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Avoid Common and Costly Traps of Print Software Evaluation

Evaluating software is not a math problem, please don’t count the number of features and award the deal to the highest score. Print software must solve your challenges, in the order of importance to your business.

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Have you ever looked for a piece of print software, found one and said, “this does everything we need.” I didn’t think so.

There is this myth that I would very much like to end because it causes so much damage to our businesses. The number of features in a software product does not make it better, does not equate to more value, and will not assure more success with the product. How many features does Google have? Exactly (1) – really fast search! I only say that because the number or breadth of features does not always equate to value provided.

You are looking to invest in print software to solve a problem. If one vendor can solve that problem with a single feature, implemented in a way that does not require you to have an instruction manual and a decoder ring then that product is more valuable than the one that solves the same challenge with 14 features and it takes a week to learn how to do it.


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About Jennifer Matt

Jennifer Matt is the managing editor of WhatTheyThink’s Print Software section as well as President of Web2Print Experts, Inc. a technology-independent print software consulting firm helping printers with web-to-print and print MIS solutions.

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