Stakeholder Information Management Software Buying Guide

Which stakeholder engagement and information management software is best for your needs? Since each industry is unique when it comes to stakeholder management, invest the time to define your organization’s business objectives related to the collection, management, and reporting of stakeholder engagement activities before you get started. The following tips can help guide your buying process so you will really understand what you are getting.

Ask yourself and your team the following questions to understand your information management software options.

1. Do you have a formal or informal systematic stakeholder information management process in place already?
2. If you do, does everyone follow these protocols?
3. What are your primary business reasons for purchasing the software?
   • Conform to industry and government regulatory requirements?
   • Reduce costs related to stakeholder administration and reporting?
   • Centralization of all stakeholder engagement records?
   • Data security?
4. Does the vendor offer excellent support and immediate service, during implementation and ongoing throughout the lifecycle of your project?
5. What data management and reporting capabilities are available?
6. Does the software vendor have customers similar to your business?
7. In what ways is the information software solution configurable to your needs?

These factors are important to consider when choosing a stakeholder information management software system.

1. Scalability – Does the platform grow to match your organization’s future needs? Ensure the software can adapt to increases in the number of users and additional engagement projects.

2. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) vs. onsite servers – There are advantages to both systems, but SaaS offers lower start-up costs and makes it easier to collaborate with consultants and other business partners.

3. Data entry – Is it easy for the average user to enter the required data into the stakeholder engagement and information management software? Think about any other database systems you are already using.

4. Reporting – Robust reporting capabilities are a key feature. Will the software enable you to report the communication history of a project, and also showcase the transparency of the events that occur?

Reports should summarize stakeholder engagement interactions but also have the ability to go into great detail – and be supported by original records such as emails, letters, meeting minutes etc. An important criterion is the ability to report on these interactions in chronological sequence, so that it’s easy to ready narratively. If misunderstandings occur, the ability to dig into a report to review original messages and interpretations can go a long way towards resolving an issue.

Now you are ready to schedule your stakeholder engagement and information management software product demo.

A 1-on-1 product demo is one of the best ways to understand the capabilities of a stakeholder engagement and information management system – and a good initial indication of how well the platform and professional support staff will meet your needs.

Consider the following tips to get the most out of your stakeholder information management software demo.

• Involve your company end users: They will have questions about their workflow and how the new software affects it.
• Create a series of process scripts in advance (aka, use-case scenarios): make sure you advise the vendor what needs to be covered in the demo.
• Create detailed scorecards that allow you to objectively compare each vendor’s product.

Learn about StakeTracker information management software and book your custom demo.

StakeTracker is a powerful web-based stakeholder information management solution designed for organizations that need to reduce project risk and avert surprises.

It is used by organizations to plan, record, document, evaluate and report on communication and interaction with stakeholders, and centrally manage all communications regarding the impact your initiatives have on the communities in which you operate.

Developed in collaboration with stakeholder engagement and public consultation practitioners, StakeTracker’s simple, practical interface helps you to stay on top of your projects. It significantly reduces the effort required to collect and organize the information you need to generate reports while helping to minimize risk and maximize transparency and accountability.

Contact SustaiNet Software – We would love to hear from you!

Contact us with questions you have about our services and products, or if you would like to see our software in action. Someone from our team will get back to you within 24 hours.