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Technology Accountability: Page 2 of 3

Arguably, integration is the stuff you figure out after you're stuck with the goods, some six months past your rollout milestone and six figures into the consultant. We all know where the blame will rest, so now we ask questions first: Are my servers and storage properly sized, databases tuned, networks architected?

Vendor viability and business value are not the typical playgrounds of the technology-inclined, but suddenly we're being asked to justify the damn stuff. Business value refers to how technology can enhance the way an organization does business, thinks about new business processes or collapses existing ones.

To wit: Despite the sales pitch, voice over IP ultimately isn't about efficiencies squeezed from smaller staff and a consolidated infrastructure, but about what you can do with a converged network. Spare us the phone-number portability crap. That's a cute trick, but it's hardly going to make our customers better salespeople/HR managers/financial planners. Tell us about tying the system into customer data--and then we'll listen.

This discussion must go hand-in-hand with an honest evaluation of what it will take to get there--the hidden costs, deployment time, impact. Talk of value is nice, and vendors blabber about it endlessly, but let's not mistake promise for achievement.

Speaking of which, it's nice that innovation still happens, but your shops are probably littered with technology from long-gone companies. Don't shun the little guy, but ask them tougher questions the VCs giving them a third round (!) of funding might ask. Demand that even established players be easy to do business with, offering solid service and support and a long-term vision to match yours. Since you're held accountable for the technology you buy, make it their duty to be accountable to you.