In a world of countless products and endless Software as a Service subscriptions (SaaS), buying something off the shelf is generally a recipe for sunk costs and endless frustrations. Furthermore, comparing any products, by brand, acronym, or brief description is sure to end poorly.

As an example, a simple search for ‘CRM Solutions’ results in 726 solutions. These solutions range from leaders like Microsoft and Salesforce and branch out from there. But even the online feature comparisons do not do justice nor accurately reflect the robustness or limitations with any of these solutions. As the saying goes, the devil is in the details and the details are where solutions will win or lose.

So how do you go about determining what your software needs might be and what software solution(s) are right for your short-term and long-term business objectives?