Vendor selection not always by the book

We recently updated our Technology Decision Making Study, the second survey weve conducted about how organizations make decisions--how they identify and finally choose a specific IT solution. And even though we are still analyzing the data and compiling the results, we wanted to share one interesting tidbit with you--only about 1/3 of the organizations we surveyed adhere to a formally defined vendor selection process. Hard to believe? Just check out the chart.

Maybe it's just all our years in IT that lulled us into thinking that important decisions (especially about spending big bucks) are made in well-defined and documented ways, but we were even more surprised to see that one third of our sample reported that they simply make up the rules along the way. It's not too hard to understand how contractual issues or legacy requirements can control the selection process (the way 15% report arriving at their decision), but just winging it seems a bit laissez-faire even for us research types.