Talk to your vendor

This letter was written by Alan Ingram (Technical Director) and published by PC Pro magazine in their August 2018 edition (issue 286).

I read your article on document management (see issue 285, p102) with interest, as I run an IT consultancy specialising in data capture and workflow. Eddie Ginja recommended that “business should identify exactly what the business need is”, which is good advice, but he goes on to recommend creating a list of requirements, what you want it to do and how much you want to spend; this is the point at which I would urge engaging with likely vendors.

All too often, we vendors are given soulless lists of requirements and asked to put a tick against the ones we can do.

All too often, we vendors are given soulless lists of requirements and asked to put a tick against the ones we can do. If we tick the right boxes and it progresses, more often than not we find the list of features was created without any real understanding of what technology can offer or how best it can be used to meet the business objectives.

That’s a shame, as it’s that guidance that companies such as ours provide. Engaging with vendors gives customers the opportunity to plan a better solution and allows vendors to prove their worth even before money has changed hands.