Do enterprise software buyers need a ‘Bill of Rights’?
Posted by Brian FinnertyBuying enterprise software is a bit like buying a house — it can cost a truckload of money and there’s plenty of paranoia to go around. Will the pest report be clean? What if my mortgage broker can’t secure the loan? What if the seller strips out the brushed steel socket covers and adjustable light switches before we move in?
The relationship between enterprise software buyers and their vendors can also be complex and lacking in trust. Enterprise license agreements often involve a pretty sizable multi-year commitment to a vendor who has yet to prove that they can sustain the relationship and not run off with the fixtures and fittings. Somebody somewhere is putting their professional neck on the line…
With high stakes like this, transparency is often an issue for enterprise software buyers. What if that young vendor tries to get us locked into long-term contracts with unforeseen maintenance or consultancy costs? What if they can’t scale up their support organization to handle a global deployment?
As an enterprise buyer, it’s bad enough that you don’t really know the vendor, but the fear of getting sold a piece of enterprise software that turns into a cost sink of support, maintenance, and upgrade costs is enough to send any buyer off to the pub to procrastinate.
Throw in a really lousy economic environment and you have rolled out a perfect welcome mat for the financial year 2009. So where are the conscientious enterprise software buyer and hard-pressed vendor to turn in these ‘challenging times’?
Here’s one suggestion — check out Ray Wang’s blog as a starting point. Ray is a highly respected analyst from Forrester Research who has quite a healthy fixation on the trials and tribulations of purchasing enterprise software. Ray has created a detailed ‘Bill of Rights’ for enterprise software buyers that addresses many of the issues discussed above — it’s a carefully crafted effort to define the needs and wants of enterprise software buyers, with a set of nice flowcharts and visual aids. Clearly, Ray doesn’t do this stuff in his spare time.
For some added industry perspective on Ray Wang’s ‘Bill of Rights’, I’d also encourage you to check out Michael Krigsman’s article titled Evaluating the enterprise software buyer’s ‘Bill of Rights’. Mike quite rightly argues that the vendor’s perspective is equally important, and enterprise software buyers must make key contributions to their own project’s success.
As Krigsman articulates, “Customers and vendors can both learn from this bill of rights. Relationships are successful when all sides recognize and respect the others’ legitimate rights and responsibilities.” Very well said and, from my experience of the enterprise software world, I couldn’t agree more.
A cynic might say that’s a bit like discovering the people who sold their house to you have left a bottle of champagne in the fridge and an unclaimed flat screen TV in the den. Dream on you might say — or maybe Wang and Krigsman combined are really onto something here…
July 31st, 2009 at 6:34 pm
I agree; a bill of rights for software buyers is a huge contribution. But what about for buyers of consulting? That accounts for one-half to two-thirds of total value. I also think that this says a lot about consultant certification, since if you decide a bill of rights is a good idea, you would naturally include certification on the list. Or would you? Here is what we think certification must be worth: http://sapconsultingexchange.com/blog/?p=178
Herbert Goertz, CEO
The SAP Consulting Exchange Inc.
July 31st, 2009 at 11:08 pm
Herbert,
I would guess that consulting falls into the ‘implementation’ and ‘maintenance’ categories of Ray Wang’s model. Clearly not an area to be overlooked as so many large enterprise software deployments rely on consulting services and expertise.
Certification must be more than a piece of paper, in any discipline. Your post makes the valid point that it’s worth more than zero, and could be a good indicator of motivation and professional dedication. Combined with the right attitude, that could be an effective mix.
Thanks,
Brian
April 14th, 2011 at 5:54 am
Interesting article and one which should be more widely known about in my view. Your level of detail is good and the clarity of writing is excellent. I have bookmarked it for you so that others will be able to see what you have to say.
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