At some point, businesses of a certain size decided that putting out a formal request for proposal (RFP) was a good method for making software decisions. This was a long time ago; a lot has changed about software and it’s time for the methods we deploy to make software decisions to change as well.

Here are my top three reasons why I hate RFPs for purchasing print software:

You are a printer, you are not a software company. You don’t know the best way to solve your challenges with software. You are an expert at your print business’ challenges. You are not an expert on how they should be solved with software. Do not sit down and write an exhaustive list of features (they are a list of solutions) as your RFP. What you need to do is communicate to potential print software vendors your well-thought-out challenges. One of the reasons the implementation of most print software solutions is a terrible experience is due to the fact that the sales process was a joke. Printer listed hundreds of features in their RFP, winning vendor said yes to all of them. Printer assumes “yes” to any feature meant that their challenges are going to be solved exactly how they assumed with little or no work from them or customization of the vendor’s solution. Reality check. Bank account check. Implementation just slipped by a year check.