By Reed Cundiff of 

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In every IT selection process, user organizations are faced with the decision of whether or not to gather information from client reference sites. On one hand, the majority of information on which users base their decisions comes directly from the vendor itself. Client references provide the opportunity to talk to users who have gone through the implementation process, who have the products running, and determine the true functional and technical capabilities of the product. Conversely, gathering useful information from client references is a difficult process. References are often either unwilling to devote the time for in-depth analysis of their use of the technology, have little comparative information of how one vendor functions relative to another, or are biased (intentionally or not) based on their financial and sometimes emotional commitment to their vendor of choice. While gathering valuable information from client reference sites is not a simple or easy process, we strongly recommend that user organizations take the time and effort to examine the capabilities of the vendor in a live installation.

To facilitate this process, we have provided a sample structure of questions to pose to vendor references during the site visit process. The scope of criteria ranges from the functional and technical capabilities of the reviewed product, to the quality of service and support offered by the vendor, to the initial and ongoing costs of the application. Having a consistent set of questions through the entire site visit process will allow any project team to better evaluate each vendor's performance relative to one another. To provide a tangible example, questions have been included with respect to a financial system selection.

The Author

Reed Cundiff is Executive Vice President of TechnologyEvaluation.COM. In this role, Mr. Cundiff manages TechnologyEvaluation.COM's global service delivery process and its Business Applications and Data Warehousing practices. Mr. Cundiff is also the creator of TechnologyEvaluation.COM's patent pending Technology Acquisition Methodology.

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