Commonly IT departments will engage consulting services to aid in decision making. The paid consulting firm is the most identifiable buyer’s agent in the process and the one that is most often skipped (or a seller’s agent is mistaken for the consultant.) A consultant is hired by, paid by and has an ethical responsibility to represent the buyer. Consultants have an additional air gap that helps to separate them from the emotional responses common of the business itself. The business and its internal IT staff are easily motivated by having “cool solutions” or expensive “toys” or can be easily caused to panic through good marketing, but consultants have many advantages.