1. Chapter 8 Product Evaluation Strategies and Support Standards

2. Learning Objectives How product standards emerged
Common tools and methods analysts use to evaluate and select computer products
How organizations develop and implement product standards
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3. User Support Role in Product Standards
Support workers often have expertise to evaluate competing products many employees do not have
Eliminates duplication of effort if many employees individually evaluate products
Support employees can act as liaison between users and IT staff to represent viewpoints of each group
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4. How Product Standards Emerged
Product standards are lists of hardware, operating systems, network and applications software products selected to meet the needs of end users
During 1980s
Significant incompatibility among computer products
Incompatible platforms were viewed as a marketing advantage
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5. Problems Caused by Product Incompatibility
Limited ability to transfer data between systems and between users
Excessive inventory of parts required to support multiple vendors’ systems
Difficulty to train and equip hardware service technicians
User skills not transferable to other systems
Increased cost to support incompatible systems
Support staff couldn’t be experts on all systems
Training had to be targeted to specific platforms
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6. Early Development of Product Standards
During 1980s, to reduce acquisition and support costs, companies began to
standardize on a few selected hardware platforms designed to meet users’ needs
adopt standard operating systems, and in the 1990s, standard network operating systems
limit the choice of application software to a few standard application packages in each software category
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7. Methods for Evaluating and Selecting Computer Products
Product evaluation is a process of researching and analyzing computer product features, capabilities, and suitability to solve specific user needs
Product evaluation process
Collect product information
Test, compare, and evaluate advantages and disadvantages of competing products
Make decisions or recommendations
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8. Resources Available to Help Evaluate Computer Products
Vendor literature, marketing information, Web sites, and user manuals
Demonstrations and evaluation software
Product reviews and comparison articles in computer periodicals and in e-zines on the Web
An e-zine is an electronic magazine organized like a print publication, but distributed via the Internet
Opinions from industry experts in trade publications and Internet news groups
Opinions of employees who have experience with various products
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9. Sample Sources of Product Information: Web sites
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10. Sample Sources of Product Information: Trade Publications
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11. Industry (Trade) Periodicals that Publish Product Comparisons
Computing Review
InfoWorld
MacWorld
MaximumPC
Network Computing
PC Magazine
PCWorld
Smart Computing
Tom’s Hardware Guide
ZDNet
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12. Software Evaluations
A software evaluation copy permits support staff to
try out a product’s features
assess a product’s ability to meet user needs
Software evaluation copies
Distributed via
CD-ROM
Internet download
May have limited features
May operate for a limited trial period
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13. Product Decision-making Tools
Industry standard or best-selling products
Products used by competitors
Benchmarks
Weighted point evaluation method
Request for proposal (RFP)
Acknowledged subjective criteria
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14. Industry Standard Best-selling Products
Industry standard products are computer products that are market leaders in sales
Not really a “standard” defined by an independent organization, such as the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
Advantages
Can reduce support costs
Likely to be targeted by trade book publishers, training materials developers, and support service vendors
Disadvantages
May not meet needs of specialized users
Standards based on market share change over time
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15. Adopting Industry Standard or Best-selling Products
Get user input before making software selection decision
Find out which products end users have experience with
Identify advantages and disadvantages of competing products for specialized tasks
Learn whether users have preferences among products
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16. Products Competitors Use
Competitors may have thoroughly researched the market and identified strategic reasons for adopting products, especially in niche markets
A niche or vertical market is a software market that is highly specialized to a specific industry
Example: software for title companies`
Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of products that competitors use
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17. Benchmarks
Benchmark is an objective test used to compare the capabilities of competing products
Benchmarks are unbiased because they use objective evaluation criteria that are not influenced by personal opinion
Benchmarks try to eliminate extraneous variables that could bias the results of a product comparison
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18. Benchmarks (continued)
Benchmarks can be used to evaluate
Hardware
Speed
Capacity
Software
User productivity
Vendors that provide hardware and software benchmarks
Business Applications Performance (BAPCO)
PassMark
Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation
VeriTest
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19. Weighted Point Evaluation Method
Weighted Point Evaluation Method uses several evaluation criteria of predefined importance to arrive at a numerical score for each product
also called Kepner-Tregoe method
Goal: to make the evaluation and selection process as objective as possible
Treat competing products equally
Eliminate favoritism or bias among evaluators
Force evaluators to specify in advance the important factors in evaluation
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20. Steps in Weighted Point Evaluation Method
1. Decide on evaluation criteria
2. Determine importance of each criterion
3. Rate each product against all evaluation criteria
4. Compute average rating for each product for each criterion
5. Weight the product rating by the importance of the criterion
6. Compute the total rating for each product
7. Compare product ratings
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21. Examples of Criteria Used in Weighted Point Evaluation Method
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22. Example of Weighted Point Evaluation Results
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23. The Request for Proposal (RFP)
Request for Proposal (RFP) is a product selection or competitive bidding procedure that uses objective criteria to select among products proposed by vendors
Often used as the basis for awarding a contract to provide computer products
May be a legal requirement for computer selection in public agencies
An objective product and vendor selection tool
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24. Primary Steps in the RFP Process
1. Conduct a needs analysis
2. Develop a purchase specification
3. Define
decision criteria
importance of each criterion
4. Write the RFP document
5. Send the RFP to prospective vendors
6. Receive vendor proposals
describes how vendor’s products address user requirements
bid price
7. Analyze vendor responses to the RFP
often uses weighted point evaluation tools
8. Select a vendor and award the contract
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25. Subjective Evaluation Criteria
Subjective evaluation criteria are factors that are not directly related to the fit between product features and user needs
Based on:
personal relationships
convenience
personal preferences
traditional practices
Are neither measurable nor repeatable from one evaluator to another
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26. Product Support Standards
Help control user support costs by limiting the number of hardware and software options users can choose
May offer options to balance two extremes
One-size fits all
Buy whatever you want
Often adopted by larger organizations with a substantial investment in computer technology because the potential for waste is so large
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27. How Organizations Develop Computer Product and Support Standards
Company computer culture
Historic computer traditions
Product standards committee is a group which defines computer product standards and coordinates their use
Composed of
support specialists
end users
technical support staff
management
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28. Changes in Computer Product Standards
Changes in computer product standards may be met with user resistance
Users are comfortable with existing standard
If it ain’t broke, why fix it?
Changes in standards should
be discussed with users
involve users in decisions
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29. Computer Use Standards
Acceptable use guidelines are policies adopted by an organization about how users are permitted and not permitted to use computer systems
Activities that are prohibited by organizational policy
Activities that are illegal
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30. How Organizations Implement Computer Product Standards
Adoption and implementation of product and service standards is influenced by:
Investment in existing hardware and software
Continual arrival of new products, services, and product upgrades
Conversion to new standards
can result in loss of employee productivity during transition period
can be phased in over time
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31. Criteria Used to Update Product Standards
New products offer technical improvements
New product features may improve user productivity
Employee preferences change over time
New products offer cost savings
New products may be compatible with or set new industry standards
New products become best-sellers
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32. Adopting or Modifying Technology Standards
Requires analysis and evaluation of products and services
Triggers potential support cost increases for installation, upgrades, training, documentation, trouble-shooting, and help desk services
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33. Chapter Summary
In order to reduce computer product and support costs and increase compatibility, many organizations began to develop product standards during the 1980s
User support staff often evaluate computer products and services to be able to make recommendations to users that will meet their needs
Support staff use a variety of information resources to evaluate computer products
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34. Chapter Summary (continued)
Aids to product evaluation and selection decisions
Industry standards
Best-selling products
Products used by competitors
Benchmarks
Weighted Point Evaluation Method
Request for Proposals (RFP)
Product standards are based on
company culture or tradition
decisions by a product standards committee
Organizations also adopt acceptable use policies to communicate what uses are and are not permitted
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