Before you buy Define what you want from your system,
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I before you get carried away with all the "nice-to-have" features which may be available.
Make use of the demonstration disk, if available, but remember that the software supplier will be trying to conceal rather than reveal any weaknesses in his system.
3 Insist on talking to or—even better— visiting a current user and talk about any problems or shortcomings he has experienced.
A Be sure you appreciate the amount of data which will require to be input into the system. There is no point in buying a system which is capable of providing analyses in great detail if you do not have the resources to create the input.
Decide whether you wish to make use of the IRTE-supported VMRS (Vehicle Maintenance Reporting System) for coding spare parts and workshop activities.
/ Do not necessarily be swayed by the
belief that dearer means better. Software is one of those industries where suppliers can choose to write off their initial investment over a large number of sales or very few. Think of Autoroute, which now sells for under 250. When it was first introduced, its nearest competitors were selling for £750 and above.
7Check out how much annual maintenance will cost? Can the supplier provide remote diagnostics?
°What are his charges for any bespoking you might need? These can easily dwarf the cost o the software, so try and avoid them.
9With regard to hardware, if you are not already equipped, we would suggest that you buy not less than a 486DX2-66 with 8Mlo of RAM and a 500Mb hard disk. Look at the mail order computer magazines and you should be able to find that specification for around 2700. Upgrading to the faster DX4 or even Pentium processors is not very much more.
1n Beware! Computers can become k./ seriously addictive. You may find yourself working for even longer hours, but you will be giving yourself competitive advantage by being able to basing your decisions on hard fact.