Paritii | Software Procurement at Post-Secondary Institutions

Case Study

Software Procurement at Post-Secondary Institutions

To aid institutions in procuring the right software, we needed to understand the current procurement process. We interviewed relevant stakeholders to understand what triggers the purchase, what proposal and approval processes are completed prior to the acquisition, and how institutions plan toward integration, monitoring, and assessment of the solution.

Problem

Not all institutions have the human resources and technological know-how to buy software that fits into their existing ecosystem. The process for procurement is fraught with challenges. It can be vendor-driven where institutions do not have a proper roadmap and strategy for how they are purchasing software. In addition, once the need has been identified, success depends on which stakeholders are involved and when in the process they are brought in, as well as how the institution plans (or does not plan) to measure the success of the implementation. The result is institutions sometimes end up with software that does not meet their needs.

Solution

We mapped the current technology procurement process at post-secondary institutions and overlayed any gaps we identified that are important in helping procure the right solutions. To do this, we took a deep look at the different triggers that initiate the software-purchasing process, the motivations of the stakeholders, the involvement (or lack thereof) of necessary departments such as IT in the process, taking into account the proposal process i.e. RFP vs Direct Purchase.

We then created an example of an ideal process by including the missing steps to be considered in order to ensure success.

Impact

The result was a procurement process map that serves as a guide for institutions to avoid common pitfalls that lead to procuring software that either does not integrate well with their existing solutions or does not work well to meet the needs of the intended users.

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