Nine questions vendors would rather you did not ask

The nine

1. How do I get my data out, in what format, and can I do it myself without asking you?
2. What happens to my data if I stop paying, and how long do I have to retrieve it?
3. Show me the slowest screen with a realistic amount of data in it, not a demo account with forty records.
4. Who do I contact when something breaks, in what hours, and what have your response times actually been?
5. What does this cost in year three, including users I will have added and modules I will need?
6. What does implementation cost, separately from the licence, and who does the data entry?
7. Which of the features you have shown me are live today, and which are planned?
8. Can I speak to a customer of roughly my size who has been live for more than a year?
9. What does this software not do well? A vendor with no answer has not thought about it or is not telling you.

Why these ones

Questions one and two are about leverage. A vendor holding your data hostage has priced accordingly, and you will find out at renewal.

Question three catches the most common unpleasant surprise. Software that is quick with forty records can be unusable with forty thousand, and every demo account is small.

Questions five and six catch the second. The licence is rarely the largest cost of ownership, and a quote that omits implementation is not a quote.

Question nine is the most revealing thing you can ask anyone selling anything.

This applies to us too

Ask us all nine. If the answers are unsatisfactory, that is useful information and you should act on it.