Business System Consultation Center - Our Business System ColumnVol.105 2020.10.01 Takahashi Minoru

Make a mistake on a video call and the salesperson will lose respect for you

Thank you for your interest and continued support.
This is Takahashi from the Marketing Plan Research Laboratory.


If you tell a salesperson, “I don’t know anything,”
you will undoubtedly be ripped off if they are unscrupulous.


To protect your company and to obtain a good system as quickly as possible,
before you even begin evaluating systems,
here are some examples of things you should consider beforehand.


① Who will build the system?
・In-house development (developing it yourself or having employees develop it)
・Outsource development (have a system vendor build it)
・Purchase an off-the-shelf product (package software)
・In-house development → Outsourcing (Create a prototype in-house using Excel, etc., and outsource if it proves unfeasible)


② Who to hire for outsourcing
・Individual SE
・Rely on former employees
・Corporate IT firms
・Other software vendors, office automation vendors (package software resellers)


③ When the outsourcing provider is a company
・Scale (number of employees, capital)
・Nationality
・Specialized technologies and fields
・Whether a maintenance service contract is in place
・Distribution channel (direct sales by the manufacturer or indirect sales through dealers)


④ Balance with Costs
Ensure that the factors listed in ①, ②, and ③ are not out of balance with the costs (development and maintenance fees)
“You can’t order a massive system from an individual SE”
“It’s not cost-effective to ask a major systems integrator to build a small order system”
“For a service of this scale, I’d prefer to contract directly with the manufacturer rather than through a reseller”
etc.


⑤ Who will use the system? (Multiple selections allowed)
・Employees (Total number from which departments?)
・Management
・Business partners
・General public


⑥ Payment method
・Cash
・Credit Card
・Lease agreement


⑦ How to Start Your Search
・Ask people you know
・Visit other businesses in the same industry for guidance
・Solicit feedback from employees
・Contact the numbers listed on flyers
・Search on Yahoo (if you’re open to packaged software, you’ll find plenty of options this way)


That’s all.
If you can decide on the items listed above up to #7,
you should be able to take the next step right away.


That's all, Thank you for reading.

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