Business System Consultation Center - Our Business System ColumnVol.181 2026.11.01 高橋実

Never Place an Order Before Meeting the SE Who Will Be Assigned to Your Project

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

When you sit down to discuss a system procurement deal, who is actually across the table from you?

- A salesperson
- A sales manager, occasionally an executive
- Sometimes a company president makes an appearance at the end?

In most cases, it's a combination of the above — and the SE (systems engineer) who will actually build your system often doesn't appear until after the contract is signed.

For off-the-shelf package software with no customization, this isn't really a problem. You're buying a finished product, so trying out a trial version and listening to the salesperson's explanation is usually enough to make a decision.

The situation changes the moment any customization is involved — or when you're having a system built to order.

In these cases, it's not the salesperson who determines the quality of the system — it's the assigned SE. It's the SE who will talk with you, understand your business processes, and translate everything into screen layouts and report formats.

No matter how personable or knowledgeable the salesperson may be, if communication breaks down with the SE, you'll find yourself re-explaining everything from scratch at every meeting. And it's your own staff on the ground who will bear that burden.

Make sure you speak with the SE who will be assigned to your project before you place your order. Have a conversation about your business operations and pay attention to:

- What kinds of questions do they ask?
- Can they restate your explanation back to you in their own words?
- Are they willing to tell you honestly when something isn't possible?

Even a brief conversation should give you a reasonable sense of what to expect in terms of quality.

If you're told, "The SE will be assigned after the contract is signed," that's your cue to stop and reconsider. It's not an overstatement to say: never place an order before the assigned SE has been introduced to you.

We hope this helps as you evaluate potential system vendors.

That's all, Thank you for reading.

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