Presenting community requirements / evaluation criteria to internal stakeholders

[leahknowles]

Hi! I am currently in the process of creating a comprehensive list of community requirements that I will use to evaluate between 3-5 Community Technology vendors (including Lithium!), and was wondering if any group members would be willing to share some resources?

Do you have any recommendations on how to go about organizing/presenting community requirements to internal stakeholders and/or vendors?

At this point, I have A LOT of data, but am having a hard time putting it all together.

[HeyScottyJ]

Not much to add after all the other expert responses here, but one thing I might consider is to look at the specifc desired outcomes you have for your intended solution, and see how vendors deliver against those. While features and fucntions are easier to talk about, each is likely to have trade-offs or claims, but the best context to tell what features make the most sense or have any meaning is to line them up against what you're truly looking to achieve.

For bonus marks: taking this approach also lets you see how vendors might help you deliver your outcomes by correctly understanding them and strategically addressing them.

Good luck!

ScottyJ

[leahknowles]

Thanks so much for the advice!  -Leah

[Wendy_S]

Has anyone been looking at Salesforce Communities lately. The seem to be offering community software these days and we're having a look at it. Just wondering if anyone else did and has something to share.

Thanks!

Btw, Great Matrix!! @ jasondmcclellan

[CyJervis]

While I have only had limited time (a few months) dealing with Lithium I did spend 3 years using the Salesforce platform (ideas, not community). I can honestly say that so far Lithium has blown them out of the water in terms of their desire to help you meet your goals, providing education and information as well as willingness to discuss upgrades even when you are only in the gathering information phase.

I did attempt to move to the Salesforce community platform from ideas but since I did not have an approved budget at the time, it was like pulling teeth to receive pricing and analysis of feature differences from them.

[BrianOblinger]

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Wendy_S wrote:

Has anyone been looking at Salesforce Communities lately. The seem to be offering community software these days and we're having a look at it. Just wondering if anyone else did and has something to share.

Thanks!

Btw, Great Matrix!! @ jasondmcclellan

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I saw a demo recently. While they have improved significantly in their offering, they look to be ~5 years behind on features and functionionality. This makes sense given the head start that Lithium has (nearly a decade).

[leahknowles]

I agree. I'm convinced that presenting requirements without any real context, won't get me very far... Focusing on our desired outcomes is definitely something I can wrap my head around. Thanks for the additional input!

- Leah

[JasonHill]

@Wendy_S

I'd check out Home Depot's experience if you're curious about Salesforce. Home Depot moved their DIY community from Lithium to Salesforce and it does not look like it was a successful change. 

Jason

[Wendy_S]

Thanks everyone.
Keep the input coming. It's very helpful to read the experience of others! This is what I love about forums!!!

Jason. We actually had a call with folks from Home Depot in 2014 where they actually stated migration was easy and the forum was running well. Is there anything specific that makes you say it wasn't a successful change?
Looking forward to your input 🙂
Wendy

[JasonHill]

@Wendy_S

Go to any of the discussion topic categories, and sort by recent activity and you'll see the forum is really struggling. A board like "build and remodel" that should be humming given their brand share and number of customers has just a few posts in the past month. Of course, only Home Depot could give you the official figures on what kind of a drop off they experienced after the migration, but from afar it looks like it was significant. 

Jason

[Wendy_S]

Wow, I actually did have a look after you mentioned this and the first thing that struck me was how un-alive it all looked. Hardly any activity. Wonder why that happened. Would it be the discussion style which is more horizontal than vertical (chatter based, no boards etc)
Well we can only speculate and maybe I should open a new topic on this anyway 🙂