cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Community Tip - Did you get called away in the middle of writing a post? Don't worry you can find your unfinished post later in the Drafts section of your profile page. X

Software purchasing let me down

sammi2
3-Visitor

Software purchasing let me down


I am an engineer at a factory and our company want to purchase a new simulation software. Our manager ask me to compare the software and discuss with the accounting department. Then they will buy for us. I found that the process communicates with the accounting department waste me a lot of time. Because most of them only care about the price. So, how do your company purchase a software?
Will you can purchasing for your own then apply for reimbursement or you should ask the accounting department to buy them for you?

1 REPLY 1
gquinlan
5-Regular Member
(To:sammi2)

Hi Sammi2,

 

I want to be transparent and honest here, I'm a salesperson so I'm typically on the other side of this conversation/question.

Every company has different processes for buying software - and it's not unusual for the accounting/purchasing team to be interested/focused in the price. This is ok as it's their responsibility to save the company money or at least to make sure it's used effectively.

From your post, you say that the 'company wants to purchase new simulation software'. What have you determined are the savings/benefits/value that this new software will bring to the engineering team? This is what needs to be quantified in some way to balance the purchase costs. Accounting are important but it would be unusual if they could veto the purchase just on price if a distinct value/Benefit can be delivered from the analysis software, e.g. higher quality products, less scrap, reduced material costs due to analysis outcomes etc. 

My advice would be to try and create a high level ROI (return on investment) for the purchase and present this to the accounting team thus justifying the spend. 

In closing sometimes there just isn't the budget there to spend but in my experience if you can create a strong ROI, budget can be found if it improves the overall business and can pay for itself in a 12-18 month timeframe.

 

Does that make sense?

 

The attached piece of content might help you too? Look at page 3 for some ideas to help build an ROI.

 

Gavin Quinlan

PTC - https://www.ptc.com/en/products/cad/creo/simulation-live (Creo Simulation Live)

 

Top Tags