It's impossible at this stage to determine the actual cost of a system. However, you can determine if you are talking about an Opel or […]

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It's nice to hear some vendors chew on all this stuff you sent them, isn't it? Well, if they want to have a change of doing business with you, they have to sweat, they have to earn it… feels great! […]

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7.3 The Questionnaire (part 3)
This survey is part of three pages. See the guide index to find the other 2 parts of this request for information questionnaire.
Escrow
Are […]

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7.3 The Questionnaire (part 2)
This survey is part of three pages. See the guide index to find the other 2 parts of this request for information questionnaire.
Operation system/hardware
[…]

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7.3 The Questionnaire
The Questionnaire contains all the questions to the vendors. With asking a survey to vendors you should always keep one thing in mind: every question that starts with "can you do…" will be answered with "yes"; that means with enough money and time.
Save yourself some time by avoiding this type. I have included […]

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7.2 The Information Sheet
You will not send the business case to the vendors. However, they must have some feeling about what you want in order to provide you with targeted information when you send them the request for information (like this sample). The business case, target process and legacy information we discussed earlier […]

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The vendors on the long list should provide you information to let you judge them against your selection criteria; that is the purpose of a request for information. It's still the first round in the selection process for buying software, you probably have more than one supplier on your list (I hope, otherwise you are […]

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You know what information system you want to purchase, and even more important, why you need it. Now the tricky question is who to invite to participate in the software selection extravaganza; which vendors to pick for your first round?
The suppliers in this first round are put on a list: the long list. They will […]

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Very early at the start of the selection you should determine what the exact criteria are for selecting a certain piece of software. You will ask the vendors questions. They will answer you. And then what? Look who has the nicest handwriting? You have to think about this up front.
It's even worse… the questions you […]

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4.2 Target process
There is always some part of your organization affected by the software you want to acquire. New systems generate generally new ways of working, new process flows. You don't have to have the new software to envision the working process of the near future. It's essential for the selection process you put something […]

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