Control CLM Acquisition Risks with an RFP-Driven Contract
December 14, 2007 @ ContractMinds - The Blog for Contract Lifecycle Management from jlipple
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Loading ...Here’s an inflammatory statement for you: I believe that software demos should be considered as entertainment and sales engineers viewed as actors in TV commercials. Or, to put it another way for all you folks out there of my vintage who remember the acronym WYSIWYG, in a demo, What You See Is Not Necessarily What You Get (WYSINNWYG). And yet, time and again, I see companies buying CLM solutions that will cost several hundred thousand dollars a year solely on the basis of demos and the warm and fuzzies they create.
Now I’m not saying that demos can’t be helpful, because they certainly can. But they need to be viewed more skeptically, and only in the context of a broader and more rigorous selection process. To make a major software acquisition solely on the basis of a demo is like watching a sitcom and believing it’s the real world.
No vendor in their right mind would do a demo that highlights their product’s warts, and every buyer should recognize this. So why accept it on blind faith that because the demo looks good, and the sales engineer is endearing, that the solution will meet a wide range of complex requirements and be able to adapt to changing needs over a protracted period of time? It just makes no sense!
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