Glossary · General
Vendor independence
Advice that is not coloured by commissions or by the adviser's own software package.
Vendor independence means that advice is not coloured by self-interest. Anyone who sells software themselves or earns a commission on what they recommend has a stake in the outcome. Independent advice has no such stake: its only interest is that the choice suits you.
That difference is bigger than it seems. A party that sells only one package sees every problem through the lens of that package. An independent party can say honestly that a cheaper solution will do, or that your existing system is actually fine.
Independence does not automatically make advice better, but it does remove a hidden agenda. You know that a recommendation comes from your situation and not from someone else's sales targets.
