In his CRM vetting, Partners HealthCare's Pieper makes a minor sportof this. He likes watching sales reps' faces when he takes them "offmessage."

"The first thing I ask is, What have you learned from your otherclients? What have they tried to do that failed?" Pieper says. "Mostof the time, they've never been asked this. You quickly sort outpeople with good experience."

Learn from history. What's most strikingabout Pieper is his definitive grasp of IT history. Piepercan hold forth on another company's software implementationfrom a decade ago, citing successes and failures. Pointbeing, this knowledge is put to good use when confrontingvendors. The more one knows about landmark projects like theearly ERP systems of Frito Lay, Sabre or FedEx, and how theyeventually affected their companies, the better.

But this means homework. There's no easy way for executives to acquirethe expertise, short of hiring a Pieper. But with a long view, you'vegot something the sellers don't want you to have: leverage. If you cancite 10 massive implementations that failed, they'll have a hard timeselling you one.

Multiply the cost by 3. Several analystsrecommend doubling or tripling whatever dollar number youhear in the evaluation stage to avoid constantly having toreaffix your jaw.