29 Questions To Ask Your Software Vendor

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So you’ve decided to impr o ve your m anagem ent r eporting pr ocess. Congr ats! Softwar e can de finitely ta k e you ou t of “ Ex cel Hell” an d into a place wher e manage ment r eporting—an d manage ment me etings—ar e a pleasur e. But ch oosing th e softwa r e to help with that tr an sition can be har d. The r e ar e tons of options ava ila ble and each one r equir es a differ e nt appr oach. And while softwar e itself is important, the ve ndo r be hind the s oftwar e is e ven mor e so. With each differ en t softwar e pr ogr am comes an equally differ ent vendor—no two ar e alik e. So ho w do you kno w which softwar e vendor to choose? After all, it’ s a big decision. The vendor is basically your coach in this strategy game. The y’ r e ther e to help you choose th e right plays, and thos e plays can affect th e scor e of your game for ye ars to com e, eithe r pos itively or nega tively . Tha t means you need to lea rn the facts a bou t potential sellers befor e yo u mak e a decision. (If you want to kno w the best ways to choose the soft- war e itself , you should check o ut our oth er documents that t alk about that , too.) So her e ar e 29 questions to as k about a potential s oftwar e ven dor t hat co ver all t he bases , fr om impleme ntation to e xit str ate gy , to m ak e su r e you pick th e perfect on e.

29 Questions To Ask Your Software Provi der

Most vendors mak e you pa y for acces s to th eir support team, but that doesn’t mean the access is unlimited. It’ s important to kno w just ho w much support you’ll ge t when yo u pay an d wh at kind of help they’ll be giving you. Certain vendors may pr o vide fr ee technical advice whe n their pr oduct isn ’t working righ t or you have questio ns, but ch ances a r e it will be a limited amou nt of help. Kno wing this in advance will save you fr om the head- ache of not being able to get he lp wh en you r ea lly need it.

1 Do I get unli mited acces s to your support te am?

Kno wing wher e their support team is locat ed can he lp in a couple of ways. One, the y co uld be close e nough f or you to either visit their office in pers on or fo r them to send s omeone to your location if needed. If the y a r en ’t clos e, the y may s till be willing to s end some one, but it will pr obably cos t you m or e . Or, it could be that the y’ r e far enough away to be in a different timezone. This can affect the hours the y’ re available to you, especially if they’ r e only open during business hours—you’ll have to think about the time differ ence be for e you ca ll them. If the y have af ter-hour or 24-hour s upport, their location is less of an issu e. Also, do the y s pe ak your la nguage? That might be important, too.

2 Where’s you r s upport team locat ed?

No one lik es talking to a computer or answering mach ine, es- pecially when you r eally need help. Ask the ve ndo r wh ether or not you’ll be able to talk to a r eal pe rs on when you call f or support and find out ho w long of a pr ocess it’ll be to get one on t he phone. Some may get you to a r eal person e ventually , but mak e you go thr ough a difficult pr ocess to get the r e. An- other question to ask is ho w long the turnar oun d time is wh en it comes to getting something fix ed. If it’ s going to tak e an hour befor e you can ge t a person on the phone, h o w long will it ta k e after that to actually g et the pr oblem solved? T est them on it. Call their “ support hotline ” an d see ho w long it ta k es to get a r eal person on the phone.

3 Can I call and get a real pers on on the phon e?

What kind of support option s do I have? Is ther e an option to cut to the f r on t of th e line? If you’ r e a smaller o r ganiza tion, this might not be th at big an issue for you. But if you’ r e trying to support 100s of internal us ers, this might be critical. Find ou t whether or not ther e is an option to pur chase higher-le vel sup- port for major pr oblems. If that’ s an option, find out what sort of help will be pr o vided f or the e xtr a cost.

4 Can I purchase premium supp ort if I need it ?

If you’ re getting “basic” support (whether it’ s fr ee or paid) find out what’ s included. Can you get actual advice r ather than just technical support? Will someone be able to give you their opin- ion on ho w best to use the a pplication? Or ar e the y th er e to just log issues? If you don’t think they ’ll offer you enough basic support and either don’t have a pr emium support plan or it’ s too e xpensive, that vendor ma y not be right for you.

5 What do I get with basic sup port?

A lot of softwar e vendors will pr o vide custome rs with som e r esour ces or helpful tips in one form or another, whether it’ s a manual or user’ s guide, a website, or another source. Ther e’ s a good chance they’ll at least have a fr equently ask ed questions (F A Q) document, either on their website or in prin t form. Mak e sur e to ask if these r esour ces will cost e xtr a and ho w accessi- ble they ’ll be.

6 Do you provide resour ces an d tips for customers? If so, where can I access thos e?

As technology advances and your company gr o ws, it’ s import- ant for your softwar e to u pdate with your cha nging nee ds . Y our softwar e partner should be constantly looking fo r wa ys tha t it can impr o ve its pr odu ct, and th is comes thr ough cr eatin g and implementing ne w fe atur es. If the y r a r ely r ele ase ne w tools, their softwar e could become outdated in time. Con vers ely , if the y r elea se ne w featur es e very day , you ’ d have to mak e sur e you’ r e committed to k eeping up and dealing with the changes the y mak e.

7 How often do you releas e new features?

Their de velopment r oadmap is basically their plan for the fu- tur e. It will sho w you wher e the y plan to be and what the e vo- lution of their pr oduct looks lik e. It should link their busines s str ategy and mark et data with their pr odu ct and techn ology decisions, ensuring their decisions a r e based on the best value for the customer (you!). If the y don ’t seem to have a good r oad- map that helps them a dd value to their pr o duct, the y pr obably ar en ’t a gr e at option.

8 What does your dev elopment roadmap look like?

After you ’ve been u sing the softwar e for a while, you’ll kno w what works and what doesn ’t. If you fig ur e out th at the pr oduct is missing s omething or you come up with a ne w fea tur e that you think should be added, ho w can you let the vendor kno w? Most softwar e vendors would be glad to listen to your custom- er feedback if it will help mak e their pr oduct be tter.

9 How do I sugg est a feature?

What’ s their pr ocess for coming up with ne w featur es? Wher e do the y get their idea s? Do th e y listen to custom er feedback? Ho w the y cr eate ne w pr oducts an d tools will give you a h int as to ho w inno vative t he y ar e a nd whether or n ot their so ftwar e will continue to e volve o ver time.

10 How do you drea m up new features?

11 Do you h ave custome rs in my indus t ry?

If a vendor has customers within your industry , they’ll at least kno w the basics about your fie ld, which will mak e it eas ier for them to work with you. They’ll also have other cases to refer- ence when giving suppo rt. For e xample, if you have a question for th e support team , the y can think thr ough a nd pr oces s, “ What did we do with the XYZ account to help with this? And did it work?” If the y don ’t alr eady have customers in your partic- ular industry , that doe sn ’t mean you sh ould automa tically kick them to the curb, but the y will need to sho w that the y’ re willing and able to learn about what you do. If they’ r e a good vendor, that shouldn ’t be a pr oblem.

Seeing a fe w case s tudie s of other custom ers is a gr eat way to learn abo ut both th e softwa r e and the vendor, especially whe n the case study is fr om a company within your indus try (bu t it doesn ’t have to be). Y ou ca n see e xactly ho w th e soft wa r e helped those or ganizations and whether or not the y had pos- itive r esults. If you don ’t lik e wh at you see in the cas e studies, you’ll kno w to cr oss that ven dor o ff your list.

12 C an you share some case studies with me?

If their custome rs don ’t have anything good to sa y about th em, you pr obably won ’t either. The way the y an swer this que stion will clue you in on their str engths and wea knesses , as well as give you an idea of ho w tr ansparent the y’ r e willing to be. (T r anspar ency is a good quality for sof twa r e vendors to have— it means the y don ’t have anything to hide.) M ost ven dors will give you a list of a fe w clients to conta ct for r efer ences , which you s hould tak e advantage of. T alking to their custom ers can be e ven mor e beneficia l than talking to the ven dor.

13 What woul d your custome rs sa y about you?

Like we said in question 13, talking to a vendor’ s current cus- tomers can be e xtr emely helpful, bot h befor e you’ve decide d on a vendor and after. As k if th e vendor has a com munity f or its users. Is that community online, in pe rs on, or both? Which would you pr efer? Being able to meet with their cus tomers will allow you to get in depth information on ho w the y’ r e utilizing the softwar e ’ s feat ur e s.

14 Do you e ver hav e customer me etings?

Do the y all have a sufficient amount of e xperience in manage- ment? Do any of them have pr e vious e xperience in your indus- try? It’ s good to know ho w their management team was put together and what each m ember did be for e working with this software company . It’ s also helpful to know ho w long the y’ve been with the com pa ny .

15 Wh at’ s the backgroun d of your man agemen t team?

Ther e ’ s a lo t of te chnical stuff that go es into the de velopment and implementation of software. That’ s why it’ s important to understand whether or no t your accoun t mana ger will have technical expertise, so you kno w if the y’ r e someone you can go to for help in that ar ea. Usually it’ s OK if the y ar en’t a com- plete e xpert at the technical stu ff as lon g as ther e is s omeone else you can contact who is (usu ally someo ne fr om the support team or call cent er). If n othing els e, the y should at least k no w the ba sics.

16 Will my account ma nager hav e techni cal e xp ertise?

If the vendor is selling you a tool to help you impr o ve your management, it would be pr etty helpful for them to have ex- perience in performance management, wouldn’t you say? Y es, technical e xperien ce is a must, but the y should have a balan ce of expertise in both. That way the y’ll have a better conte xt of ho w the softwar e wo rks in r eal situations, and the y can a nswer all of your question s r ather th an just the te chnical ones .

17 Does your company h ave ex pe- rience in helping organizations manage better, or is it just a techni cal te am?

This is a very ba sic question, but it ca n easily get o verlook ed when you’ r e concerned with the technical s ide of th in gs. If you don’t lik e the people, it’ s not going to be a good e xperience no m atter ho w g r ea t the actual pr oduct is. Y ou’ll have a ton of contact with them, especially during t he initial im plem entation process, so it’ s important to know if the y’ r e enjo yable to work with. Will your personality types work well togeth er? Does th e o ver all vibe of their compan y mesh with yours? Y ou don ’t need to be “buddy-buddy” with every emplo yee in their organization, but you should at least be able to get along with the pe ople you’ll be working with the most.

18 Will I like working with thes e people?

Y ou can learn a lot about a company just by look in g at t heir website. Read thr ough th eir content to see if you lik e the way the y talk about their pr odu ct or services. Do you a gr e e with their solutions? Does it sound lik e the y really kno w what the y’ r e talking about? Do the y offer valuable insight into str ategy man- agement? Y ou can also tell what kind of com pa ny the y ar e based on the design and layout of their site. If it’ s clean and easy to navigate, cha nces ar e wo rkin g with them will be the sam e way .

19 Do I like the way th ey talk abou t challenge s an d top ics on their website ?

The imple mentation pr oces s can sometime s tak e a while. Part of that pr ocess is getting the te ch nical side of the s oftwar e up and running in your system. This cou ld tak e a nywher e fr om days to weeks. By having a clear and r ealistic timeline estab- lished in advance, ther e will be fe wer s urprises for you along the wa y .

20 How long will it take to set up your syste m techn icall y?

Everyone is differ ent, so the y won ’t be able to give you an an- swer to this with co mple te certainty . But th e y can give you a r elative idea based on pr e vious customers ’ e xperie nce. It will all depend on what kin d and ho w m uch tr aining t he y offer, as well as ho w quickly your users ar e able to pick up on ne w pr o- gr ams.

21 How long will it take before we feel comfortable in the system ?

Each softwar e vendor will offer differ e nt kinds a nd amoun ts of tr ain ing. It could be in the form of online tutorials, tr aining decks, video s, or ons ite class es. Find out ho w m any hours of tr aining ther e ar e total and ho w quickly the y can be complet- ed. A plus to tr aining videos is that tr aine es can go at their o wn pace, whereas onsite classes depend on the instructor’ s avail- ability . But, having an instru ctor ther e to help in r eal t im e can also be very beneficial. Some vendors may offer e xtended or mor e in-depth tr aining, but at a higher cost. Either wa y , mak e sur e t he y ar e willing to help you be completely pr epar ed to us e this ne w softwa r e.

22 How much trainin g do you offer and how long does th at take?

Ther e ar e diffe r en t kinds of softwa r e solutions, and the type you use will depend on your company’ s needs and preferenc- es. Ther e is “ cloud” sof twar e, wher e a pplications ar e hos ted by the vendor and made available to custome rs o ver the internet. Ther e ’ s also “ on-pr emise softwar e,” which is in stalled and run on the customer’ s computer rather than at a r emote facility or o ver th e internet. And then ther e ’ s a hybrid of t he two. The vendor should be able to tell which one is best for your com pa- ny .

23 What kind of solution shou ld we im plement?

Over time, your company will gr o w and change. It’ s important to kno w if the softwar e solution is going to gr o w with you. Ar e ther e a ny r estrictions to data u sage with this s oftwar e? Ar e ther e limits to scor eca r ds and drill do wn le vels? If these things ar e limited, you migh t r ealize af ter a while that you ’ve used all the capabilities of t he sof twa r e befor e you’ve e ven m ade it out of one department. Will the y allo w you to customize the soft- ware by department? If so, that’ s the sign of a vendor that’ s going to gr o w with you.

24 Will this solution gr ow with me ?

While it’ s important to tak e e verything into account when choosing softwar e, the fact is, cost plays a major r ole in the de- cision pr ocess. If you can’t affor d the service, it’ s pr obably not a good option. When you get an in it ia l price quote, a sk what that includes, a nd get details . Ther e a r e tons of things that can affect pricing: the sof twar e, har dwar e, nu mber of us er licenses, upgr ades, m aintenan ce, tr aining, integr ations, modifications, conversions, and implementation services. (Y eah, that’ s a lot.) Y ou don ’t want to find out later that the actual price is double the qu ote, so get it all on th e table no w .

25 Ca n we afford this solution?

Ther e ar e differ en t pricing methods for soft wa r e packages. Ther e could be monthly pa yments, a lump sum due upfr ont, or an amount due upfr ont and then monthly ch ar ges for e xtr a services or mainten ance fe es. Find this out in advance so you know if their pricing will work with your company’ s financial situa tion.

26 How is it priced—monthly, upfront, or both?

No one lik es a br eakup, but if it’ s just not working, you need to get out. It may be that their soft wa r e isn ’t working right, you ar en ’t getting along with the ve ndor, or you’ r e just not sa tisfied with the r esults. Whate ver the r eason, find out ho w har d it’ll be to end your service a gr e ement with them. Y ou shou ldn ’t h ave to be worried that if you decide to mo ve on, t he vendor won ’t be willing to let go.

27 What happens if it doe sn’t work out?

Y ou don ’t wan t to be s tuck in a contr act m onths a fter you’ve alr eady decided it’ s not working. Find out if you’ll be signing a contr act and ho w long it will be in effect. If t he y have you sign for a short com mitment period, it may jus t mea n that the y want you to give their pr oduct a f air try befor e you decide you don ’t lik e it, which is a valid r eason. But, if the y wa nt to lock you into a 10- year contr act, yo u might wa nt to think twice.

28 Am I l ocked into a contract?

If you’ve decided you’ r e switching to a n e w softwar e ve ndor, ask ho w difficult it will be to transfer your data fr om one system to the other. Will the y offer s omeone to help with the pr ocess or are you on your o wn? Will the y k eep any of your company’ s informa tion or will it be er a sed fr om t heir database? Y ou’ll want to kno w if the pr ocess is going to be a mess (befor e it’ s too late to do anything a bo ut it).

29 How painful will it be to get my data out of the system and in to a new one?

As your team beg in s to a lign your st r at egy with its system s, a good partner should be able to coach you thr ough the pr o- cess—both with their people and the system itself. Ch oosing the righ t service can be a ch allenge, but it doesn ’t ha ve to be. If you have a list of potentia l vendors you’ r e cons idering, ask them these questions. Their answers will mak e it easy to nar- row do wn your r oster and ultimate ly choose a partner tha t will help you win the game. Not only do we think you sho uld ask t hese ques tions, we ’ d lo ve to give you our answers. T alk to us today .

Wh ich ve ndor will y ou choos e?