TEC's knowledge base-assisted selection process is a multipart comprehensive analysis of enterprise systems. It is based on tactical, strategic, and qualitative measures regarding the specific business and technology needs of an organization - of any size, and in any industry and vertical.

Its goals are threefold:

• Objectivity
• Creating highly detailed comparisons
• Positioning the resulting selection for success

As an impartial advocate for the end user, TEC couples quality information with its DSS and analysis software to shorten the evaluation and selection process, and reduce the risk involved with software implementation. Information is available for every stage of the evaluation process providing options for all sizes of businesses—small, medium, and large. Through TEC's evaluation centers, users can access the DSS, which is comprised of an online evaluation tool, technology evaluation support system products, RFP templates, and software evaluation reports . This information spans every aspect of the enterprise, from enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain management (SCM), and customer relationship management (CRM), to business intelligence (BI), and professional services.

TEC consolidates information on hundreds of vendors and VARs and their products in its showcases, and offers an education center where users can access interactive educational programs and tools from technology professionals, analysts, marketing executives, and learning officers. White papers, case studies, articles, and other information that is important to the evaluation phase are also available.

TEC's evaluation centers (online decision support tool) support the analysis and comparison of thousands of criteria on hundreds of vendor solutions. The backbone of each evaluation center is a decision support knowledge base that models important enterprise system categories. TEC's knowledge bases use industry-standard terminology and match the features, functionality, and services offered by the largest variety of vendors to the organization's needs. Because TEC is an impartial research entity and has no vested interested in the solution selected, all information is measured for validity, not marketability. To qualify for inclusion in TEC's research offerings, selected vendors must submit detailed RFI responses for each solution they provide. Vendor officials responsible for answering client RFIs are required to answer TEC with current information about what the vendor can support. Using industry-standard benchmarks, as well as their own knowledge and experience, TEC's analysts focus on responses that strongly deviate from the expected norm or are inconsistent. Suspect or unclear responses are discussed with the vendor and asked to be demonstrated. Because vendors respond to TEC's RFIs without a specific project in mind, the responses are more typical of their capabilities.

Preselection