The Vendor selection process

How have you been involved in the vendor selection process? This could involve vendor selection for an EHR, a voice recognition system, computer-assisted coding (CAC), or even for HIM consulting services.
QUESTION

What are some pitfalls in selecting a vendor? How do you evaluate vendor proposals? Should information provided by vendors be accepted at face value? Why or why not? Would you say the vendor selection process went smoothly, or were there problems that may (or may not) have been avoided?  NOTE:  This is the process of selecting a vendor, not implementing a system.  Respond to the questions above or provide a unique perspective of your own.If you have not been involved in the vendor selection process, you may locate and summarize an article that discusses vendor selection.  Be sure to provide  a working link to the article you summarized