Choosing a software vendor is a marriage of several years, and most companies spend more time choosing a laptop. The demonstration shows the product at its best. Due diligence shows the company behind it. These questions are arranged by area so that you can send them in writing and compare the answers. They complement the scoring approach in the demo scorecard and the clauses in the contract checklist.

Company and people

  1. How long have you been trading, and under which licence and legal entity will we contract?
  2. How many people work on delivery and support, and who would work on our project?
  3. Can we meet the project lead and the developer, not only the salesperson?
  4. What happens to our project if a key person leaves?

Track record

  1. Which projects similar to ours have you delivered, and can we speak to two of those clients?
  2. What was the hardest problem in your last project and how did you solve it?
  3. Can we see the product running, with real documentation and a demo environment?
  4. How many releases did the product have last year, and what changed?

Delivery

  1. What is the plan, with milestones and a demonstration at each?
  2. How do you manage changes to scope?
  3. How will our data be migrated, and how will you prove totals match?
  4. What training do you provide and in what form?

Security and data

  1. Where will our data be hosted, and who has access to it?
  2. How are backups made, where are they stored and when did you last test a restore?
  3. How do you handle user roles, passwords, login protection and audit logs? See access control and audit trail.
  4. How do you respond to a security incident, and how quickly would we be told?

Ownership and exit

  1. Who owns the code written for us, and will we receive the source code?
  2. Can we export all our data in standard formats at any time?
  3. What are the terms if we want to leave, and how long is the handover?

Support and price

  1. What are your support hours, response times and channels, and what is included in the fee?
  2. How are upgrades delivered, and are they included?
  3. Which costs are one-time and which recur, over three years?
  4. What is not included in the quote that we are likely to need?
  5. How often have your prices changed for existing clients, and with what notice?
  6. What would make you recommend that we do not buy your product?

How to read the answers

Good vendors answer directly, give examples and are comfortable with the last question. Vague answers, reluctance to share references and pressure to sign quickly are warnings. Score each area, put the answers into your decision record and ask a lawyer or adviser to review the contract. If you want to see how we answer these, send us the list; our security and data protection page covers several of them in advance.