In our recent series on "A.I. and Achieving Real Business Differentiation," we explored how AI can enhance human creativity, foster innovation and avoid sameness. Latterly, we discussed the importance for leaders to create an environment that fosters innovation based on trust.

Recently, our South-East Regional Director attended the Grow Digital West Sussex event in Crawley, UK, shedding light on topics like crafting digital strategies, AI essentials and other related topics. This brings to light the challenge faced by small to medium businesses (SMBs) seeking to incorporate AI, how do they select the most suitable supplier for their needs?

Selecting a supplier is not a new discipline! There are many available frameworks, all good. However, they may be complex and demanding, making them out of reach for many SMBs.  At Tinderbox, we recommend an Outcome-Based Selection approach organised around flexibility and simplicity. As a bonus, our approach will deliver a return of investments (ROI) during the selection, in addition to helping you identify your supplier. The approach relies on evaluating suppliers based on their ability to deliver tangible results. Here’s a streamlined approach to help you through:

Understanding your needs is a common component in many supplier selection frameworks. Defining your business needs and target ROI guides supplier selection and sets expectations. It should not be overlooked as this is a communication tool with your suppliers. You may have an unrealistic view at this stage of your ROI, it does not matter as it will be revised during your engagement with suppliers. But this sets the stage for the “create, test and fail-fast” concept, which can be used as a selection criterion.

Shortlisting your suppliers is composed of:

• Leveraging your network to identify potential suppliers is the most efficient approach. However, any approach is also suitable for this.
• Developing a supplier selection criteria list covering technical capability, experience, references, pricing, and more enables to evaluate the expertise and experience of the providers, the scalability and flexibility of the solution, and check the relevant industry knowledge of the suppliers. This document, the only one you request outside of the formal contract, could take the form of a spreadsheet—an old friend in business—or any capturing tool that facilitates easy comparison between suppliers.
• Consider using freely available AI tools, such as ChatGPT or Gemini, for efficient data to organisation and analysis.

Implementing a short prototype/MVP is the value-added component in our recommended approach. It serves as a practical demonstration of the supplier's capabilities and ability to deliver value, to interact with you as a client and to assess the cultural fit. It accelerates the process of decision; and it is cost effective and less time consuming. It helps you understand the ability of the supplier to respond to unplanned demand, a good indicator on how they would respond to issues. Finally, it exposes you to the “Doers” as opposed to engage only with sale and marketing people.

Ideally, this phase should be kept short and sharp; but too short, and you will be unable to understand how suppliers respond to challenges; and too long, and you will struggle to find suppliers willing to engage if not funded. So, keep this phase brief, ideally between 1 to 3 weeks, to maintain momentum and effectiveness.

If you are currently in the process of selecting your supplier/vendor and would like to explore this approach further, please feel free to contact us at 0116 232 5231 or reach out via email at [email protected]. We are available for a complimentary and no-obligation conversation to assist you.

Take Away:

Selecting the right supplier is crucial for SMBs venturing into AI services. An outcome-based selection approach simplifies the process, focusing on understanding needs, efficient shortlisting, and a capability demonstrator.

The Tinderbox Team

Note for readers:

• ChatGPT has been used as a proofreading tool to enhance grammar and improve reading fluidity.
• net was employed to identify unintentional plagiarism.