Not Optional: IT Due Diligence | Weltbild
Weltbild Publishing Group is one of Germany’s largest publishers and media retailers. The company is also co-founder of the tolino-Allianz, which developed the tolino eReader – a major competitor of the Amazon Kindle in the German/DACH market.
Challenges:
- Weltbild is passionate about no vendor lock-in for their customers: Customers can purchase eBooks in a variety of bookshops.
- User experience is a top priority.
- New software purchases must meet Weltbild’s rigorous quality standards including ISO.
- Sub-optimal software results in compounded, down-stream costs in maintainability and productivity. And negatively affects transferability.
- No visibility to fairness in vendor pricing.
Weltbild was aware that there are many companies specializing in assessing and examining software. “We talked to several companies, but SIG was the first choice for us. They were recommended by TÜViT, have a high technical level of expertise, assess software on the basis of worldwide accepted ISO standards and work according to state of the art metrics. A final advantage was that the results could be compared to other software because of SIG’s comprehensive benchmark.”
“In assessing a vendor for a critical software purchase, we needed to have complete confidence that the software quality met Weltbild’s very serious standards. TÜViT told us that there was only one organization certified to do the work we needed: SIG. The team at SIG partnered with us to (1) Determine if the purchase was a good foundation for future excellence and (2) whether it was worth the investment and (3) if we could integrate it seamlessly into our own organisation. We wouldn’t hesitate to work with SIG again.”
– Markus Hölzlein, General Manager Digital Products, Welbild GmbH & Co. KG
Solution
SIG performed a three-day on-site analysis and reported on various aspects: value of the software, maintain, develop and transfer risks for now and the future. “SIG truly thought along with us in the context and situations we are in. We also got insights in the required team qualifications; what skills do we need in the team if we want to buy the software and let the software work.”
“The business impact was that we knew the fair price for this software. Additionally, we discovered the impact that such software would have on our organization and for the whole business in the future. In the end, this was the basis for our decision not to buy it. Due to the vulnerabilities in the software, it would be a risk to further develop and maintain the software for our organization. Finally, based on this objective report, we concluded that we didn’t want to accept the asked price.”
SIG provided Weltbild with:
- Convincing factual and objective arguments.
- Fact-based certainty they were making the right decision.
- Insights to oversee everything.
- Upfront identified limitations of the software.
- Neutral report to effectively negotiate price.
