Using RFIs in the Procurement Process

24-Feb-2010 By Alan Pelz-Sharpe
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With most prospective technology buyers, great effort is normally expended on an RFP process at the cost of the RFI. In fact, there often is no RFI, which is backward thinking; the purpose of an RFI is to gather information so that you can make better decisions. It is also a key tool for early elimination of those suppliers that cannot or should not be working with you.

Making Sense of Software Licensing

23-Feb-2010 By Alan Pelz-Sharpe
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Pricing for any enterprise software application can be difficult to negotiate. Sometimes this is a deliberate attempt, where vendors mask the true cost of the solution. In other cases, it simply is due to a very large set of software packages that make up a "suite" solution, with a myriad of possibly required combinations.

How the New Platforms vs. Products Debate Impacts Your Success

23-Feb-2010 By Tony Byrne
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An important, yet rarely acknowledged architectural and product development shift has transpired over the past couple of years in the content technology marketplaces we cover. The debate has shifted from "Suite vs. Best of Breed" to "Platform vs. Product." This is partly a natural evolution in vendor marketing as technologies and marketplaces mature. Yet this shift also has profound implications for you, the customer. Beyond the normal criteria of cost, functional fit, and vendor fit, you need to assess a tool's position on the Platform-Product continuum against internal needs and capabilities.

Options for Search in SharePoint 2010: A First Look

19-Feb-2010 By Adriaan Bloem with Shawn Shell , Tony Byrne
For subscribers to: ECM, Enterprise, Search stream(s)

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In early 2008 when Microsoft acquired Norwegian FAST Search & Transfer, it picked up time-tested enterprise search technology to supplement Redmond's otherwise mid-market-oriented search tools. FAST’s "ESP" offerings (though built on a non-Microsoft stack) enabled the company to address the kinds of complex, multi-repository enterprise search scenarios that SharePoint Search (for example) was never able to fulfill.

This left several open questions as Microsoft prepared its next triennial SharePoint update:

1. How much would Microsoft improve SharePoint’s native search services?
2. How soon would Microsoft release a truly SharePoint-optimized version of FAST?
3. How do these options pan out in the real world?

Download this paper to get answers.