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Reality IT: Lessons in Vendor Hype: Page 3 of 4

  • Get several bids, but not so many that the analysis becomes too complex. Compare strategic or architectural alternatives, such as outsourcing, in addition to doing an apples-to-apples product comparison.
  • Try out the products. Software vendors often are willing to provide full, working versions for trial.
  • Do some due diligence on the vendor, especially if it's not an established player. You can do inexpensive business database checks with Dun & Bradstreet and other services.

    The ancient Chinese military philosopher Sun Tzu said, "The more sweat on the practice field, the less blood on the battlefield." We in IT should take that to heart. The more time we put into properly selecting our products, the fewer headaches we'll suffer after they go live.

    Hunter Metatek is an enterprise IT director with 15 years' experience in network engineering and management. The events chronicled in this column are based in fact--only the names are fiction. Write to the author at [email protected].