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For way too many reasons I enormously enjoy working in the Social Housing sector. One of the most favourable aspects is the ability of the (generally) open attitude to share experience for the greater good. I have recently written about working with clients recovering from regulator downgrades, looking to improve what they do with residents.
As I work with lots of housing related ICT projects, procurements and recovering where some journeys have seemingly gone off the rails, others experiences are really insightful. At the start of a procurement its particularly salient. With housing providers its generally very open. Where procuring just a contractor solution is a different matter. In one case a company almost the full length of Wales once, was reluctant to provide a reference opinion.
Getting a reference opinion for a product or service is a veritable minefield. Following up from a recent experience with a few lovely clients late last year, I thought it useful to tackle this area for the benefit of others out there. In my long 28 years of experience, I have seen it equally from both sides, particularly as I spent 14 years on the dark side with a housing solution supplier. At that time responding to procurements, I would routinely provide my full list of customers and in a cock-sure manner saying: “Contact who you like as a reference”. In reality it wasn’t really being cock-sure, as I already knew how well we tried to treat and support customers and made it my business as managing director at MIS-AMS to ensure each and every one got our best attention, as if they were our only customer. That was the aim of the culture I worked to instill then, as I thought it was right and TBH its pretty much my preferred mentality.
Clients occasionally ask me what the point of reference sites are?
.... Also, could in the procurement we score on references?
These are fair questions and in reality firstly they are most useful during soft-market analysis to understand more about the solutions out there. On the second point, slightly paradoxically during a procurement we should be looking forward not backwards, so references are of limited value. With that strangeness out of the way, lets get on to what reference sites are about. Strap in !
With whatever you are procuring, always ask for some reference sites. They should be similar to us, of our size (small or large) and actually have similar product in use as we are asking for. A lack of seeing reference sites (much like getting a 'No' sometimes ) should be a red flag. Are you going to be a pioneer with this product/software supplier? Have they no satisfied (or installed?) customers in the British isles?
Is the supplier providing its own reference? Don’t laugh, I saw one just a few weeks ago. That is not a reference, it some sales claims. I would not name that supplier here, it would be rude to do that or maybe invite some ‘cease & desist’ communications, which I am sure you would agree would be less than good. If you have no customers happy to talk positively about you, that could well be a problem.
What of the references provided?
Are they local? Are they similar in size and complexity to your organisation? Have they users & clients quite close to you that are not being suggested? Why might that be? Have they even implemented these proposed solutions?
So many questions.
Its quite common for customers serving as ‘reference sites’ for suppliers to be seeing some benefits for being a named contact. Don’t get me wrong, reference sites are doing us a favour by finding valuable time for us and to some extent we should be grateful. I always also urge my clients to return the favour too. Named reference sites might gain free consultancy days and other freebies in signing up to assist. Its suspicious where suppliers rely on just a single or limited number of reference sites. How many sites sold this particular solution are still waiting to be implemented and taken live?
My advice is to try your own contacts and peers first. Also take advantage of forums and other resources such as HR Ninjas etc. Many parts of our sector has them, such as the DirectWorks for DLO teams & solutions. These might well be more local and have a wider view of experiences. Starting with these gives much food for thought, for when you might encounter the ‘official’ references. There will be lots to learn from these, including how they had challenges as well as ones from suppliers. Also that on occasion, sloppy procurement leaves doors open for suppliers to levy additional charges (Change Control anyone?). While this phase can be very useful, it should be taken with a wee pinch of salt. Remember, we are more inclined to complain about stuff than celebrate things at times.
Issues and problems garnered from peers can often form the basis of the questions to ask of the ‘official’ references.
A few ‘top tips’ to consider in your reference questions –
- Ensure you are speaking to reference sites that actually have the same product that is being proposed. They might be clients of the supplier, but have completely different products purchased
- Have these folk actually implemented the products. A fun trick is to recommend someone just starting to implement. While that is useful, there should also be some ‘already live’ references…
- Have any aspects of the sold solution been de-scoped or potentially replaced by alternative products potentially from other suppliers?
- Were there any aspects of the solution that were claimed and could not be delivered? What were they as these could be focused on better in the tender process that emerges.
- Have any of the aspects of the sold solution been aborted or shelved? Why was this, supplier or client issue? Requirements might have changed rather than product fallen short.
- What problems/issues did they encounter? How were these challenges resolved? The latter more important than the former
- What timescale was sold and what was actually achieved?
- What budget was sold and what was achieved? What elements should have been better costed from the start?
- What aspects work poorly and why? Particularly around integrations ?
- Which supplier implementers and consultants worked best with the reference site and any that can be named as working less well? These are possibly the ones we might want in a new project…
- What has post-go-live support been like? Has help-desk response been decent, did user groups and events promised materialised?
- Have requested or costed changes been delivered in a timely manner?
- What is account management like? Have personnel remained static and you have felt well managed with supplier being knowledgeable about issues or not?
- What are upgrades, patch releases and bug fixes like? Are they regular and controlled well? Have upgrades caused issues?
Remember that some of the above might result from poor project management or not having a Critical Friend on-board driving accountability, safeguarding against poor resourcing, or management sponsors not correctly setting priorities when required. Issues need not always be caused by the supplier.
Intelligence from all of the above can feed into the formal tender, framework or other procurement questions, enabling better value to be leveraged and improved choices to be made. Good references certainly aid great procurement and way better governance.
I hope I have left some good food for thought and useful nugget takeaways. As ever, you are welcome.
Related Post: Warming up the market will always improve your procurements
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I would be pleased to connect with you on LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy Message me with any issues or queries, you would like to be explored in this blog. We generally receive a couple of suggestions each month.
Brian Ferry (of Roxy Music) – Kiss and Tell.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009
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