Lozinsky, S. (1988). Chapter 1, “Making the Decision to Acquire a Software Package.” Planning the Selection Process. Enterprise-wide software solutions: integration strategies and practices, Addison-Wesley, Reading Massachusetts, 12-14.>
This section of the chapter explains the options a company has in investigating and selecting a possible ES. It specifically outlines the option of hiring a consultant to assist the evaluation team in the selection process. Hiring consultants have a number of advantages, one being that their input is a way of bringing proven methodology to the decision-making process and guaranteeing a degree of technical impartiality.
In relation to the above question, the problems arising with IT department solely evaluating products and recommending an ES, is that it will be a narrow investigation. As the IT department will not know of other departments requirements, and vital information may be overlooked. Thus a company needs to either form a Decision-making team, made up of individuals from all departments and managements within the company, or hire consultants with experience in the decision-making process in selecting an appropriate ES.
Meeting the business requirements should take preference when selecting an ES, and the IT department will not be able to meet these when only being able to consider their own department and preferred technical infrastructure. Obviously, contracting with consultants at this stage of an ES project means additional expense, but the investment will be money well spent in the long run, compared to that of the problems arising by ONLY having the IT department to run the selecting process.
