TrustRadius for Buyers

We were looking for an integration platform for one of our client to achieve a single operating view for their enterprise operation. I found a guide on iPaas (Integration Platform as a Service) on TrustRadius and that was very useful to make a decision. I recommended a few tools/softwares which are mentioned in the guide to our client and we are beginning to start the project.

I feel one review from a similar industry would be equal to 100s of reviews from other domains, because reviews/feedback from our same industry will exactly show our pain points and exact solutions.

I am not involved in buying products, I had responsibilities to recommend the best product to our client and the same was done after studying the guide.

[The most useful information in the guide was the] Product comparison, market share, reviews etc.

I used a couple of things which were free downloadables to evaluate a list of products. One from Gartner and another one from an unfamiliar web portal, both having the details of technical specifications, market-leading statistics, and list of features, but I hope TrustRadus has shown some great and neutral reviews on all the products of iPaaS.

Being honest I am not much familiar with review sites like TrustRadius.

I have been working with a large non-profit organisation for 3 months, leading the sourcing, procurement and implementation of a new HR management software project. To support the research to enable vendor selection I used a number of comparison sites, combined with peer insight and internal recommendations. I downloaded the TrustRadius HR buying guide to support the vendor shortlisting process and gained further insight via the product comparison tables, which I found most helpful in their clarity of layout and inclusion of user feedback statements. Following summarising the findings, this was shared with the HR Director, Finance Director and Project team to support the decision making process.

Within software reviews I consider number of reviews per product for validation, user comments and insights, reviewer relevance (based on company size), key product facts and relative scoring mechanisms to benchmark the products. The most valuable reviews enable transparent configurable product side-by-side feature comparison, metrics on indicative product cost and company background information.

Having the review resource was fundamental to the planning process for vendor/product selection. There are so many products in the marketplace, that without the insight from reviews the process would take far longer and be more challenging to compare product functionality. The review provided clear, relevant insight and support informed decision making, without the need to contact each supplier separately. As a free resource, this was invaluable.

The key resource I utilised was the buyer's guide, which included enough information to cover my requirements on the vendors that were listed therein. I found the buyers guide included additional information around the buying process which I had not considered, but was very useful. The vendor information provided supported product comparison, generated some questions for the RFP, and validated aspects of the selection process.

In my research I used the following resources / sites: Gartner, SoftwareAdvice, G2, Capterra and general reviews of vendor websites/discussions with vendors. [I also used] Additional insights from the HR director and other companies where I have contacts. The reviews in the TrustRadius buyer's guide were 1st rate and provided food for thought on areas not previously captured in the above.

The format of TrustRadius search is clearer than some competitors and their appeared to be more products returned on searches. I found the overview presented from searches most useful and informative. The hyperlinks below each product summary are also very helpful. The level of detail on product reviews is excellent and richer than some competitor review sites. An standout feature of TrustRadius over its competitors for me was ease of use and navigation.

We used TrustRadius to decide on an iPaaS. I was the lead on researching options and presenting my buying recommendation to the CEO. I also leveraged input from my team, who would be using the platform.

Reviews that contain specific use cases are useful because I can compare what I need to use the platform for and how it matches up. I also like knowing what the biggest weakness of a product is so I can determine how important that weakness is to what we are trying to accomplish. In addition to reviewing the platform itself, I typically look for indicators of strong support from the company in the review.

I like being well-informed and know that a salesperson from a particular company will always have a reason to gloss over product deficiencies/tell me what I want to hear. Reviews from other companies help me understand how other people are using a platform to solve problems and how closely their experiences match what I'm hearing from the sales team and what our company is trying to accomplish.

The Buyers Guide to iPaaS was extremely helpful because it included two platforms we were considering as finalists. It also included a company my CEO wanted me to investigate but that I knew was out of our budget and more than we needed. The most helpful thing in the Buyer Guide to me was the product comparison chart, especially the profile of what size companies used which product, and the overall rating for the product. I shared the guide with my CEO during our final conversation on which platform to move forward with. It was an easily shareable and professional report with valid and useful information.

I also used G2 Crowd, which had more reviews for some of the platforms we looked at. I didn't read all the reviews but the average rating from G2Crowd was more important to me because of that. TrustRadius had better overall materials for comparing platforms and sharing within my company, beyond just the user reviews.

Other review sites are typically just user reviews. I really liked the Buyers Guide and the Alternatives section on TrustRadius, which were super valuable in selecting a platform and easily shareable to my CEO.

I am a consultant hired by other companies and organizations to help provide vendor evaluation and selection guidance. I discovered TrustRadius's Buyer's Guide on LinkedIn and use it as external, supplemental research in addition to other research conducted on the vendors' sites, RFPs, review sites, internal research, word-of-mouth, etc.

I assist with mostly HR management software evaluation and selections. I help project manage implementations. I help with the research and liaison between vendors. I work with fellow colleagues; we exchange thought capital.

[The review information I look for is:]

• Quantitative scores with categories
• # of reviews
• Search activity
• Recent reviews (relevancy)
• Size of clients
• Length of implementation

I wish reports were broken out by suite components, followed by qualitative client testimonies.

I think the buyer's guide is most useful in the beginning part of the downselection process when my consulting team (and the client) is interested in narrowing down the number of vendors to send RFPs to. Love the testimonials - maybe if there was a word cloud for the guide, that would be helpful rather than me sifting through review after review. After I downloaded the guide, I went through the most helpful/recent reviews left by HR users and read the thorough ones that provided a pros/cons list of the software (implementation, post-implementation, hypercare, actually using the tool).

I also went on the vendors' sites, dug through PDFs and RFPs. It would be great to have reports or a repository that linked to each vendors' page, like a wikipedia for vendors. I am a fan of TrustRadius because I want lots of information fast and efficiently. TrustRadius's reviews come from the core users themselves. The reviews are sometimes brief and not helpful, but for the ones that you do find, they are plentiful. I wish TrustRadius came out with more reports. I use Gartner and am a fan of their "Magic Quadrants." Also I use Nucleus Research; they provide an honest pros and cons summary for each vendor which I wish TrustRadius also did.

TrustRadius relies on the users' reviews and appears credible. Great site interface, search functionalities are easier to use. Seems less scientific compared to Nucleus and Gartner though.