5 Thoughts on Choosing Your Next Web or eCommerce Agency

The recent demise of Carillion leads me to think about a few of the things that I have learned over many years of guiding clients through the process of selecting suppliers for web and eCommerce projects.

1.   Being clear on exactly what you need

Looking for the “best” supplier of a new website might initially sound reasonable. Think what you’d say, though, if a friend was looking for the “best” car. You might remind them that their remote location meant that 4 wheel drive would be useful, or that the fact that they only drive short distances means that a top of the range sports car would be wasted; clearly the concept of “best car” is significantly affected by what they are going to do with it and the same applies to websites.

The better you document your requirements, the more chance you have of finding the right supplier. It may take an hour or two or it may take a few months to do this depending on the scale of the project and the degree of agreement within your organisation.

If you have little internal experience, don’t have resource to dedicate to this or if there are widely varying views, it may help to get external support.

2.   Identifying potential suppliers

Doing your research is essential to identifying a long list of suppliers to whom your tender will be sent. Looking at websites you like (in other business areas, as well as your competitors) and seeing which are technically impressive can be a useful starting point. It’s also work searching on LinkedIn and asking your contacts for ideas.

Are there other businesses in the same technical area who can recommend potential suppliers? I once had an excellent insight on web agencies from a hosting company, for example.

Locality may be important. A lot of work is done remotely these days, but would you like to be able to meet relatively easily from time to time, too?

I have strong views on not asking people you are definitely not going to go with to respond to your tender to make up the numbers – to invest the time needed to produce a proper response to a tender is a significant undertaking for any business, so don’t waste the time of someone you are not seriously considering.

3.   Having the right amount of structure in the process

It is vitally important to give all suppliers exactly the same information and to compare their responses like-for-like.

Benefits can be gained by taking a flexible approach to some areas, too. Has one potential supplier raised something that will affect them all but wasn’t directly addressed in your request for proposal? In which case, would it make sense to probe this area further? Are there some open questions that would give you a good sense of who is the best fit? I like to keep digging until the answer becomes obvious to everyone who is part of the review panel.

If the rules mean that you can’t take a flexible approach, such as for a public sector procurement, getting the requirements document and scoring model absolutely right before you start becomes even more important.

4.   Paying a fair price

We all like to get good value for money and most businesses are pressed for cash, but it doesn’t mean that the cheapest solution is always the best.

I recently supported a procurement where the bulk of the responses were in a fairly close range price-wise, but one was about half the average and another was about double the average. Having confirmed that these two offered less than the client’s requirements and a more complex solution than was needed respectively, we were able to decline these two promptly. We could then focus our analysis on the remainder, confident that we would be paying a fair price and using other aspects of the bids to select the most appropriate supplier.

5.   Listening

Talking to people and listening hard to the answers can add a lot to this process.

What your shortlisted suppliers tell you in their presentations and what their office environments tell you if you visit them are vitally important. Listen also for what they don’t say. Do they feel like people you can work with?

References are hugely important, not least because they often have unexpected results. I’ve spoken with referees, whose details were supplied by the bidder, who were unhappy with the service provided – not only a technical bad mark against the potential supplier, but a lack of awareness too. On other occasions a reference may not change your choice of supplier, but may inform the way you work with them.

Select the right supplier and you are well on the way to a successful project. If you are about to change your website or online shop and would like a pair of experienced hands to help you on your way, do contact me.

Elisabeth Else www.dhirubhai.net/in/elisabethelse/