Cost influences many of decisions, does it influence the OESS?

Everyday of our lives we are faced with financial decisions. Cost influences many of my everyday decisions, as in I will buy milk from Wal-Mart because it's only $3.97, however at Fortino's it's $4.69. I could buy diapers at Wal-Mart because I am already here, however I will make the drive over to Zellers because they are on sale this week. Theses are decisions that we face in our everyday lives...where can I save a few bucks?

I have to ask myself if cost should be a part of the criteria when the OESS is evaluating software. In a perfect world we would all love to drive the new car, but does it fit into our budget? Does this fancy new state of the art software fit into the school boards budget? Into the Ministry of Education's budget? When evaluating software I truly believe that this should be a part of the criteria. Cost influences our decisions on a daily basis, so you would think that cost would influence the usage of a new software program. Surely it would nice for all schools to have the best of the best but unfortunately it is not a reality. The price doesn't take anything away from the product and how great it may be, but if no one can afford it then all it is is a fancy new car sitting in the lot because no one can afford the payments.