Insights · Technology

How to choose business software without buying the demo

Six questions that reveal whether a platform fits your business or just fits the sales pitch.

Start with the exception, not the brochure

Every platform handles the happy path. Ask the vendor to demonstrate your messiest recurring scenario — the split invoice, the partial refund, the job that spans two fiscal years.

Count the licences honestly

Per-seat pricing rarely stays where it started. Model three years at your realistic headcount, including the part-time staff who will inevitably need read access.

Ask who owns the data

Confirm export formats before you sign, not after. If the only route out is a paid professional-services engagement, treat that as a cost of entry.

Check the integration is first-party

A connector maintained by a third party can disappear with a version bump. First-party integrations survive longer and get supported when they break.

Insist on a written implementation plan

Who migrates the data, who validates it, who trains the staff, and what happens if the go-live date slips. Verbal reassurance is not a plan.

Pilot with one team

Thirty days, one department, defined success criteria. It is far cheaper to abandon a pilot than to unwind a company-wide rollout.

In short

None of this is complicated. It is simply work that never reaches the top of anyone's list until it causes a problem. If you would like help doing it, that is exactly what we are for — book a free discovery call and we will tell you plainly whether we can help.

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