The main purpose of the PRUE project was to evaluate the business value of introducing the CIF into the purchasing and procurement process for different types of systems in a variety of contractual environments and countries.

One trial is for the originally envisaged role in the acquisition of corporate software (Ericsson/Electrolux). Another extends this to acquisition of a custom-designed web site (Ministry/SEMA). These trials both focus on evaluating whether a new web-based system meets requirements established by prior evaluation of the existing text-based system.

The two other trials assessed the usefulness of the CIF in negotiating for improvements in a custom-designed system, by evaluating the usability of an existing product to establish requirements for an improved version. The in2netlogic/prezzybox. com trial was in the UK where usability is well-established as an issue, and Robissa Travel/ExcelSoft was in Greece where usability is less well recognised.

 

	Italian Ministry of Justice + SEMA	Ericsson Telecom + Electrolux	in2netlogic + prezzybox. com	Robissa Travel + ExcelSoft
Product	Web site: legal info	Travel expense reporting	Web site: ecommerce	Travel management
Users	Legal staff and public	Office staff	Public	Travel agent staff
Existing system	Traditional dial up	Text based	Existing web site	Existing product
New system	Web based	Web based	Improved version	Improved version
Contractual relationship	The Ministry will use CIF results as part of acceptance criteria	Ericsson will use CIF results as part of acceptance criteria	Basis for negotiation for improvements	Basis for negotiation for improvements
Consumer organisation benefits	Convenient and accurate legal information	Increased productivity and quality of travel information	Increased business	Increased office efficiency

For information on case studies in the USA, see the IUSR web site.