How to Justify Switching Network Management Solutions to Your Leadership Team

Switching network management solutions can be a scary proposition, even when the system you have isn’t working well. After all, network management is the cornerstone of visibility, security, and IT operations, and if something is working “well enough” today, then leadership can be change-averse.  However, sticking with a network management platform that isn’t a good fit for your environment can lead to waste, administrative overhead, visibility gaps, and reduced network reliability. 

Typically, IT and technical stakeholders are acutely aware when these problems arise, but making a compelling enough case to management to justify a switch can feel like a monumental task. The key to bridging this gap is mapping the network management challenges to business outcomes. If you can make a compelling case, you can become the hero that drives outcomes like IT business growth, streamlined operations, and improved user experience in your organization. 

In this article, we’ll explore how you can identify when it’s time to switch network management solutions from a business perspective, how to identify the right network management platform to recommend as a replacement, and tactics for making a compelling case to leadership.

Signs that it’s time to switch your network management software 

Even when organizations do their due diligence in selecting a network monitoring platform, circumstances and underlying assumptions can change over time. Five common indicators that your organization can benefit from switching their network management software are: 

• Costs exceed value: This is the “bottom line” indicator that tech pros need to consider when making a case for switching network management solutions. If the licensing and maintenance costs exceed the business value the organization gets from the tool, it’s time to consider a switch. 
• Lack of network visibility: If you regularly encounter devices that an existing platform can’t monitor well (e.g., lack of compatibility or limited data retrieval), you have a gap that can create downtime and security risk. 
• Use of insecure or ineffective monitoring protocols: In some cases, using plaintext monitoring protocols like SNMP v1/v2c is necessary because of device-side limitations. However, if your network management tooling is the reason you’re using a protocol with security or functionality shortcomings, it might be time to make a switch. 
• Platform maintenance is becoming a burden: This indicator is particularly common with on-premise solutions and tools that lack customer support. While every network management tool comes with some configuration and maintenance overhead, IT’s primary focus should be on business outcomes and user experience. If your team is spending significant time on upgrades and tool maintenance, that’s a potential red flag.
• Network monitoring tool sprawl: IT teams can get stuck bouncing between multiple tools to troubleshoot and resolve problems. This can lead to increased mean time to resolve (MTTR), data silos, and human error. Tool sprawl is also a strong indicator that your existing network management solution doesn’t address key use cases. 

Switching to the right network management solution can help you solve these problems. The tricky part is figuring out what “right” means for your business. In the following sections, we’ll drill into how you can find the right platform for your needs while avoiding common network management mistakes. 

Choosing the right network management solution

After you identify a need to switch, it’s time to evaluate other network management solutions and find the right tool for the job. Let’s take a look at 3 steps you can take to find a platform that addresses your existing network monitoring pain points. 

1. Verify coverage for key use cases

It’s easy to go into “checklist mode” when evaluating software tools. Teams should avoid the trap of chasing feature parity between tools. After all, features are a means to an end, not a business outcome. Instead, focus on the business outcomes those features deliver and ensure the new solution addresses your key use cases. 

Essential network management use cases to consider and key questions to ask are summarized in the table below. 

Network Management Use Case	Questions To Ask
Device discovery	Does the tool support your vendors and devices? What network protocols are required?
Deployment and maintenance	How much overhead is required for initial deployment and configuration? How complex is platform maintenance? Is professional services required? If yes, what is the cost?
Inventory management	Is asset lifecycle data available on the platform? Can the tool help you make purchasing and planning decisions? Can you manage devices through the full asset lifecycle from discovery to decommissioning?
Network performance monitoring	How can the tool help you optimize network performance? Can you quickly identify performance bottlenecks?
Reporting and compliance	Do reports answer key business questions about the network? Can you use the reports as inputs for your quarterly business reviews (QBRs)?
Troubleshooting	How does the tool enable proactive issue detection? Can engineers quickly drill down to find the information they need during an incident? Can you strike a balance between actionable notifications and alert fatigue?
Configuration management	Can the tool automate network configuration management? Is rollback supported?
Network documentation	Does the tool support network visualization (e.g., network maps)? Can network documentation be automatically maintained?
Security and compliance	Does the platform support your security and privacy requirements? Does the platform support role-based access control (RBAC), single sign-on (SSO), and multifactor authentication? How does the vendor handle platform security?
Customer support	Does the platform include customer support? What are the response service level agreements (SLAs)? What do existing users say about support in forums like G2, Reddit, and Spiceworks?
Scaling and growth	Can the platform support your projected device and traffic growth technically? How are costs associated with growth accrued? Are there overage costs?

If the platform can deliver on key business outcomes, then drilling into specific features and how you’ll implement them makes business sense. If not, move on to other alternatives. 

2. Calculate return on investment (ROI)

Auvik has saved our organization a good bit of time, day-to-day—it has saved us the equivalent of half an FTE. 

Rick Rush, President/COO, Creative Consultants Group

Ultimately switching network management solutions is a business decision. And, like any business decision, it should boil down to the expected ROI when all the relevant factors are considered. The license portion of the “investment” side of the calculation is easy enough to calculate. The maintenance costs and overhead can be trickier, but still manageable. 

Calculating the return is where IT often runs into a real challenge. This is where it’s important to consider opportunity costs such as hours spent performing basic network maintenance tasks, onboarding/offboarding clients, and time lost due to challenges like poor documentation. 

3. Conduct a proof of value (PoV) trial  

Ask any IT pro who’s been making purchasing decisions for a while: most vendors can make a reasonably compelling business case on paper. Research and calculations are good initial filters as you analyze your options, but nothing beats seeing the tool demonstrate value in a real-world environment. 

Conduct a proof of value (PoV) trial before making a bigger purchase to ensure the tool lives up to its claims. If you can’t get value from the platform in a relatively short trial window, that’s an indicator the software may be too complex or a bad fit for your network. 

How to present the case for switching to leadership: A step-by-step guide

Once you’ve identified the right network management solution, the next phase is building a business case for leadership. Fundamentally, getting this right means:

• Focusing on business outcomes
• Tying into key performance indicators (KPIs) and measurable outcomes 
• Making a crystal-clear problem statement and recommendation 

With that in mind, let’s break down the strategy for making the case to leadership step-by-step. 

Step 1: Assess the current network management solution

Making the need for change clear to decision makers is necessary for compelling them to take action. Evaluate your network management solution and look for the red flags we discussed earlier. If you find problems, like limited network visibility or tedious manual workflows, tie them back to business impacts such as compliance risk, wasted productivity, and costs. 

💡Pro-tip: Frame the situation as “current state” vs. “desired state” to set up how your proposal will solve the business problems.

Step 2: Research the alternatives

Once you’ve identified the problem, it’s time to find a solution. Research and assess different network management solutions to determine the best fit for your operating environment. Filter your choices based on use cases, requirements, scalability, and costs to decide which platform you’ll recommend to solve the existing business problems. 

When presenting to stakeholders, include a reference in an appendix that details what tools you evaluated and why you rejected other solutions. Everyone has an opinion when it comes to tools, and being able to show your work can reduce noise during a pitch. 

💡Pro-tip: Run a proof-of-value (PoV) trial with your recommended alternative.

Step 3: Crunch the numbers

The bottom line is crucial when making a business decision. Calculate all of your current costs, the costs of switching, and projected ROI of the new platform before you make your pitch. As you conduct this analysis, use tools like opportunity calculators and growth projections to inform your calculations. 

Here are some key data points to include in your pitch:

• TCO of the current network management solution
• TCO of the proposed network management solution
• ROI for making the switch 
• Cost and ROI changes over time based on projected growth

💡Pro-tip: Account for switching costs such as deployment, training, and decommissioning of old tools to provide a complete picture.

Step 4: Enumerate risks and risk responses 

Any change comes with risk, and stakeholders will want to see that you’ve considered the tradeoffs. Consider risks such as integration challenges, learning curves, downtime during transitions to a new platform, and loss of historical data in the old platform as you build your plan. For each risk, identify a recommended risk response (e.g., mitigation for the risk or risk acceptance where appropriate). 

As you go, remember that there is also risk in not making a change, and ensure your pitch to stakeholders makes that clear using the numbers from step 3. 

💡Pro-tip: Conduct a premortem to find risks you may have overlooked in your research to this point.

Step 5: Make the pitch

The best way to package the information will vary from one organization to another. In some cases, a one-pager may be enough. In others, you may have lengthy review and approval processes. All else equal, I recommend a slide deck with a clear executive summary that packages the data from the previous steps into a concise and compelling business case.

As you make the pitch, focus on practical pain points and business outcomes. For example, if you identified that making a switch can increase uptime, tie that into employee productivity. Similarly, emphasize bottom-line impact (e.g., switching can reduce network management costs by 20% over the next year). 

💡Pro-tip: Start with a strong “problem, solution, benefit” introduction that makes the business problem and proposed solution clear, then reinforce the message throughout the presentation.

Addressing concerns: How to overcome leadership objections 

Good leaders will often ask questions and stress test proposals to ensure they make business sense. Even if you have a rock-solid presentation, you should be prepared to respond to objections and pushback about your proposal. 

Below are 4 common leadership objections you should be prepared to respond to during or after your pitch. 

“It’s not a priority” 

When a decision maker says something is not a priority, they acknowledge that you have identified a valid problem but feel it isn’t worth solving now. 

Given most organizations are already swamped with projects, initiatives, and customer problems, this perspective is understandable and often a default response. Taking on a new project to replace an existing tool can seem like an unnecessary distraction without the right framing. 

To overcome this objection, it’s up to you to demonstrate the cost of doing nothing or deferring the switch too far into the future. Here are some steps you can take to overcome this objection:

• Let the numbers do the talking. Your ROI, productivity, and TCO numbers should build a compelling case that makes value clear. It’s easy to defer an initiative with no apparent value. It’s harder to deprioritize an initiative that is actively costing the organization thousands of dollars when there are clear solutions. If you’re considering making the switch to ANM, check out our article on The True Cost of Switching to Auvik 
• Call out compliance and security risks. If your current network management solution has visibility gaps that can lead to compliance violations or meaningfully increases the chances of a security breach, ensure stakeholders are aware that “do nothing” comes with the cost of accepting this risk. 
• Use real-world examples of pain points. Did you have a recent outage or similar incident that is directly related to poor network monitoring? Use that anecdote to demonstrate the practical impact of doing nothing. While data-driven decisions are important, real-world stories make it clear the problem isn’t just theoretical. 

Concerns about business disruption

Your existing network management solution may not be perfect, but it’s deployed and functional. Decision makers may not want to switch to a new platform that is unproven in your environment. They’ve likely been burned by the promise of a new software tool that didn’t deliver value in the past and want to avoid making the same mistake twice. 

The lightweight approach to overcoming this objection is using social proof such as G2 Reviews (did we mention Auvik has 4.5 stars from over 300 G2 reviews? 😉), case studies, forum posts, and word-of-mouth recommendations from other IT pros. The closer these align to your use case, the better. For example, MSPs may benefit from understanding how CorSystems used ANM to improve client experience and automate their network docs. 

To go a step further, run a PoV trial to prove that the solution can work with your devices, networks, and security requirements. 

Lack of feature parity

Some purchasing teams heavily emphasize checklists and feature parity when making decisions. Frankly, this objection should be easy to overcome if you did your homework. Focus the conversation on delivering valuable business outcomes instead of chasing a checklist that may be tailored to prescribe a specific platform instead of delivering value. 

Compliance and security risks 

The cost of a security breach or compliance fine can devastate the bottom line and your reputation, so decision makers will often want assurances about how a platform addresses cybersecurity risk and helps maintain compliance. This is particularly true if you’re proposing a switch from on-premise to cloud-based network management software.  

Overcoming these objections starts with verifying how the vendor handles platform security. For example, Auvik’s system security resources make answering questions about data handling, vulnerability disclosure, and security controls easy. Additionally, you can download documents and request a SOC2 report from the Auvik compliance program. 

Making the case to switch to Auvik? Here are some helpful talking points.

If you’re looking for a secure cloud-based network management that can support efficient IT business growth and operations, Auvik can help. For example, Auvik Network Management (ANM) is one of the most popular and trusted SolarWinds alternatives. 

Organizations that make the switch to Auvik benefit from:

• Demonstrable ROI– A Forrester study found that network management time savings with Auvik exceeded $1 million (risk adjusted) over three years. 
• A single source of truth for network management– While other platforms require costly add-ons to provide a complete solution, Auvik provides IT with a single source of truth for their network management workflows. 
• Improved MTTR- ANM’s alerting capabilities empower IT to proactively address issues and an intuitive user interface make it simple for engineers to drill down and quickly diagnose problems anywhere in the network. 
• World-class time to value– While many platforms can take hours or days to configure, a Tolly report demonstrated that the ANM platform can be configured, discover devices, and begin delivering network monitoring value quickly (6 minutes to install and configured in less than an hour). 
• Robust integrations and APIs– ANM supports integrations for dozens of IT and productivity tools and offers a robust management API and webhook capabilities so teams can build cohesive end-to-end workflows.  

For a deeper dive on how Auvik stacks up against other network management solutions, check out our competitor comparison page. 

You can’t beat the proof that’s in the pudding: Try Auvik for free or simply book a demo

The best way to prove you’ve found the right network management solution is to try it for yourself. If you’d like to see how Auvik can help you streamline and automate your network management, sign up for a free (no credit card required) trial today! 

If you’re not ready to install Auvik in your network, you can request access to our sandbox  to experience true network visibility in a safe testing environment or book an expert-led demo.