Basics of the software buy
By Staff -- Purchasing, 3/1/2007 2:00:00 AM
Picking the right software tools for improving your purchasing operations is a time-consuming and sometimes-daunting task. Which, of course, makes it similar to the process for buying any critical component, whether a commodity, logistics services, electronics subassemblies or travel.
To make it easier, just follow the basics: analyze your true needs, analyze the supply market, build a budget, justify it and test the alternative products.
On the following pages, Purchasing editors take you through some of the steps that come after your analysis of your needs. We begin with how to get the budget you need for the software you want. One of the keys: think like a CFO or other corporate manager. Next consider the hidden costs. Following that is a special listing of spend analysis software products, including the most important features of each according to the software developers themselves. And last, we describe how another type of software, PLM, is giving more visibility to purchasing.
But there's a lot more to our special coverage. On www.purchasing.com/software, view videos of readers like you reviewing spend analysis software packages. And then, send us your own tips to help others.
Read the software series:
PLM gets buyers under the hood
5 'musts' for justifying IT budgets
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