Ray Wang of Forrester recently released Version 2 of their Enterprise Software License Bill of Rights and Vinnie Mirchandani did an excellent revision over on Deal Architect that not only outlines what your rights should be but identifies some key issues you need to be aware of if your vendor does not provide you with a bill of rights as part of their textbook thick contract.
In particular, watch out for:
- 40%+ SG&A
that money should be going to R&D to give you a better product for the 22% to 30%+ maintenance you’ll be paying - no support/defect stats
your provider should be measuring them, actively working on improving them, and be willing to provide them on request - certified service partners
if they don’t have any, or won’t certify any, that’s a problem - an inability to flex-up / flex-down at each quarter
you don’t want to be paying for shelf-ware - confusing SLAs
you want clear, concise, and to the point
And be sure to check out Vinnie’s Version. If you going to invest seven, eight, and even nine figures (over the long term), you better make sure up front that you can get what you pay for.