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Buy Existing System

The principal advantage to be gained by purchasing a system off-the-shelf is that someone else claims that it will work for you and further guarantees that they will support your implementation of their software. As with any vendor, you are negotiating a relationship of mutual benefit. Always spend more time researching the company and their references than you spend listening to the sales pitch.

Things to avoid when shopping for a system:

Some of the main advantages and risks of buying an off-the-shelf content reuse system:

Advantage Risk
You are buying a proven product: it worked somewhere else. If it doesn't work for you, what's wrong with you?
Your business processes are constrained to follow a proven model. Your processes are constrained whether that makes any sense for your organization or not.
Without spending a large amount of your own capital, you benefit from receiving regular software updates. The updates may wander further and further from your core needs, requiring more and more expensive customization.
You can budget a more or less fixed cost for support and custom services That budget may be inadequate to meet your organization's needs. The vendor may have no additional resources to meet extraordinary needs.
You are investing in a limited system, providing benefit against cost. Unlike a home grown system, which must be continually justified. You cannot, with just a little more expense or effort reap any more result from the system.


next up previous index
Next: Return on Investment Up: Implementing a Unified Content Previous: Build Your Own   Index
root 2003-07-21