New products promise benefits in efficiencies and performance that exceed those costs. Software products available to business users vary dramatically. Enterprise-wide systems offer to integrate a company's global manufacturing, financial, human resources and distribution operations. Competing operating and networking systems offer to serve as core enterprise backbones. Vertical applications offer to satisfy specific needs of a given industry.
Many products are packaged, but most require some customization to the user's needs.
Most large projects require extensive custom development involving several vendors and the integration of multiple products. Of course, needs are never frozen and constantly change, often during a project's design or development. Once installed, systems require ongoing maintenance to correct errors and to adapt to new needs. CEO's and IT executives face a bewildering array of questions in satisfying the information needs of the enterprise. These questions are compounded by the looming Year 2000 crisis, which imposes urgent priorities that compete with ordinary needs.