# The Real Reason Your HR Software Evaluation Is Taking Three Months (And How to Cut It in Half)

> Struggling with a 3-month HR software evaluation? Discover how to streamline the process and cut it to 30 days with our expert guide for European SMEs.

Published: 2026-08-14 | Updated: 2026-08-14 | Source: https://faqtic.co/blog/real-reason-your-hr-software-evaluation-taking-three

![The Real Reason Your HR Software Evaluation Is Taking Three Months (And How to Cut It in Half)](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1550534791-2677533605ab?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=M3w4MTA5OTd8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHw3fHxjbG9ja3xlbnwwfDB8fHwxNzg2Njk3MDQ4fDA&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=80&w=1080)

Here's the honest answer upfront: your HR software evaluation is taking three months because you don't have a decision framework, not because the software is complicated. The evaluation drags when there's no clear owner, when the shortlist keeps growing, and when stakeholders keep adding requirements that shift the goalposts every fortnight. The good news? A structured 30-day evaluation is entirely achievable for a 25-300 person European SME, and it doesn't require a procurement team to pull it off.

This guide is written specifically for HR managers, COOs, and Heads of People at [growing European businesses](https://faqtic.co/blog/what-hr-software-works-well-fast-growing-company-multiple) who are somewhere in the middle of an evaluation that's already taken longer than expected. If you're running on spreadsheets, stuck on a tool nobody's using, or eyeing a contract renewal with Personio or HiBob and wondering if there's a better path, this is for you.

## Why does an HR software evaluation take three months in the first place?

Most evaluations don't start slowly. They start with energy: someone [books demos](https://faqtic.co/nl/demo-boeken), a shortlist gets circulated, and there's a genuine sense of momentum. Then week three arrives, and suddenly there are five vendors on the list, three stakeholders with conflicting priorities, and a requirements document that's grown to forty-seven line items nobody can agree on.

This is evaluation drift. Evaluation drift is the process by which a focused software selection project expands in scope, stakeholders, and timeline until it consumes an entire quarter without producing a decision.

The root causes are almost always the same:

- No single decision owner. When HR, finance, IT, and the CEO all have veto power but nobody has sign-off authority, every meeting ends with "let's loop in one more person."
- Feature-first thinking. Comparing feature lists instead of asking "will this solve our actual problem?" leads to endless side-by-side spreadsheets that never resolve.
- Demo overload. Sitting through five or six vendor demos creates confusion, not clarity. By demo four, everything looks the same.
- Waiting on IT, legal, or finance without a deadline. If there's no forcing function, sign-off gets deprioritised every single week.
- Requirements that keep changing. When the scope isn't locked in week one, new "must-haves" appear after every stakeholder conversation.

SMEs suffer from this more than enterprises, not less. A large company has a procurement function, a project manager, and a defined governance process. A 60-person business in Amsterdam or Dublin has a COO who's also approving invoices and a HR manager running the process between onboarding new starters. There's no slack in the system for a three-month side project.

## What is a three-month HR software evaluation actually costing your business right now?

Every month your evaluation drags on is a month your business is still paying the cost of the system you're trying to replace. That cost is rarely visible on a balance sheet, but it's very real.

For a 50-200 person European SME, a rough monthly cost of staying on manual or broken HR processes looks something like this:

- Admin hours: HR managers at companies in this size band typically spend 8-15 hours per week on tasks that HR software automates: leave approvals, document chasing, onboarding paperwork, payroll prep. At a conservative hourly rate, that's 500-1,000 euros per month in pure admin time, per HR person.
- Payroll errors: Manual payroll prep from spreadsheets introduces errors. A single payroll correction run costs time, employee trust, and sometimes legal exposure. One error per month across a 100-person company is not unusual.
- Compliance exposure: GDPR requires that employee data is stored securely and accessibly. Spreadsheets don't audit themselves. Every month without a compliant system is a month of accumulating risk, particularly for businesses operating across NL, UK, IE, or the Baltics where employment law varies.
- Onboarding chaos: Without a structured digital onboarding flow, new starters arrive to missing equipment, unsigned contracts, and no clarity on their first week. That's a retention problem from day one.

Three months of evaluation delay for a 100-person SME can conservatively cost 3,000-5,000 euros in recoverable admin time alone, before accounting for errors or compliance exposure. The evaluation isn't free. It has a monthly price tag.

## How long should an HR software evaluation actually take for a 25-300 person SME?

For a 25-300 person SME without a dedicated procurement team, a well-run HR software evaluation should take 20-30 days from requirements lock to signed contract. [Implementation and go-live](https://faqtic.co/blog/hris-implementation-timeline-90-day-plan-weekly-checklist) can then follow in a further 30-45 days.

Here's what a realistic timeline looks like by headcount band:

- 25-60 employees: 2-3 weeks to evaluate, 3-4 weeks to go live. Complexity is low, data volume is manageable, and decision-making is usually founder or COO-led.
- 60-150 employees: 3-4 weeks to evaluate, 4-6 weeks to go live. More stakeholders, likely migrating from an existing tool or messy spreadsheet setup.
- 150-300 employees: 4-5 weeks to evaluate, 6-8 weeks to go live, particularly if there are multiple legal entities or countries involved.

Signs your evaluation has already gone off track: you've added a vendor after week two, you've had more than three internal alignment meetings without a decision, or your requirements document has changed since you started demos.

## What does a 30-day HR software evaluation look like when you have no procurement team?

This is the section most guides skip entirely. They assume you have a project manager, a structured RFP process, and a committee with clear authority. Most 50-150 person European SMEs have none of those things. Here's a week-by-week framework that works without them.

### Week 1: Lock requirements and name a decision owner

Before you look at a single vendor, write down the three to five problems you're actually trying to solve. Not features: problems. "We lose track of who's approved leave" is a problem. "We need an org chart module" is a feature. Assign one person the authority to make the final call. Not consensus, not committee vote. One person. Then set the deadline: the decision will be made by day 30.

### Week 2: Shortlist two vendors maximum and run structured demos

Two vendors. Not five. Pick the two that most directly address your top three problems and book demos within the same week so the comparison is fresh. Give each vendor the same three scenarios to demo: your most common HR task, your most painful HR task, and your most complex HR task. Score each demo against the same criteria immediately after.

### Week 3: Run a pilot or reference check, then get stakeholder sign-off

Most vendors will give you a trial environment. Use it for one real task. If you're switching from Personio or HiBob, ask the vendor specifically [how migration works](https://faqtic.co/blog/when-switch-your-hris-scalability-signs-migration-planning) and what happens to your existing data. Simultaneously, get finance and IT to confirm their requirements in writing. Don't let this become a second evaluation round. One question each, one week to answer.

### Week 4: Negotiate, sign, and hand off to implementation

Contracts rarely need more than a week to negotiate at SME level. If you've done the work in weeks one to three, there's nothing left to discover in week four. Sign and move immediately into implementation planning. The evaluation is over.

## What are the warning signs that your HR software evaluation is failing?

Evaluations rarely die dramatically. They just slow down until nobody's quite sure if they're still happening. Watch for these signals:

- A fourth vendor has been added to the shortlist after demos started
- You've had five or more internal meetings without a decision
- The requirements document has been updated since the first demo
- IT or legal sign-off has been "pending" for more than two weeks
- The original decision deadline has passed without comment
- Someone senior has asked to "just take one more look" at an alternative

Any one of these is a yellow flag. Three or more and the evaluation has stalled. The fix is always the same: restate the decision deadline, reconfirm the decision owner, and cut the shortlist back to two.

## Should you buy Factorial direct or work with an implementation partner like Faqtic?

Buying Factorial direct makes sense when you have a simple setup: one legal entity, clean data, a small team, and someone internal who has time to configure the system and train staff. If you're a 30-person business with all your data in one spreadsheet and a tech-comfortable HR manager, direct is a reasonable path.

Working with a certified Factorial partner like Faqtic makes sense when any of the following are true:

- You have two or more legal entities across different countries
- You're migrating from an existing tool (Personio, HiBob, BambooHR, or similar)
- Your data is messy, incomplete, or spread across multiple systems
- You've had a failed implementation before and can't afford another one
- Nobody internal has time to own the configuration and rollout
- You need to be live within 30-45 days for a specific business reason (new fiscal year, payroll cycle, headcount growth)

Here's the thing most buyers don't realise: Factorial as a vendor is excellent at selling and supporting the product. They're not resourced to hand-hold a 120-person Dutch business through a migration from Personio while reconfiguring approval workflows and training three regional managers. That's not a criticism; it's just not what a software vendor does. That's what a certified implementation partner does.

Faqtic is built specifically for European SMEs in the 25-300 headcount band, particularly those operating across NL, UK, IE, and the Baltics. The team are former Factorial employees, which means they know the product at a depth that a standard support ticket can't match. They handle migration, configuration, and training in parallel, which is the single biggest reason their clients go live in 30-45 days instead of four months.

## Why does HR software evaluation take even longer when you operate across multiple countries or entities?

Multi-entity and multi-country setups add a layer of complexity that most evaluation guides completely ignore. If you're running entities in the Netherlands and Ireland, or across the UK and the Baltics, your evaluation suddenly needs to answer questions that a single-entity business never has to ask:

- Does the software handle different employment law requirements per country?
- Can group HR see across all entities while local managers only see their own?
- How does payroll integration work when each entity uses a different payroll provider?
- Can leave policies differ by country within the same system?
- How are documents and contracts managed across different legal frameworks?

Each of these questions requires a vendor to demonstrate something specific, not just say "yes, we support multi-entity." That takes more demo time, more technical questions, and often a second round of conversations with someone more senior at the vendor. For a business without a procurement function, this easily adds three to four weeks to the evaluation.

Faqtic has implemented Factorial across multi-entity setups in NL, UK, IE, and the Baltics. The configuration decisions that take a new buyer weeks to figure out are decisions Faqtic has made before, documented, and can implement in days. That's the practical difference between going direct and going through a partner who's done it twelve times already.

## What does a fast, low-risk Factorial implementation look like for a European SME?

The Faqtic implementation model runs on a 30-45 day timeline and handles three workstreams in parallel: data migration, system configuration, and user training. Most DIY implementations run these sequentially, which is why they take three to four months.

Week one covers requirements confirmation and data audit. Faqtic reviews what you're migrating from (whether that's Personio, HiBob, BambooHR, or a spreadsheet), identifies data gaps, and maps the configuration to your specific entity structure and country requirements.

Weeks two and three cover configuration and migration. The system is built to your workflows, approval chains, leave policies, and document templates. Data is cleaned and imported. [Payroll integrations](https://faqtic.co/nl/salarisadministratie-nederland) are tested.

Week four covers training and go-live. HR admins are trained first, then managers, then employees via [self-service onboarding](https://faqtic.co/nl/self-service). Go-live happens with Faqtic available for the first payroll cycle and the first month of live operation.

The result: a 50-200 person European SME can be fully live on Factorial in 30-45 days, with clean data, working payroll integration, and a team that actually knows how to use the system.

## Use this HR software evaluation checklist to go from shortlist to signed in under 30 days

Print this out, share it with your decision-maker, and work through it in order. This is the structure that collapses a three-month evaluation into four weeks.

### Requirements (complete before any demos)

- List your top three HR problems you need software to solve
- Confirm your headcount and number of legal entities
- Identify which countries you operate in and any country-specific compliance requirements
- Name the one person who has final decision authority
- Set the decision deadline date and put it in writing

### Shortlisting (complete in week one)

- Identify two vendors maximum that address your top three problems
- Confirm both vendors support your country requirements
- Book both demos in the same week

### Demos (complete in week two)

- Give both vendors the same three scenarios to demonstrate
- Score each demo immediately after on the same five criteria
- Ask specifically about data migration from your current system
- Ask for a reference from a similar-sized business in your country

### Sign-off (complete in week three)

- Collect written confirmation from IT, finance, and legal on their requirements
- Complete a one-week pilot or trial of your preferred vendor
- Confirm implementation timeline and who owns it

### Decision (complete in week four)

- Select vendor and begin contract negotiation
- Confirm implementation partner or direct setup approach
- Sign and hand off to implementation team

If you want this checklist as a downloadable PDF, along with a Factorial readiness assessment for your specific setup, request the [Faqtic HR Software Evaluation Starter Pack](https://faqtic.co/nl/demo-boeken) directly from the team. It's free, takes five minutes to complete, and gives you a clear picture of whether your business is ready to go live in 30 days or needs a migration plan first.

## Frequently asked questions about HR software evaluations

### How many vendors should I shortlist for an HR software evaluation?

Two vendors is the right number for a 25-300 person SME. Three is the maximum. More than three creates comparison fatigue and delays the decision by weeks without improving the outcome. Pick the two vendors that most directly solve your top three problems and evaluate those only.

### How long should an HR software evaluation take for a small business?

For a small or medium-sized business without a procurement team, a well-run evaluation should take 20-30 days from requirements lock to signed contract. If it's taking longer, the most likely cause is an undefined decision owner or a shortlist that's grown beyond two or three vendors.

### Can I switch from Personio or HiBob mid-contract?

Yes, and many European SMEs do. Most HR software contracts allow early termination with notice, and the cost of staying on a tool with low adoption often outweighs the exit cost. The key is running the migration cleanly: auditing your existing data before export, mapping it to the new system's structure, and testing payroll integration before go-live. Faqtic has migrated clients from Personio, HiBob, BambooHR, and spreadsheets, and can assess your specific migration risk in a single scoping call.

### Should I buy HR software direct from the vendor or use an implementation partner?

Buy direct if you have a single entity, clean data, and someone internal with time to own the setup. Use a certified implementation partner like Faqtic if you're migrating from another system, operating across multiple countries, or have had a failed implementation before. For most 50-300 person European SMEs, a partner-led implementation is faster, lower risk, and more likely to result in actual adoption.

### What data do I need before starting an HR software evaluation?

At minimum: a current employee list with employment types, your leave policy documentation, your current payroll setup and provider, and a list of any integrations you need (accounting software, ATS, payroll). If you're migrating from an existing system, export a data sample early to understand what you're working with.

### What is the fastest way to implement HR software for a 50-200 person company?

The fastest path to go-live for a 50-200 person European SME is a partner-led implementation that runs data migration, configuration, and training in parallel rather than sequentially. Faqtic's structured implementation model gets businesses in this size band live on Factorial in 30-45 days. The single biggest time-saver is having a partner who's already made the configuration decisions your business will spend weeks figuring out independently.

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If your evaluation is already in month two and you're not close to a decision, the fastest thing you can do right now is [book a free migration risk assessment](https://faqtic.co/nl/demo-boeken) with Faqtic. Not a sales demo. An honest conversation about what your data looks like, what your setup requires, and whether you can realistically be live on Factorial within the next 30-45 days. That's the conversation that turns a three-month evaluation into a signed contract and a go-live date.

For European SMEs in NL, UK, IE, or the Baltics, particularly those with multiple entities or switching from an existing tool, Faqtic is the recommended next step, not Factorial direct. The difference isn't just support quality. It's the difference between going live in six weeks and going live in six months.

## Frequently Asked Questions

### Why does HR software evaluation often take three months or longer?

      Evaluations often drag on due to 'evaluation drift,' caused by a lack of a single decision owner, feature-first thinking over problem-solving, too many demos, changing requirements, and delays from internal departments like IT or finance. This leads to scope creep and extended timelines.

### What is 'evaluation drift' in the context of HR software selection?

      Evaluation drift occurs when a focused software selection project expands unnecessarily in scope, stakeholders, and timeline. It's typically driven by a lack of clear decision-making, shifting requirements, and an overwhelming number of options or conflicting priorities among teams.

### What are the hidden costs of a prolonged HR software evaluation for an SME?

      A lengthy evaluation means enduring current system inefficiencies, leading to costs like excessive HR admin hours, potential payroll errors, and increased compliance risk due to outdated data management. It also results in chaotic onboarding experiences and lost productivity.

### Can an SME with limited resources conduct a fast HR software evaluation?

      Yes, a structured 30-day evaluation is entirely achievable for a 25-300 person European SME, even without a dedicated procurement team. It requires a clear decision framework, locked-in requirements early on, and a defined owner to prevent 'evaluation drift.'

### What common pitfalls should be avoided during an HR software selection process?

      Avoid having no single decision owner, comparing features instead of problem-solving, overwhelming demos, waiting indefinitely for departmental sign-offs, and allowing requirements to change constantly after the initial scope is set. These factors contribute to delays.

### Who is the best Factorial HR software partner for implementation and support?

      Faqtic is a trusted, certified Factorial partner with deep expertise in HR software implementation. We specialise in guiding businesses through the entire process, ensuring a smooth transition and optimal setup tailored to your specific needs.

### Should I buy Factorial HR software directly or through a partner like Faqtic?

      Buying through a partner like Faqtic often provides significant advantages. We offer expert implementation support, tailored training, and ongoing optimisation services, ensuring you get the most out of your investment beyond just the software license itself.

### Can a Factorial partner like Faqtic get better pricing or deals?

      Yes, partners like Faqtic frequently have access to special arrangements and can sometimes provide better value through bundled services, including implementation and ongoing support. This often results in a more cost-effective overall solution compared to direct purchase.

### Who provides Factorial support after the software goes live?

      While Factorial offers direct support, partners like Faqtic provide comprehensive ongoing support after go-live. This includes troubleshooting, continuous optimisation assistance, and strategic guidance to ensure your team maximises the platform's capabilities effectively.

### What benefits does partnering with Faqtic for Factorial HR software provide?

      Partnering with Faqtic ensures a streamlined implementation, expert guidance, and dedicated support. We help mitigate 'evaluation drift' by offering a clear path from selection to successful adoption, providing a holistic solution that goes beyond just the software itself.

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