Just ask Dan Ginsburg, president and COO of the Massachusetts GeneralPhysicians Organization in Boston, who recently installed an importantbilling application. "We underestimated the resources it would take toroll out something like this," he says.

Seek out cynics. The vendors are courtingenthusiasts; the buyer can offset the enthusiasts' giddinessby injecting cynics into the evaluation. In Ginsburg's case,this meant putting technology agnostics in charge of thebilling project. The IT department played second fiddle,which kept technical enthusiasm from dictating choices.

Cynics temper enthusiasts by harping on pesky things like budgets anduser need. They also create more intense internal dialogue, which canyield more thoughtful decisions.

Pay for an independent consultant, whatever itcosts. Salesman Bayne, while balking at the termcynic, recommends adding "realistic" voices to theevaluation process. "Your readers need to find someone theytrust who has done what they want to do," Bayne says. "Anddon't say, 'Oh, God, this will cost me 300 bucks an hour.'It's not a waste of money. They get paid a lot for areason. Bring them on early in the process."

To illustrate the point, Bayne mentions a CIO he's working with nowwho lacks such a voice of reason and is convinced he needs a datawarehouse. Bayne believes he needs only a business intelligence toolthat costs a quarter of a million dollars less. "And it's getting hardto turn him down," Bayne says. "I can only tell him so manytimes."