An added benefit of having a single vendor, he says, is that it eases the process of integrating applications across a network. Once a vendor is chosen, negotiations begin. Later releases, updates, or upgrades could be handled by internal staff, once they're up on the product. It's also necessary to establish a schedule of deliverables tied to payment. Payments should be made in portions, as the vendor hits targets.
Flexibility is key.
Motorola's Connor says that working with a packaged software vendor is a two-way street. Naturally, as a customer, users expect the ISV to be sensitive to their needs. But, he says, IS organizations have to be aware of their ISV's needs as well. For instance, Connor sometimes has paid a smaller vendor ahead of schedule, since it may not have the financial resources to finish a project on time. This will be especially true for more specialized application needs, in which case you'll have to deal with smaller ISVs.