Abstract

Making an informed decision when 0purchasing business software requires extensive investigation of all aspects of a product. Initial cost, product features, training costs, and other support costs, can greatly affect the success of the product in your organization throughout its life cycle. To define these aspects, IBM contracted Design Insight, a market research firm, to quantify the basic evaluation categories. Subsequently, IBM commissioned The Tolly Group to create validation criteria for each category, and evaluate the Personal Communications emulator. 

Design Insight produced a set of eight evaluation categories entitled Customer $APPEALS. IBM adopted the $APPEALS approach as the basis for end-user focus groups for 3270 and 5250 emulator products. The objective of the focus groups was to determine each category’s relative importance. The Tolly Group then used this information to create test criteria for a hands-on evaluation that might be used to assess various emulator products. The Tolly Group then tested IBM Personal Communications for 3270 and 5250 for Windows 95 using these criteria.