Describe how vendor viability and interoperability affects e-Commerce solutions

Here are the final two considerations to keep in mind for each tool category in this course.
Vendor viabilityhas to do with making intelligent e-Commerce technology buying decisions. We generally want to purchase technology from vendors who have the financial resources to last awhile. Thus what we purchase will not go obsolete and will be enhanced and revised in a responsible fashion.
Interoperabilityhas to do with making architectural choices and buying technology products that make it easy to enhance and integrate with other products. It is closely related to

1. extendability and/or
2. extensibity

Products and architectures which are difficult to integrate with other products and architectures are said to be lacking in interoperability.

When evaluating e-commerce applications, understand how flexible the product catalog really is. Ask yourself the following questions:

1. Can the catalog represent different types of products with different attributes, and what are the limitations?
2. How many product categories and subcategories will the catalog support?
3. Can a single product or subcategory exist in multiple categories without data duplication?
4. Can different catalogs be defined for purposes other than a business-to-consumer (B2C) store?
5. How easy is it to relate accessories and create bundles?