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By Gene Marks
Better yet, don’t buy the software at all until you go live. Shocking! Tell your local partner to install, customize and train you using their own “not for resale” license. Make sure to pay the partner for their time (that’s how they make their money). But don’t buy the actual licenses until you’re live with the new system. Are you being a jerk? No. You’re being forced to do this because most software companies don’t like to refund money after a shipment has been made. And they want to get those annual maintenance fees in and the renewal clock ticking as soon as possible, even if you’re not using the system yet!
Good penny pinchers also do a lot themselves. They assign an internal administrator, or system champion. Maybe it’s a good power user or even the office manager. But usually it’s someone who will take the extra time to get really good with the system. That way you’re not shelling out huge dollars to the local partner or software company for services that can by done internally. Take the extra time to learn the system and you can wave goodbye to those exorbitant consulting fees. Software companies won’t tell you about this administration cost. Make sure to include it in your budget.
Focus your payments around reports. In the end, whatever you’re buying is just a database no matter how many ways the software company wants to convince you that it’s the cure for cancer. You need certain reports out of the system, like open orders, jobs in production, accounts receivable agings, number of bathroom visits per employee, whatever. Agree in advance what reports you want to see from the system and when your system is delivering this information you deliver your payment. It’s a very black and white approach to dealing with those software vendors who love grey areas.
Spending more than ten grand on that inventory management system? Go to the vendor’s location and get trained before you buy. Admit it, you’ve always wanted to visit North Dakota in February, right? Once there, go armed with questions. Beat the crap out of the guy doing the training (he won’t be a sales guy so you’ll get the real dirt). Ask the other attendees how much they’re suffering. Do shots with customer service. Find out about any skeletons in the closet that the sales person, eager for his paycheck, conveniently forgot to tell you. Even if you decide not to move ahead, the thousand bucks you spent for the training is better than the tens of thousands you would’ve spent on some bug-ridden junkie application.
Hate-mail-avoidance-time-again: There’s a lot of great software made by fine, decent and reputable software companies out there. But don’t be a sucker. Be on your toes. And keep these penny pinching tips in mind before committing.
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