1. Chapter 8 Product Evaluation Strategies and Support Standards
IFS410 End User Support
Chapter 8
Product Evaluation Strategies and Support Standards

2. Product Evaluation Strategies
Who within an organization should be tasked with evaluating new products?
Should hardware and software be valuated by the same group(s)?
Beware of emotional attachments
Clarify “Wants” versus “Needs”
Ultimate purpose of tools?
Gain and sustain competitive advantage via efficient and effective use

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
Who ultimately makes / approves the recommendation?

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
History of Product Standards
Significant incompatibility among computer products
Incompatible platforms were viewed as a marketing advantage
Framework Example

5. Problems Caused by Product Incompatibility
Limited ability to transfer data between systems and between users – Still exists today to a point. Tools?
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

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
TI, Compaq, TRS,
adopt standard operating systems, and in the 1990s, standard network operating systems
Banyan, Novell, AppleTalk
limit the choice of application software to a few standard application packages in each software category
WordPerfect, Lotus 123

7. Product Evaluation Strategies
Microsoft
WHY ?
Is that acceptable? Should it be acceptable?

8. 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
Potentially a career make or break

9. Resources Available to Help Evaluate Computer Products
Vendor literature, marketing information, Web sites, and user manuals
Demonstrations and evaluation software (Shareware)
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
Opinions of colleagues  Personally my Favorite

10. Industry (Trade) Periodicals that Publish Product Comparisons
Computing Review
InfoWorld
MacWorld
MaximumPC
Network Computing
PC Magazine
PCWorld
Smart Computing
Tom’s Hardware Guide
ZDNet
Business Publications (Wall Street Journal)

11. 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
ASP’s (Application Service Providers)

12. Product Decision-making Tools
Industry standard or best-selling products
Products used by competitors  Me To?
Benchmarks
Weighted point evaluation method
Request for proposal (RFP)
Acknowledged subjective criteria

13. Industry Standard Best-selling Products
Industry standard products are computer products that are market leaders in sales (defacto standards)
Not really a “standard” defined by an independent organization, such as the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) or International Standards Organization (ISO)
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

14. Examples of “Defacto” Standards
Networking Protocol = Ethernet and TCP/IP
Networking Equipment = Cisco
Publishing = Apple
Printers = HP
Office software = Microsoft Office
Database = Oracle
Mainframe = IBM
Payroll = ADP

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

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
Competitive standpoint careful of ‘Me To’

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
Benchmarks are confusing / complicated
Every vendors product does well on a benchmark

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

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

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
Purpose: Make evaluation as objective (emotionless) as possible

21. Examples of Criteria Used in Weighted Point Evaluation Method
continued

22. Example of Weighted Point Evaluation Results
Research Colleagues, trade publications
24x7, Quality, Locale

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

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
continued

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
Be careful when using

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

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

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

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

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

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

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