Technology Acquisition: Buying the Future of Your Business

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Summary: How to make acquisition a development process
Review: All companies, from the largest to the smallest, perform technology acquisitions. There are definite steps in the sequence, from the determination of need to the final step in the integration. For example, even the basic choice of a compiler for development has stages of determining the needs, performing research, acquiring the compiler and integrating it into the enterprise. The key to success is to consider the purchase of new technology to be a process, subject to rules that control the decision making structure. BR> Each step is clearly defined with instructions on how to do it well. While the advice is often an apparent statement of the obvious, that is not a drawback. In business, the best advice one can often hear is a simple, accurate remark repeated over and over. All too often, technology decisions are made on emotional attachment rather than environmental or economic fit. By following the advice laid out in this book, the influence of emotions and politics can be reduced.
Making the right decisions concerning what technology to use is a decision that all businesses are required to make. If you follow the rules in this book, it will not be made any easier, in fact it may be made harder. However, they will increase your chances of making the correct one, and that is far more important than making the easy one.

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Summary: This is a great resource book
Review: Technology Acquisition: Buying the Future of Your Business is a great book for establishing procurement best practices or confirming existing practices. This book is not a high-level overview but provides you with detailed step-by-step procedures, case studies, and a wealth of examples. As a consultant, each company that I work with is different and this book has helped me to establish a complete procurement cycle with the client. Many companies, it seems, do not have a cradle to grave procurement practice and therefore do not understand what a project manager should be responsible for. This book gives you a starting place. Also, it is evident that the author is speaking from experience - he has done what is in the book and the examples demonstrate a real working knowledge of the topic. I highly recommend this to any person starting a new project.