twenty five Queries to Raise Each ERP Software Supplier
When participating in the ERP selection process, demonstrated software functionality is key; however, asking ERP vendors the right questions about their respective businesses is simply as crucial to a successful ERP choice as software functionality. While the queries below contain some basic, general questions to raise software vendors regarding product functionality, these queries are primarily designed to provide selection team with a better understanding of software vendors' general business philosophies, organizational longevity, approach to ERP implementation and customer support, annual maintenance fees, software upgrades, and more.
By requiring software vendors to answer the following questions, the software choice team can be armed with the necessary data to make well-informed final ERP selection.
Company Background, Business Philosophy, and Company Vision
1. Is your company an ERP software developer or value-added reseller (VAR)?
2. How several years has your company been involved within the manufacturing or distribution software trade?
3. How will your organization compare to other organizations in your industry relative to revenue per employee?
4. Does one provide a cash-back guarantee or software acceptance amount that can allow us to make sure that the software does everything that it had been represented to try and do during the sales method?
5. What level of involvement will your organization's executive leadership have within the daily operations of the business and future product development? Has there been any recent changeover in your organization's senior management employees including outside investment organizations?
Software Implementation and Client Support
1. Do you outsource your ERP implementation services to 3rd-party service providers, or do you deliver implementation services in-house?
2. What is your organization's average implementation services-to-software value ratio (i.e. total value of implementation services / total value of software licenses)?
3. What's the typical software implementation time-frame for a company of our size?
4. Can our existing knowledge be readily migrated to your proposed software answer? What level of effort and price is associated with the info migration method?
5. Are support calls answered by members of your employees, or does one outsource your technical support?
6. Who is responsible for answering client support calls? Who is the first person we have a tendency to speak to after we contact your customer support personnel, and what's their level of expertise together with your software? Does one offer twenty four/seven technical support?
7. Where is your support staff located (geographically)?
8. Will your organization offer a guaranteed most upper limit value for any services work you perform for our company?
Annual Maintenance and Software Upgrades
1. When do you start to charge new customers for annual maintenance?
2. What is your annual maintenance fee, and the way is this maintenance fee calculated? What was your annual maintenance fee 5 years ago?
3. Are software upgrades and future software releases included in your annual maintenance fee? How frequently do you unharness a serious update or upgrade to the proposed software solution?
Software Licensing, Technical Data, Options, and Future Development
1. When was the first release for the proposed software resolution? What is this unharness for the proposed software resolution, and when was it formally released for business availability?
2. Was the proposed software solution developed by the existing software provider, or was it originally developed by a software provider who was subsequently acquired by the present provider?
3. Where does your organization see the development of the proposed software resolution stepping into the long run? How long can you (or the developer of the software) still develop and support the proposed software solution?
4. Is the complete application source code included at no additional cost in the worth of software licenses? Do we have a tendency to get the source code directly, or is the supply code placed in escrow?
5. Is that the software sold on a module-by-module basis, or is that the software sold as an integrated whole for one all-inclusive price? What modules are included in the value of software licenses? What specific functionality is not included in the base-level software package for the proposed software answer?
6. What is the minimum number of concurrent or named user licenses we have to buy?
7. Are there any restrictions on the database, hardware platform, network, or operating system environment for which the software is compatible?
8. What's the degree of scalability offered by the proposed software answer? Will the software's existing functionality allow our business to grow without adding extra software functionality in the long run to meet our needs?
9. Are client references available? May we tend to visit one in all your customers to see the proposed software answer being used in a live transaction surroundings prior to contract signing?
Author Resource:
Jerald Richardson has been writing articles online for nearly 2 years now. Not only does this author specialize in Software, you can also check out latest website about
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