One other potential obstacle that you can face is what I like to call the marketing hype syndrome. Effectively, what happens is, while you're shopping around for the latest and greatest, or at least a decent technology for your company, You will invariably get plenty of sales promotions. And you will have to learn to separate the wheat from the chaff or another words, you'll have to find out what is fact and what is fiction. There are ways to cut down on the amounts of BS that you'll have to cut through, the one thing you can do is read industry standard magazines, which provide independent and quality assessment on the latest technologies for business. Perhaps there is something that you read in a magazine last week that talked about a great entry-level costing teleconference system that may be perfect for you. Over time, you will notice the same names and manufacturers or service providers come up at the tip of the big kahunas mouths - over and over again. This is the sign that these are probably the more prominent and trustworthy solutions that are available to anyone at any given time. This is not to say that the underdogs of the market do not necessarily have the "goods", but may possess lesser advertising dollars, or marketing muscle in general. But in the fast-paced economy, you want make sure that you get to the meat, as soon as possible and stop wasting time with the little details. One factor although not explicitly stated outright is definitely the size of your organization. A smaller organization will rely on different needs, as opposed to a larger organization which has more resources, larger staff, and perhaps have a more scattered staff around the world. It's important to be aware of these little nuances as you move from organization to organization. |
