In my experience, people in IT don't know where to start with an evaluation. I've asked simple questions about what are the inputs and outputs, how are the functions exposed, have we seen any documentation, have we talked to their support people. I get deer in the headlights responses. And I'm talking about other IT people.

True, decisions are made based on golf scores and who provided the better lunch, but no wonder, if an IT person isn't ready with some basic questions, some system of evaluation that sounds cogent and reasonable, I wouldn't trust them either. Everybody has to evaluate things they don't know about all the time; cars, cell phones, insurance. People tend to glaze over more for IT decisions than others, and IT people tend to do a lot of whining about that. Instead, maybe we should be working on our communication skills.