Technology selection has become one of the most critical—and time-consuming—aspects of revenue operations.

If you're like me, you're probably spending 30-50% of your time on tech-related tasks. And that's not just implementation and maintenance. It's vendor evaluations, integration challenges, adoption struggles, and the stream of requests from sales teams who've discovered the latest shiny tool.

After five years focused on inorganic growth and post-merger integrations (yes, the "PMI nightmare" of duplicate systems, processes, and tools), I've learned that how we select and implement technology can make or break our revenue operations.

In this article, I'll share a framework that's helped me navigate these decisions, and maybe save you from some of the mistakes I've made along the way.

The reality of tech in RevOps today

Let's start by being honest about where we are.

The RevTech landscape is exploding. New players enter the market daily with hyper-specific solutions. Existing vendors constantly expand their capabilities. And we're caught in the middle, trying to balance efficiency, clarity, and the never-ending requests from new CROs who want their favorite tool from their last company.

Here's what really hits home: many of us have become de facto IT departments for our revenue teams. We're not just strategists anymore; instead, we're tech support, systems administrators, and integration specialists all rolled into one.

Sound familiar?

The integration gaps alone are staggering. You buy a tool to solve one problem, but are you really maximizing its potential? Are you achieving full adoption? Does it actually integrate with your data model and end-to-end processes? These questions keep me up at night.

What really drives technology decisions

When I asked a group of RevOps leaders what criteria they consider when selecting technology, their responses were illuminating:

  • Cost (CFOs everywhere are nodding)
  • Integration with current stack
  • Scalability potential
  • ROI
  • Implementation costs
  • Whether the sales team can actually use it
  • "Openness" of the platform

That last one caught my attention. One leader explained they meant transparency: how open vendors are about their methodologies and algorithms. Ever tried getting a revenue intelligence platform to explain their scoring algorithms? Good luck with that.

What struck me most was that nothing on this list was surprising. We all know these factors matter. But knowing and doing are two different things.