Focus Research Insight: Over 25% of buyers are looking at new technology to gain SPECIFIC features.

My first reaction is, ONLY 25% are looking for specific new features? What are the rest of them interested in?

But if the specific change is a growing percentage of buyers looking for features that "compete with the functionality...other businesses have", that sounds more like news. I'd say there are a few reasons:

- systems are more exposed to customers, particularly on Web sites. So if my competitor has a cool new recommendation feature, I really need something similar or better to keep my customers.

- requirements are changing more rapidly, as new business methods are introduced (again, mostly Web based) and systems integrate more closely, both internally and externally. Companies need new back office features to support this.

That said, "bells and whistles" to me is the opposite of looking for specific features you know you need -- it's being distracted by "bright and shiny" stuff that looks cool but may not be important. It's more a problem for new buyers than people who are replacing an existing system and know exactly the problems they must solve.

Weighing the value of new features is a perpetual challenge. In some cases, you might actually be able to put a dollar value on a new feature, but that's rare. Just asking people to distinguish "must have" from "nice to have" typically yields about 95% "must have", so it's basically useless. We've had more success over the years asking clients to assign weights that must add to 100%; this at least forces them to make trade-offs. But what we've generally found is that once you get down to comparing specific products, there will be a small number of significant differences, so you're faced with a pretty specific choice -- "do I take the cool search feature or better sales reports"? Definitely apples and oranges but it's the real world and most people can deal with it.