1. Map the work before comparing products
Write down what happens from inquiry to enrollment. Include who owns each step, where documents arrive, how payments are recorded and how a student changes destination. Mark the handovers that currently cause repeated questions or missed follow-ups.
- List your destinations and application milestones.
- Separate essential workflows from occasional requests.
- Identify the records that must stay connected.
2. Run the same demo scenario everywhere
Ask each vendor to create a synthetic applicant, assign a counselor, book an appointment, add two applications, attach a sample document and record a payment. Then hand the case to another staff role. You will see whether the product supports your actual workflow.
- Ask what a teacher can see compared with a counselor.
- Try searching for the case and finding its next action.
- Ask which demonstrated features require extra modules or connected services.
3. Evaluate migration and ownership
Ask what can be imported from spreadsheets, how duplicates are handled and how you can export your records. Agree who checks the imported data and how long the old system remains available during the transition. Use synthetic files in early demonstrations.
4. Compare the full operating cost
Compare the same modules and expected usage across products. Include storage, messages, test-prep credits, onboarding, staff limits and support. For a team budgeting in Nepal, clarify the billing currency and any currency-conversion charges rather than assuming the headline price is the complete cost.
5. Decide with evidence
Score each system on your essential workflows, staff usability, access controls, migration plan and total cost. Record unresolved gaps. A short pilot with agreed success criteria is more informative than an unsupported “best CRM” claim.
6. Use a weighted evaluation worksheet
Agree your priorities before seeing a demo. Give essential workflows a weight from one to three, then score each vendor zero for not demonstrated, one for partially demonstrated or two for meeting your requirement. Multiply score by weight and record the supporting demonstration. A high total does not cancel a failure on a mandatory permission or export requirement.
- Use the same fictional applicant and two applications with every vendor.
- Check a permitted action and a denied action for each staff role.
- Record full annual cost, migration scope and unresolved requirements alongside the score.