By Kara Batt, Neubrain Strategic Communications and Marketing Manager
Many state and local governments are nearing the end of the 7-10 year lifespan of the average budgeting and performance management software system, causing more and more key-decision makers to explore new budgeting and performance management technologies.
In fact, according to a 2013-2014 Gartner survey of more than 2,300 CIOs, business intelligence and analytics remain the top technology spending priority for the next three years.
In the past decade, budgeting analytics and financial intelligence and planning technologies have transformed from error-prone manual data entry tools to an array of advanced analytical, integrated, and sophisticated real-time budget management software solutions, improvements that are making software selection much more difficult.
If you couple the challenge of reviewing this plethora of software options with an imprecise, high-level list of new software requirements, selecting the right system that fits your agency's exact needs is nearly impossible.
Case in point, the importance of well-defined quality requirements was further supported by the results of a recent independently conducted industry study of financial executives and key-decision makers in the public sector. When asked to list their top software acquisition impairment factors, respondents ranked their top three as:
- Incomplete requirements and specifications
- Lack of user input
- Changing requirements and specifications
To overcome common software acquisition impairments, it is imperative to put time, effort and thought into your software selection process and, most importantly, establish QUALITY requirements.
In the infographic, we reveal the nine reasons why detailed, thought-through QUALITY requirements are essential to your budgeting software selection process. Click here to view larger version of the infographic.
To read the complete list of reasons in text format, click here.
Want to learn more about how to improve your software selection process and the benefits of a new generation budgeting solution?
Then don't miss our webinar on March 17 at 2:00pm EST, Budgeting without Borders: How to Streamline Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting Processes
Join Neubrain experts as they share their best practices and methodology to defining and analyzing system requirements. Witness firsthand how the right budgeting software can effectively and efficiently transform even the most complex budgeting, financial consolidation and reporting processes into a simple, easy-to-use framework.
Neubrain, LLC | www.neubrain.com | 571-239-6547
