5 Mistakes to Avoid When Selecting a Technology Assessment Vendor
A technology assessment should do more than confirm what you already know. It should uncover hidden risks, highlight opportunities, and provide a clear, actionable plan to align your technology with your community’s strategic goals, including how prepared you are to take advantage of emerging tools like AI.
The reality is that all tech assessments are NOT created equal and choosing the wrong vendor can lead to wasted time and money, missed priorities, and a false sense of security.
Here’s what not to do when choosing a partner for this critical work and what to look for instead.
❌ Don’t Hire a Vendor That Only Looks at Hardware
A vendor who only checks your servers and switches is giving you less than half the picture. Many IT companies stop at infrastructure, skipping critical areas like business systems, user experience, governance, and culture.
Do: Choose a partner who evaluates your entire tech ecosystem, including your infrastructure, business systems, your community's mindset around technology, and your innovation readiness.
❌ Don’t Work With a One-Size-Fits-All Provider
Some IT companies reuse templates or deliver the same set of recommendations to every client. If your assessment reads like it could apply to any community, it won’t help you move forward.
Do: Look for a customized approach. A strong assessment is based on interviews with your staff, aligned with your specific goals, and translated into a unique roadmap that makes sense for your leadership, budget, and community priorities.
❌ Don’t Overlook the Importance of Strategic Alignment
Plenty of vendors can tell you what’s broken. Far fewer can show you how to fix it and tie that plan to your long-term objectives.
Do: Demand a vendor who connects IT recommendations to your community’s strategic goals, financial planning, and operational pain points. If your roadmap doesn’t help you prepare for the next generation of tools like AI, predictive analytics, or automation, it’s not strategic enough.
❌ Don’t Choose a Vendor Who’s Also Trying to Sell You Products
If the same company performing your tech assessment is incentivized to sell you expensive hardware or software afterward… RED FLAG.
Do: Partner with an unbiased expert. Find a company whose recommendations are based 100% on what your community needs and not what they profit from.
❌ Don’t Settle for a Static Report
A binder of findings that collects dust on a shelf is useless. If there’s no follow-through, no timeline, and no guidance on how to act, you’ve paid for a diagnosis without a treatment plan.
Do: Look for a vendor that delivers a living, breathing roadmap, a 3-year plan that supports budgeting, project planning, governance, and performance tracking.
In Summary
If you’re making decisions about a technology assessment vendor, you’re already taking an important first step. Just make sure it’s one that moves your community forward. An effective tech assessment is about people, process, culture, outcomes, and readiness for the innovations that are rapidly reshaping senior care like AI. Choose a partner who understands that.
Let’s talk about how Parasol Alliance can help you build a future-ready technology culture.
