Buying Complex It Systems: A Practical Guide to Computer System Procurement for Managers

Many of us have had experiences of using IT systems at work that just don’t work right or cause more problems than they solve. Even if we’ve been lucky at work and always had the opportunity to use well-built and functional IT systems, it’s common to hear in the press or in our day-to-day lives about IT systems that are ＂down＂ or ＂slow＂, or just do not work right.

While it can be inconvenient to have to use IT systems that aren’t the best for businesses, buying an IT system that isn’t fit for its intended purpose can have devastating effects on the business itself and the careers of the people involved. The senior team of any business will know everything there is to know about their specific business or market, but their job is not to implement IT systems. This brings an inherent unfairness to IT systems procurement because it makes it very easy to buy the wrong thing at the wrong price. In essence, the buyers are amateurs but the sellers are professionals. This mismatch is at the root of the majority IT systems failures - a problem which might cost a company millions of dollars and negatively impact work.

This book is intended to be a practical manual for senior leaders in small-to-medium businesses that will teach them how to buy IT systems effectively - i.e. to somewhat transform the non-IT senior leadership personnel such that they are more informed and capable buyers. There are a million-and-one potholes that can trip up a business, even when buying from an otherwise effective and reputable seller, and this book looks to make it far more likely that the reader will buy the right system, at the right price. The author uses his extensive experience to highlight problem areas and offer solutions to eliminate them.

Matthew Reynolds is the CEO of ＂It’s What’s Next IT＂, a consultancy and IT support business. He’s a 30-year professional within the UK software industry. He has helped scores of SMEs over his career to build and implement better IT systems. He works as a combined ＂technical project mediator＂ and expert witness. It’s his job to either rescue failed or failing project so that they can deliver the value that was intended in the first place, or to help the business to effectively litigate against suppliers.

Matthew wrote his first book on software engineering, Beginning E-commerce in 1999 for Wrox Press. Since, he has authored or co-authored a half-dozen more books for Wrox Press in addition to publishing with O’Reilly and Kogan Page. He was also a columnist for the Guardian and general consumer and business computing, and was also a columnist for ZDNet.