Siebold recalls having this notion planted in his head. "In thosedays, if you asked yourself, Who will be with me in five years? it wasSAP or Baan," he says. "It was a gut decision. We thought, Yeah, SAPis bigger."

Competitors know they're up against this "go with the in-crowd"mentality. So they instill a fear that to go with the market leader isto be had - on price and on support. In turn, these vendors promisewhatever functionality the market leader has or more, but for the same(or less) money and with better customer service. As Merrill Lynch'sBalliet observes, "The sales guy is telling us he'll solve A, B and C,but he'll also give me D, E, F and G at the same price."

Bayne's done this. "You say, 'We're a small company. Here's my numberand the numbers of four people you can call any time. Here's the CEO'snumber. The big guys, they'll put you in to a call center.' I've shownmy strength is my size. I've said the market leader's a big companythat couldn't do this for you, and I never had to say the marketleader's name."

Too much, all at once

Vendors, not buyers, end up dictating theselection criteria - and they're talking about too many features. "Thiswill lead buyers to choose a hell of a lot of functionality even ifthey don't need it," says Jim Shepherd of AMR Research, an analystfirm in Boston. "It puts the buyer on the path of doing too much, allat once."