How Do You Know Whether the Product You’re Buying Will Work for You?

Over my entire career, as a technical, non-engineer selling to engineers, I’ve always been in a quandary on how to evaluate the products my company has either bought or sold. Too often how a product suits a specific application is at least a partial mystery until you actually implement it. Industry-wide, 50% of all new projects fail; either because the product didn’t work, didn’t suit the application or the engineers didn’t implement it adequately.

Those kinds of statistics make most people cautious when embarking on a new project. But you can’t remain in your cave, you have to act to get things done. Technology does improve and there are many products out there that will help your company and you in your job. If you’re buying a product new to you, what should you do?

Well, nothing beats industry acceptance. I become a believer when users tell me a product is good. You, as a buyer, can benefit from the same approach. With so many products out there, and so many differing situations, it’s still not an easy or certain process but there are ways.

What do I recommend?

• Check industry acceptance by reading white papers, talking to references and product reviews by analysts and reviewers.
• Take your own test drive – whether an evaluation or simply reading through the documentation. Are the product features, documentation and support truly there and not just on a page on the website?
• In today’s world, where websites and emails can be created by anyone, you really need to make sure there’s an entire company behind the website. Does the customer list look real, do other companies know of this company, are they an approved vendor to your company, is the copyright on the website up to date, do they stand behind their technology, and do they tell you who the executives are?
• When you have a question, does someone answer your phone call, do you get a quick reply to your email, and does it feel like it isn’t the first time they’ve dealt with a customer? When you have a problem, do you get a quick, correct answer or at least a thoughtful question back?

Every company and product has good and bad things to relate – do your homework. Never make a decision on the basis of one data point.

In Snowbound’s case, we have twelve years of experience solving problems for demanding developers with challenging requirements. When we can point to so many that have successfully continued to use our product for all these years, we know we’re doing something right.