issues regarding the vendor, we nevertheless proposed them as a contender, intending if there was any interest from our client, to voice concern and had the matter progressed we would have put in place a bullet proof contract. In the event, the client rejected the vendor outright. Upon enquiring why, we were advised that the person to whom we were talking was an ex employee of the vendor! Had we not had reservations, we may have concluded that the client to whom we were talking was disgruntled and had left under a cloud. This not being the case suggested an indictment on the vendor. Things change. People at the top step down and hand over to a different breed, and culture therefore changes. As a result of this it is a responsibility of good consultants to keep abreast of what is going on in “vendor land” and this can be a challenge. Companies rarely if ever make an announcement on these issues. It is rather like a restaurant displaying a sign “under new management”. This suggests that the previous management was lousy, which may not necessarily have been the case. It is all a question of due diligence which can save a lot of money in the long run. There is more shelfware around than you can poke a stick at. (Shelfware=software purchased and never implemented). Stuart Bennie is a retail consultant at Impact Retailing and can be contacted at stuart@impactretailing.com.au or 0414 631 702. Want more Inside Retail? Subscribe to Inside Retail Weekly now and get our premium print publication delivered to your door every week.