Software procurement is a part of every company’s day-to-day operations, whether they realize it or not. Regularly, businesses must make choices as to which programs to update and upgrade as well as decide whether it’s time to put wind in the sails and move on to something different. This is sometimes a quick decision and at other times a daunting task, often depending on the company and the software, but however you look at software procurement, it isn’t something to be ignored. There are many factors related to deciding what software to buy and when, so it’s imperative to put something
down on paper.
“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail,” says Mark Bartrick, senior analyst at Forrester Research (www.forrester.com). “Failure to do proper due diligence on the vendor,
product, contract, support/helpline, maintenance, product roadmap/upgrades, compatibility to other software it may need to connect to,
hardware it will run on, maintenance costs and training will leave any customer exposed operationally, technically, inancially and legally.
”It’s sobering to think that a software purchasing decision you make right now could put your company in a technological rut three to five years down the road, but it’s exactly the type of wake-up call that will prevent you from making a potential mistake. We’ll discuss some things to keep in mind as you wade through the waters of software procurement and show you why it’s so important to put a plan in place and follow it as closely as you can.
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