Technology decisions
Make the supplier demo answer your questions.
Take three business scenarios into your next software demo and separate what you have seen from what still needs proving.
A polished software demonstration can show you what a product does. Your buying decision needs something more specific: evidence that it can handle the work your business needs to do, within the scope you can afford and support. Give the supplier a small set of scenarios before the meeting, so the conversation has a useful test to work through.
Bring three scenarios, not a feature wish list
Choose an everyday task, a common exception and an important handover between people or systems. Describe the starting information, who does the work and what a satisfactory result looks like. Use synthetic examples, or material explicitly cleared for sharing, rather than customer records or confidential documents.
For a hypothetical service business assessing enquiry-management software, those scenarios might be assigning a new enquiry, correcting an enquiry sent to the wrong team, and handing an agreed piece of work from sales to delivery. The point is not to cover everything. It is to make the next conversation concrete.
Ask to see the awkward step
Let the supplier explain its approach, then walk through your scenarios. Ask what happens when information is missing, someone lacks permission or a handover fails. Invite the person who does the task today to identify steps that have been skipped.
Be clear about what you are looking at. A live demonstration, a slide, a prototype and a promised future capability are different kinds of evidence. Ask the supplier to distinguish what is available now from what would need further work.
- Is this included in the proposed product and licence?
- What configuration, custom work or integration is required?
- Which steps would our team still perform manually?
- Who would maintain it when the process changes?
Keep a short evidence record
For each scenario, record what was demonstrated, what was explained but not shown, and what remains unconfirmed. Note any extra cost or dependency the supplier identifies. Avoid turning a confident answer into a verified capability in your meeting notes.
If you are comparing suppliers, give them the same core scenarios. Assess them against criteria agreed beforehand, while leaving room to consider a genuinely better way of doing the work. Ask for written clarification where an answer changes your understanding of the proposal.
Use the gaps to choose the next step
A demo does not prove performance at your scale, a successful migration or the reliability of an integration. Decide which unanswered questions matter enough to need a reference conversation, technical check or bounded trial before you commit.
End with a short list of evidence needed, who will provide it and when the decision will be revisited. You may be ready to proceed, need a revised proposal or decide the fit is not right.
Rethink’s technology second opinion helps business leaders examine a defined platform choice or supplier proposal. A useful starting question is simple: what would you need to see before you could make this decision with confidence?