|
A short meeting is usually enough to decide what conditions
must be met by a Vendor. These are criteria that if not met,
would cause the deal to fall through. They are not 'nice to
have'. They are mandatory. If the organisation was not able
to meet these criteria, it would be a significant reason to
not proceed.
Conditions are not necessarily functional. They can include:
- The Vendor and the support they can provide
- The ability to interface the software with another system
- Time to implement
- Price range
- Hardware platform
- R&D budget
- Vendor financial viability
Do not get trapped into identifying minor criteria. For example, you do not want to come up with the ability to enter new customers in an order system as a 'Deal Breaker'. Every order system will be able to do this. Focus on the things that differentiate Vendors.
The following is a list of possible 'Deal Breakers'
- Must have 24 hour support locally
- Interface to SAP financials
- Run on Unix platform
- Use Oracle database
- Under $250k
- Vendor must be able to provide proof of financial stability through a third party audit
- R&D should be a minimum of 5% of turnover
- Vendor must accept responsibility for implementation
- Handle cash sales as well as account sales
- Availability of custom reporting tool
- Implementation in less than 6 months
|
