When evaluating remote service software solutions, it is critical to establish a cross functional team. Everyone doesn't need to be involved in every meeting, but having a wide range of perspectives will help in making the right choice.

Remote service solutions have the potential to touch many different parts of the company.  Support and field service may be the primary beneficiaries, but achieving success may also involve R&D, marketing, sales, manufacturing, product planning, and finance.  The purchase decision is also competing with other financial priorities of the business. The cross functional team provides a forum for proponents and detractors to have a voice in developing the proposed solution.

The output from the cross functional team will be a proposal to the management team tasked with making the spending decision.  The proposal describes the operational (business) need for the project, the recommended solution (with ranked list of alternatives or vendors), and financial calculations that clearly explain the costs and expected benefits of the program over time.

There are 3 elements that need to be considered in building the ideal cross functional team.

• Technical
• Operational
• Financial

Technical
The technical element covers the traditional aspects of a technology purchase.  For example, does the product meet the needs?  Can it be integrated into the existing product and support business systems?  Is it secure?  But wait, how does the technical team know what the needs are?  Without a clear set of needs and use cases, the technical team usually runs a series of experiments with the vendors trying to see which can jump over the most hurdles.  Look for technical team members who can take a big picture view of a problem and balance technology issues with business needs.

Operational
The operational element is made up of the people who will actually use and operate the remote service solution.  In many ways, they are the "customer" for the project. If the system provides value to them, they will use it.

It is critical to get a mix of product and support experts involved in defining the needs of the system.  This should include people who handle front line customer calls, service engineers who have to jump in their trucks and drive at a moment's notice, or the third and fourth level technical support team.  They know what kinds of faults and failures occur in the field and what information they need to make faster diagnosis and better decisions.

Financial
The financial element is focused on converting the technical and operational issues into an ROI metric.  Without this, it is difficult to make priority calls on whether a particular high cost feature is required or a "nice to have."  The financial members of the team don't need to be from finance or be accountants, but they do need to understand the decision making and budgeting process of the organization. 

4 Stages of Small Group Communication|
When you bring your team together, remember the 4 stages of small group communication identified by Bruce Tuckman in 1965:

• Forming - Understand the challenges then agree on goals and objectives
• Storming - Different ideas compete for consideration. Having a skilled leader or bringing in someone from the outside can help facilitate this process
• Norming - Members will begin to adjust their behavior to meet the expectations of the group.  The differences of opinion that were brought out during the storming phase are worked out.
• Performing - A team that reaches this stage operates with a sense of purpose and independence that enables progress and success.

In my experience from the vendor perspective, companies that do not use a cross functional team to develop their program often take a very narrow view on the goals and objectives of the project.  As a result, they have long evaluation cycles and then experience difficulty at the final decision stages where they need the support of upper management and other departments within the business.

Even where cross functional teams are involved, I have seen cases where the members are not equally involved or committed to the project.  As a result, the process is often skewed or falls prey to groupthink. This imbalance creates political issues within the decision process and can result in a project not being sufficiently funded (or not being funded at all).

Final thoughts...
Any strategic initiative should have an executive sponsor with a vested interest in the success of the evaluation.  The executive sponsor should use their influence to get the participation of the other departments in the cross functional team. The project leader should start by determining why each team member is there and if they are committed to the success of the team.  If not, try to replace them. You want a strong team that shares a hunger for success.  For team members, the reward of being on a successful team is recognition and new opportunity as others in the company look for winners to have on their own teams.