Purchase Choice
Purchase choice is the essence of life in the 21century. From the smallest everyday decision to select lunch from a restaurant menu, to buying a new car, to multi million sourcing decisions by global corporations, purchase decisions present themselves at every juncture of our lives.
And these choices are anything but simple. Being pummeled by advertising messages from all directions from marketers enticing buyers to buy their wares, conclusively proving how their product or service is "the best", is enough to overwhelm anybody.
Seductive as these messages are, and easy as it may be to be swayed by the promises, no product or service is quite the same. The difference may be that of price, quality, feature set, after sales service, durability, or a variety of other factors that make up a product or service.
It is therefore important to retain objectivity and to develop a systematic approach the buying decision. One should weigh what is on offer against what the need is. And take a broad foresighted view, rather than a myopic view based only on immediate features and price. Hasty decisions leave us with flashy features which we never end up using, constantly spending on repairs of products that came cheap, or simply customer service numbers which do nothing but ring.
For example, when buying a car, one considers a myriad of factors which impact the buyer for the next decade. These are company reputation, performance versus style, price, safety, availability and attractiveness of finance, mileage, maintenance costs, etc and only then is an intelligent decision arrived at. Even simpler decision like buying a pair of jogging shoes, or service choice between different cable or internet service providers, involve a weighing of factors.
Selecting Software
In many ways, selecting software, though it doesn't neatly fit into either category, is no different from selecting a product or service. Although intangible, software like products and services, address a particular need - a need which is very palpable for the buyer. It could be an imaging studio for a photographer, collaborative software to organize traveling employees all over the world, or a word editor to manage personal and professional documents.
Like with selecting products, we need to be clearly aware of the answer to the question - "What need am I looking to address?" A lack of clarity is often what marketers encash by unloading glamorous features onto the buyer.
As with products, every software purchase decision entails a "life cycle" cost. This could be cost of hiring experts to run and maintain the software or simply the cost of lost business or opportunities when the software fails to perform when it matters. If anything, one needs to be more cautious than with products. This is because the "internet startup" is known to be a fleeting phenomenon, and one may be left with software the creator of which has long since disappeared.
It would be right to say that expertise in selecting software is somewhat less developed than expertise in product purchases. Often, the pitfalls of half thought out decisions are encountered only after the purchase has been made. This may be because of the relative recency of softwares, and a lack of precise awareness about what software's life cycle entails. A common problem is that of an overemphasis on a single factor - most often technical features.
Why is it important to choose the right software?
It is important that we get our software decision right the first time. Once we commit to a software, and integrate it with our systems, opting out may not be easy. Moreover, problems don't emerge at the beginning, and only reveal themselves gradually, by which time we may have invested too heavily in the software. This would leave us burdened with a below par solution.
The Common Mistake
Most often the culprit for bad software decisions is the lack of a broad enough approach and an emphasis on a single or a few factors. Most often, this single factor is the features or technical specifications of the software.
This mistake is perhaps not so hard to understand, because technicalities and features are well documented and advertised, and right in front of the buyer to analyze and use as decision criteria. But with this approach, there are other factors which are just as pertinent, but not so immediately obvious, which get left out. Some research and serious thinking needs is needed to gauge these "hidden" factors, efforts which many buyers shy away from.
But this effort is essential, and a holistic approach considering all pertinent factors is absolutely necessary if one wants to protect against subsequent efforts, costs and sub optimal performance.
Key Software Purchase Criteria
As mentioned above, technicalities are important but not the sole criteria. A compulsory checklist of questions that must be considered for software purchase is as follows:-
- How long has the company been around? Has it delivered its promises?
- What is the price?
- How long is the learning curve? How easily can the software be integrated with existing systems?
- Is the working and interface familiar?
- Is my data safe?
This simple looking checklist goes a long way to separate the pros from the rookies. The purchaser will discover than most solutions are found wanting on one or more of the above counts.
