NARAL Pro-Choice America: Software Evaluation
www.prochoiceamerica.org
Faced with the challenge of upgrading their public Web site to feature dynamic content and opening up publishing to non-technical staff, NARAL Pro-Choice America encountered a dizzying array of technology options. These included software products, software subscriptions, and custom implementations. After initial vendor responses failed to illuminate a clear path, NARAL Pro-Choice America engaged Beaconfire to conduct an objective search for a technology solution that best fit the organization's business requirements and budget. Beaconfire's proven Software Evaluation process allowed NARAL Pro-Choice America to make a relatively rapid solution selection as well as to develop broad internal consensus and confidence in the chosen technology path.
The Challenge: NARAL Pro-Choice America is an advocacy organization focused on protecting women's right to choose while promoting policies and programs that improve women's health and make abortion less necessary. They wished to move their static public Web site into a dynamic content management solution. The solution needed to support the organization's existing membership and advocacy functions, integrate with several custom applications, and expand its ability to deliver quality accessible content to their target audiences. After an initial round of vendor responses, NARAL Pro-Choice America found it difficult to compare the relative merits of each solution and believed that their initial selection of solutions was limited. NARAL Pro-Choice America concluded that the organization was unprepared to select a technology or a vendor without objective guidance.
The Solution: NARAL Pro-Choice America engaged Beaconfire to conduct an independent Software Evaluation of seven vendors' products and solutions. Beaconfire gathered NARAL Pro-Choice America's business and functional requirements to create a custom evaluation matrix that would be used to rate each vendor. Each vendor completed the feature-by-feature matrix. Beaconfire objectively evaluated each vendor's responses against the organization's priorities to determine the "best fit" solution. Along with additional considerations, the evaluation was used to help the organization narrow the field to three possible options. Beaconfire then conducted a detailed examination of the finalists' products and solutions. Beaconfire's final recommendation was based on NARAL Pro-Choice America's needs regarding functionality, budget, time to market, and key business drivers.
NARAL Pro-Choice America found that the Software Evaluation process was valuable because it helped articulate and prioritize their requirements and illuminated key business drivers for their technology decisions. Further, Beaconfire's process eliminated the need for a formal RFP process, reducing the decision-making window to just over six weeks. Most importantly, the process developed clearly defined evaluation criteria and resulted in an objective assessment, both of which deepened organizational consensus around the technology selection.