Buy-in is a must at all levels if the project is to move forward. Project managers must have the ability to deal with the range of players, from those who think the project is a great idea to those who say they would rather have things stay the same. Keeping everyone at the table is paramount and making certain that buy-in is achieved and maintained is a difficult and unrelenting job.

One interviewee from the State of Washington said that the single most challenging process was getting all of the entities to agree on each aspect of the project. Others echoed this sentiment. The interviewee from the New York State Education Department suggested that those starting out use small successes to gain momentum and build buy-in by implementing applications incrementally. The CentraPort team made the point that the new application or system must offer more than the current system or there is no incentive for local governments to use it.