take notes and compile a list of the features you saw that would be beneficial for you and your organization.
5. Using your combined list of features, provide a script of key items you want to see in each vendor’s follow-up demonstration.  Provide the script one week prior to your follow-up demo and invite the three most impressive back for a 2-3 hour demonstration of the the feature and function list you submitted

Provided that your team has time to commit to a full trial evaluation, request a trial from each finalist vendor.  When comparing systems in a trial, dig deep.  Don’t be fooled by systems that seem user friendly because they “lead you by the nose”.  Try to test scenarios that take you off the vendors “path’ and see how user friendly the system is after you are off the beaten trail.  Often the initial reaction is bias’ed by pretty screens and glitz.  Remember, you are going to be using the system as a work platform.  Too much glitz gets really old after awhile.