Off-The-Shelf IT Solutions : A practitioner's guide to selection and procurement

This practical book presents a proven decision-making process to help IT and business managers select the off-the-shelf software product that best fits the needs of their organisation, whether in the commercial or public sector. Offering a structured approach to managing stakeholders, requirements and candidate IT vendors, this practical 'how-to' guide will help deliver a rigorous, defensible decision within an aggressive timescale. Despite the sophistication of modern off-the-shelf IT packages, most organisations find they don't get the benefits they expected. This book presents a proven decision-making process to help IT and business managers select the off-the-shelf software package that best fits the needs of their organisation, whether in the commercial or public sector. Offering a structured approach to managing stakeholders, requirements and candidate IT vendors, this 'how-to' guide will help IT and business managers deliver a rigorous, defensible decision within an aggressive timescale. As well as illustrating the techniques, it includes case studies from business managers who have been through the process. -- Edited summary from book Introduction - Purpose And Principles 1 Introduction To Off-the-shelf Solutions 2 Talent Management - Supplier Psychology 3 Initiation - Shaping And Authorising The Project 4 Requirements Analysis - Capturing The Organisationalneeds 5 Requirements Document - Documenting And Agreeingrequirements 6 Trawling The Marketplace - Establishing The Longlist 7 Assessing Longlist Candidates - Selecting The Shortlistusing The Rfi 8 Detailed Evaluation - Assessing The Shortlistedcandidates 9 Scoring - Establishing Degree Of Fit And Ranking 10 Demonstrations - Proving The Best Fit 11 Reference Sites - Real. This practical book presents a proven decision-making process to help IT and business managers select the off-the-shelf software product that best fits the needs of their organisation. Suitable for all sectors, it offers a structured approach to managing stakeholders, requirements and candidate IT vendors.