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Factors to consider - Software Vendor - Coggle Diagram
Factors to consider - Software Vendor
Flexibility
You will need a supplier that will adapt to your changing business model not a supplier that is only interested in providing their standard product with no system tailoring
Does require balancing with the cost both financial and in time required to develop a bespoke solution
Helpfulness :check:
By contrast to the need to be flexible, a supplier that is only interested in supplying additional modules such as incorporations or validating data with Companies House without demonstrating statutory register reports which should be at the core of the system is probably not too interested in building a long term partnership
Knowledge
Does the supplier know which legal requirements and technology solutions work in your industry?
There is a danger where your requriements are not the primary focus of the supplier that when legislation or form designs change these may not be as a high priority for them as they are for you
Foresight
Try to find out what the suppliers main areas of development are
If these match your own expectations for the application you will benefit from their main focus and area of interests and expertise
If their main focus is on expanding the capability of the platform, this may not be the best fit for you
Ask if there are any major system upgrades in the pipeline possibly requiring greater hardware performance than the existing platform
You do not want to go through the expense of implementing a new platform only to discover in 12 months that a substantial new investment in the latest upgrade for both software and hardware is required to take advantage of their latest system enhancements
Support
Tech support is crucial during the early stages of a relationship with a new vendor
For the first few months of transition, your vendor should provide staff training to your business employees and back end support to your IT department to prevent any serious delays in your operations
Accountablity
In a perfect world, new applications and platforms will integrate seamlessly with your existing IT estate
In reality things are rarely the simple and you need to have the confidence that your supplier will be on hand to assist with the necessary tweaks to iron out these integration issues without wanting to charge extra
Security
Equity management solutions and platforms handle very sensitive commercial, as well as personal, data and it is important that the supplier of choice is fully committed to providing assurance of security controls and practices ideally through third party certifications and audits