Research Vendor Solutions
Many of the problems and opportunities that companies want to address with new information systems have already been solved by other companies. In addition, consulting firms often have experience with the same problems, and software firms may have already packaged solutions for a particular business need. Taking advantage of existing knowledge or solutions can avoid costly mistakes and save time and money. There are three positive contributions and one danger in exploring existing solutions. First, researching existing solutions will frequently help users generate.new ideas for how to better perform their business functions. Seeing how someone else solved a problem and applying that idea to the culture and structure of the existing organization will often provide viable alternative solutions for business needs