1. Know outcome you want. Do you want a win-win outcome where both parties benefit? Or a win-lose outcome where someone (presumably other party) is not happy with result?

It is important you know what type of outcome you want because that will affect long term relationship you have with other party. Win-win outcomes are beneficial where you have an ongoing relationship. For example, when you negotiate a pay rise, you don't want your boss to feel he/she is 'loser'. However, if you are buying a car from a car lot, you may not be so concerned about whether car salesperson feels as though they 'won' in negotiation!

2. Know your 'position'. How important is this deal to you? How much do you need it? Could you walk away from deal? What alternatives do you have? What is your "bottom line" and what (if anything) are you prepared to concede? You should not start negotiating until you have thought through and considered all of consequences for all of different outcomes that may eventuate.

3. Know your counterpart's 'position'. Try to work out what is important to them in deal. When you know that you have an advantage. Try not to reveal what is important to you! Keep a poker face and play your cards close to your chest.

4. Work out different scenarios ahead of time. Being caught by surprise will NOT strengthen your position! Think through all different possibilities which may eventuate and plan for each and every one of them. It is useful to brainstorm and write down on a piece of paper what could possibly happen. For example, if they said, "XYZ" - I would respond with, "ABC". This way you can be prepared for just about anything that may happen.

According to Dave Airey, VP of Sales and Marketing at OTI, “We started looking for a way to move our application to a GUI “look and feel,” but after two years of investigation it became obvious that it was not a practical goal. As an alternative we investigated upgrading our legacy application to a new product.”

Airey recently implemented PRONTO ERP for PoppaCorn.

OTI’s requirements for a new system revolved around their customers. After many years of custom changes, legacy system was geared to client requirements.

Airey noted, “OTI’s initial search took us to major ERP players, but none had features we required to support our loyal customers.”

Finding an ERP System with Strong Functionality: The search for a new ERP system ended when OTI was introduced to PRONTO North America (www.PRONTOerp.com). According to Airey, “We were introduced to Pronto and were immediately impressed with rich functionality. One important feature was that Pronto is fully integrated. We had engineered our legacy system to be fully integrated so this was of major importance.”