We understand a lot of enterprises today are aiming to make their processes more efficient. The tools they choose play a significant role in realizing that goal. Before choosing these tools, important factors like costs must be considered. If a wrong platform is selected, costs will definitely skyrocket.
We’ve introduced Analysis of Alternatives (AOA) as one powerful way to help organizations navigate these kinds of challenges. This structured approach to decision-making evaluates multiple options to identify the most effective and efficient solution. In this blog, we'll explore the benefits of AoA for enterprises and how it can drive better business outcomes.
What is Analysis of Alternatives or AoA?
Analysis of Alternatives (or AoA), is simply a structured hands-on evaluation of multiple technologies and comparing different solutions to a problem. It could also mean replacing a core system you’ve long wanted to replace. Nymbl’s AoA evaluates your use case(s) and team strengths against the leading platforms in the industry and provides a recommendation and roadmap. Our AoA includes demonstrations from the platforms being analyzed. By using defined criteria and systematic analysis, AoA helps eliminate biases and ensures decisions are objective and use logical reasoning. These provide a substantial benefit to enterprises looking to innovate or simply select the right platform.
With Analysis of Alternatives, enterprises can:
- Have informed decision-making
By systematically evaluating multiple alternatives, enterprises can gain a deeper understanding of the potential outcomes and implications of each option. This helps decision-makers choose the best solution based on objective data and analysis rather than intuition or guesswork.
- Save costs
AoA helps enterprises identify the most cost-effective solution by comparing the costs and benefits of different alternatives. This can lead to significant cost savings by avoiding expensive and suboptimal choices.
- Mitigate risks
AoA allows enterprises to systematically assess the risks associated with each alternative and develop strategies to mitigate them. By understanding the potential risks and their impact, organizations can make more informed choices and implement measures to minimize adverse effects.
- Align with your strategic plan
Enterprises like you are big on long-term success and growth. AoA ensures that decisions are aligned with the organization's strategic objectives and goals by evaluating alternatives against strategic criteria. This alignment helps maintain focus and coherence across the organization, leading to more consistent and effective execution of strategies.
- Enhanced Performance Measurement
AoA establishes clear criteria and benchmarks for evaluating alternatives, making it easier to measure and assess performance over time. This helps enterprises track the effectiveness of their decisions and make necessary adjustments to improve outcomes. By continuously refining their decision-making processes, organizations can achieve better results and drive continuous improvement.
What is the process for Analysis of Alternatives?
- Use Case Definition
Our experts analyze your situation and business case from different angles and present value to you as well as overall risk. We analyze your challenges, capability gaps, current solutions, future vision, and technology stack. We then work together to decide on which platform best fits your use case.
- Assessment: Team and Skills
In this phase, we have several meetings with your team to assess the current experience, skill level and capability needed. This is key so we can take this into account for the fit of the future solution, sustainment, training needs and adoption challenges.
- Company and Platforms Overview
Based on our initial evaluation, we present a list of the top 10 recommended vendors and create a shortlist of 3 to be used for the later steps.
- Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis
With the analysis done in step one and two, we have defined the categories used for scoring based on your priorities and what you need. Following this, we will conduct a quantitative and qualitative analysis. In the quantitative analysis we will build a POC of your use case in the shortlisted tools and score it against your priorities from these viable alternatives. In the qualitative analysis we look at the platform providers to assess their market standing, outlook, partner network and other factors to compile a thorough evaluation of the players for you. The results of the analysis will then be crucial in determining which of these platform providers are best suited to meet your business needs.
- Demonstrations of Evaluated Platforms
The deliverable for this part is demonstrating the software of the three shortlisted platforms.. We shall also share the results of the proof of concept.
- Platform Recommendations
During this phase, we will present you with our final recommendations on what platform best suits your use case.
Enterprises are all about efficiency in costs and processes, while also being heavy on monitoring performance. The Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) is a powerful tool that can help enterprises make better, more informed decisions. By systematically evaluating multiple options, organizations can optimize costs, mitigate risks, align with strategic goals, and enhance stakeholder engagement. Implementing AoA in your enterprise can drive better business outcomes, improve performance, and support long-term success. Embrace AoA as a key component of your decision-making process to navigate the complexities of today's business landscape with confidence and clarity.
Nymbl is a leading advisory and development agency experienced in Analysis of Alternatives. If you’re interested to learn more about AoA and how it can potentially help your business succeed, contact us here.
