Wednesday, 12 February 2014

Tips For Buying Business Software

By Marion Peters


Identifying the right business software can be very stressful. This is because going for the wrong program will cost the company tons of money. This type of decision will be a long term investment and there will definitely be reputations that will be on the line. One will therefore need to make sure that he goes for the right applications.

When sourcing for applications, there are key areas that the involved department needs to avoid. These are; contracts that go on for a long time, an architecture that is closed up, upfront investments which come with very high implementation costs. A dept will also need to avoid any architecture that comes in the form of install and maintain.

Consider buying an application that is cloud based. Applications running on the cloud platform are very easy to maintain and run. They do not usually come with any high maintenance and set up costs especially where hardware is concerned.

It will be important to ensure that any system being considered does come with an open architecture. In this type of architecture, it becomes very easy to integrate the new system with the products that were already in place. Products that have to be integrated will include company websites, payroll systems and the recruitment portals.

Consider going for products that offer real trials. This is referred to as the real try it before paying for it program. It allows a department to use the program in a real life situation within the company for some period of time before starting to pay for it.

Always consider what type of support will be offered for the applications once they have been purchased. Companies cannot afford to have their systems unreachable for more than a few minutes. Real time support ought to be available which should also guarantee a very fast turn around time.

Contracts that are to be signed should be for a short duration. Any contract exceeding more than a few months is considered a lock in contract. It could prevent a client from moving on to another firm even when it is not satisfied with the services being offered to it.

Business software should be integrated with the company social networks. Many firms are now using social networks to not only promote services, but also liaise with their partners and service providers. An application that cannot be connected with the social networks will therefore not be very helpful.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment