Ways of Finding Software Vendors: The Pro's and Con's

The most frequently asked follow-up question to my article, Software Selection: An Approach, was How do I find potential software vendors? Obviously, this is a critical question if the objective is to identify the best software solution to satisfying the business requirements of your company. The good news is that, before the Internet, you could go blind performing a search of the literature. The bad news is that, even with the Internet, you could still be searching for the proverbial needle in the software haystack. This article discusses four sources and methods for identifying software vendors and the pro's and con's of each approach. These methods are the Internet, the competition, industry trade groups, and selection services. While there may be others, this group of methods should give you plenty to think about and allow you to draw some logical conclusions as to which method works best in your situation.

Assuming that you already have access to the Internet, an Internet search is the quickest and cheapest way to find potential software vendors. Well, that's it for the pro's. Let's face it, who controls what you read or find to the Internet? Typically, it is the information contained on the vendor's website, which is placed there by the vendor. Then, you have to contend on strategies employed by the search engines in ranking the results. Even with vendors being identified, you must sift through the rhetoric and over-hype to determine what is relevant to your company.

At best, an Internet search will provide some idea as to how daunting of a task lies ahead of you. But you still have much work to do before qualifying a vendor to address your company's critical business needs. Use the results of the Internet search to help you plan and scope out the level of effort that will be required to complete the software selection project.