Archive for 'Software Vendor Management' Category

Vendor vs. Third-Party Software Maintenance Contracts

Whether to continue to pay for software maintenance contracts for on-premise solutions is a tough question for many, especially as the tough economy of the past few years settles into a new reality. Cost pressures continue, and many companies feel these contracts deliver limited value, especially when plans to upgrade have been put aside. Software [Read More...]

Assessing Vendor Integrity

“Who you are, is what you do when no one’s watching.” is a long-held belief of mine. It’s my standard for my own behavior, for raising my daughter and for selecting software vendors to introduce to a client. And given the number of vendors I talk to, I like to find out pretty quickly who [Read More...]

What Makes a Software Vendor Relationship Successful?

Most buyers group vendors into three or so categories ranging from Commodity to Strategic. Commodity vendors sell staples and paper based on price and availability; there are no deep personal relationships. Strategic partners are at the far other end of the spectrum, selling products or services that are integral to the success of the buyer’s [Read More...]

Do Small Businesses Benefit from a Vendor Management Policy?

Buyers readily pay 3rd party consultants to guide their software vendor selection, while vendors readily pay these same consultants to promote their solutions over competitors’. Vendors show buyers biased software TCO information that they present as valid. And it works because buyers frequently forget that deployment decisions, not the product, really drive project cost. Vendors [Read More...]