One of the most important things that apply in all aspects of life and business is the quality of integrity. While I continue to learn each day the importance of integrity and how to both teach and share the importance of integrity, nothing can be more rewarding than when a customer defends your integrity.
One of the most important and oftentimes overlooked aspects of our space is the quality of integrity when working with a consulting organization. There are many consulting organizations in the HR and talent management technology space that deploy a “pay to play” model; meaning if the consultancy helps get a vendor selected, the consultancy will either get a referral fee and/or the implementation business tied to that project. This is one of the major reasons that so many enterprises end up choosing the wrong software solution based on their true needs.
Today, a Knowledge Infusion client took the time to write a note to a vendor in the HR technology space stating the fact that the Knowledge Infusion approach is one that has been completely fair to all vendors, completely transparent to all vendors, and the reason that this particular organization chose Knowledge Infusion to work with.
There is nothing more rewarding as a CEO of an organization than to see a customer defend your practices and stick up for the qualities and beliefs that drive your business each day. To all of our customers and prospective customers, thank you for seeing the value in our approach. To all vendors that support our approach, thank you and to those that have not seen the value yet, I sincerely hope that you realize we will always do what is in the best interest for the client and marketplace each and every time we work with you.
A few things that can happen to your organization if you are not guided during a software selection by a vendor that has no “interest” in your specific technology deployment include:
- A lesser degree of negotiation power as what you would normally save by negotiation has been paid to a consultancy as a “referral” fee
- An implementation cost could be higher than what you would pay normally based on the markups added by the software vendor and the consultancy
- An overall “tainted” evaluation process that leads often times to a software selection that is truly not the “best fit” for your enterprise
I am very proud that Knowledge Infusion has always stood behind its ethics and approach to helping organizations choose the right technology for their organization. While on any given day, there are vendors that are mad and frustrated by our process, at the end of the game – to know we have done the right thing each and every time and helped change the industry to one that truly leverages HR technology to drive business results and position organizations to be agile enough to support business change each day.
Another infusion of knowledge…