A wide variety of software solutions are available on the market for numerous purposes and uses. Operations can be significantly disrupted if unsuitable software is selected that fails to meet an organisation's requirements. For example, file formats can be incompatible with programs already in use or new products may lack the required functional scope. This may result in declining performance, malfunctions, or errors within business processes.

In particular, if the software does not meet the organisation's security requirements, data processed with the software could be disclosed or manipulated (e.g. if the login functions of applications have not been designed for the planned operational environment in an open data network).