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Operational
Improvement
Within
the cost driven environment of manufacturing, and indeed generally where
large purchases are concerned, expenditure has to justify itself over
the medium term. This is a cultural approach and should lead to prudent
financial investments.
When
applied to software acquisition the pricing picture is far from clear,
incorporating software product, consultancy for installation, internal
IT staff's time, hardware to support the new product and after sales
support. Ask a vendor what their package costs, and they will say it
depends on all these factors and more importantly still it depends on
your current processes.
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Cost justification
has its place in the process but with so much of the cost for implementation
coming down to soft expenses such as downtime, lost efficiency and the
need for further external services, allowances for "other costs" should
always be extensive.
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