Question

Define a list of criteria that you would use to evaluate a commercial off the shelf system.

Answer 1

1. First of all it is important to acknowledge that the process of selecting a COTS software product must be transparent and controlled.

2. Without a clear understanding of what the product must support in terms of business processes and regulations, it is impossible to carry out a vendor and product evaluation that is aligned with business goals. Therefore I need to have a clear understanding of the regulations.

3. One need to prioritise the organizations, Once the business critical areas have been prioritised, the final assessment calculation will reflect what is most important to the organisation.

4.  Next you should identify your potential candidates, You have to use your network in other organisations to learn about the type of software they use, search for information on the internet, and consider purchasing reports from analyst companies – they might save you a lot of time.

5. Now you should ask questions to the vendor so prepare a goos set of questions. As well as an insight into the vendor’s responsiveness and professionalism, the questionnaire can also help reveal information about product references, product strategy and upcoming product releases.

6. Once you evaluate the results you should be in a position to evaluate the scores and invite the vendors for your products.

7.Capture every bit of details that you have egarding the sales. try to plot x-y graphs and try to analyze and make the best analytical decisions come out of it.

8. Prepare report based on the statistics that you have gained.

9. Now after detailed statistics and report get back to choose or select a few vendors with whom you are meeting the maximum requirements and also your profit is maximized. If not many you can also choose only one.

10. Now create the contract with the company with clear guidelines and evaluation criterions. Done properly, this will be a valuable guiding light throughout the process, and help you create transparency.