The following are some the factors to consider when buying software.
- Budget:You have to spend the initial cost as well as the ongoing spending. How much are you going to pay for the initial license feel and what size of license will you need now? Is size expected to grow with time?Then find out what is the implementation cost of your prospective software? Can it be done in-house or will you require a vendor to offer you professional services? There might be training and maintenance costs as well.
- Support: How often do you expect to get contact support from the vendor? Will you have to pay more for the support services?
- Development Cycles: What is the current release cadence? Has there been stability for some time? Are the releases robust and stable?
- Scalability: Is the product easier to scale beyond your first implementation? What are the requirements to scale the product in terms of hardware, budget and implementation?
- Extensibility: Can you add extra products to your portfolio in a single pane of glass? Will it be possible to integrate with in-place systems such as help desk systems or ticketing?
- Ease of Use:Can users start using the product right away or they need to be trained first? Are reports and dashboards easily customizable?
- Time to Value:Will you have to do an integration project or any customization before you can go into production?
- Breadth:Find out whether the product will cover everything that you envisioned for it. If not what will be the cost of developing new ones? Will you be able to handle the software in-house or you require professional services? Also remember that there are chances that you will outgrow the software product.
We hope you found this article useful. If we forgot something, feel free to let us know in the comments.
