Welcome to RSG's latest "Real Story" case study about technology selection.

We worked with a national media conglomerate that produced several cable television networks, online magazines, and boutique digital properties. They were selecting a new web content and experience management (WCM) solution that would become a core platform for their business.

After undertaking a competitive bake-off, one of the two finalists emerged as a clear leader in terms of functional fit and long-term value. But the customer’s technology team still had some questions around future architecture, performance, scalability. So they invited the vendor back for a week of additional testing to address those concerns.

The customer wanted to understand how the vendor’s offering would fit with some of their aggressive future plans around micro-services architectures. A day-long brainstorming session with the vendor’s lead product manager and CTO gave them enough comfort level to proceed.

In both bake-offs beforehand, the customer modestly compensated the vendor for their time and structured the sessions as joint learning opportunities, rather than straight-up tests, which made it more interesting and productive for all concerned. But make no mistake: the vendor was indeed getting tested, and fortunately, in this case they passed.

Lesson #1: For a mission-critical system, a prudent customer will take the time to sweat the important details.

Lesson #2: To the extent you want to develop internal expertise in customizing or extending the technology, look for firms that will work in co-development mode with your team.

Lesson #3: Don’t get swayed by fancy or elaborate pitch meetings: what matters is how the firm really works, not what they say they can do, so focus your efforts on project simulations.

I'm always interested to hear how your platform selection process is going, so please feel free to reach out to me or an RSG colleague if you'd like another set of eyes on your project.