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On a daily basis, CIOs, venture capitalists (VCs), and technology vendors confront strategic and tactical technology acquisition, investment, and R&D challenges. For example, should Starbucks continue to invest in technology-based initiatives to attract more customers? Should a private equity fund spend money on a broadband communications or a software development company? Should Microsoft build a suite of enterprise applications to challenge those offered by SAP and Oracle?

When faced with questions like these, one can't help but wonder how it all works: Who sets the agenda? How do options get evaluated? How do we select among competing alternatives? Where are the land mines? How do we exploit opportunities?

"Due diligence is the formal term for the process by which we screen and select options," says Cutter Consortium Senior Consultant, Steve Andriole. "Due diligence is organized around a set of constant criteria that can be applied to technology investment decisions of all kinds. The investment targets include software applications, communications, data, security, and technology services. The lenses used to vet investment opportunities and challenges are organized around the specific requirements that CIOs, VCs, and technology vendors must satisfy to achieve their objectives.

"Because of their different perspectives, CIOs, VCs, and vendors each have their own expectations regarding their technology investments. VCs are the easiest to decode: money, money, and more money. They are not interested in long-term business relationships (except with 'serial entrepreneurs'). They want quick strikes; they want massive ROI. Vendors see the world a little differently. They want money, of course, but they also want a vendor/client relationship that might pay long-term dividends. They want to monetize their customers for as long as possible. Meanwhile, CIOs want impact on business processes, models, cost structures, and people. They want reliability, security, and scalability. They want to contribute to operational efficiency and strategic success."

Despite their different viewpoints, these three technology investors do have something in common -- the following 15 due diligence criteria:

1. Products and services that are on the right technology/market trends trajectory

2. Products and services that have the right infrastructure story

3. Products and services that sell clearly into budget cycles and budget lines

4. Products and services whose impact is quantitative

5. Products and services that do not require fundamental changes in how people behave or major changes in organizational or corporate culture

6. Products and services that, whenever possible, represent total end-to-end "solutions"

7. Products and services that have multiple "default" exits

8. Products, services, and companies that have clear horizontal and vertical strategies

9. Products and services that have high industry awareness recognition

10. Products, services, and companies that have the right technology development, marketing, and channel alliances and partnerships

11. Products and services that are politically correct

12. Serious people recruitment and retention strategies

13. Products and services that have compelling "differentiation" stories

14. Company executives that have wide and deep experience

15. Products, services, and companies that have persuasive products/services "packaging" and communications

Andriole concludes, "Due diligence conducted for technology decisions is complex. When we make the right decisions, we enable enormous impact; but when we are wrong, we can wreak havoc on the organizations, cultures, and markets we're trying to serve."

To request the Cutter Consortium Business-IT Strategies Executive Report in which these comments were made, or to schedule an interview with Steve Andriole, contact .

More information about Steve Andriole is available at http://www.cutter.com/meet-our-experts/sabio.html.

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