Vendor selection

There are at least 70 enterprise and e-commerce search vendors. Many of these are small companies and are almost certainly unknown even to large IT departments who will have little experience of assessing the suitability of potential candidates.

Selecting an initial 6-8 vendors to send out the initial Request for Information (RoI) can be a daunting task. It is very difficult to assess the strengths and weaknesses of search software vendors from their web sites.

A major contribution I can make to my clients is to provide an initial list of perhaps 10-12 vendors and then work with the client to narrow down the list for the RoI. Over the last few years I have worked with a wide range of search software vendors and have a good sense of the way in which they approach prospective customers and also manage the progress of the procurement process.
There is also often a requirement to select a specialist search implementation company as many vendors either do not provide any significant implementation support or do so only in their country of origin.

Using my services to develop a short list also means that your identity can be concealed from the vendor and you are not in the position of having follow-up contacts from companies that you have decided do not meet your core requirements.

Another benefit for your organisation is that because of my experience and expertise they will place a high priority on the potential project as they know that I will