Ok, you have found a cloud-based application that promises to add value to your business.  The next thing to investigate is whether the support model meets your needs.  What are the questions, beyond the business functionality, that you should be asking of the vendor – and yourself?

  by  neonbubble

• What will the vendor do if there is disruption of service?  What do you need to do?
• How can you access your data if you want to integrate it with another application or migrate it altogether?
• Who has access to the data, both internal to the vendor and externally?
• When and how is the data backed up?  How and when can I request a restore?  What does it cost?
• What is the vendors monthly percentage of downtime?  What is your recourse if they have more than that?
• How does the vendor communicate maintenance and other outage information  to customers?  When is maintenance usually done?
• What happens if the vendor goes out of business?  How can I get my data and what would it take to switch to another vendor?  Can I switch?
• How can I get support if I have a question or a problem?  Can I call someone or do I have to use email or chat?  Does more personalized support cost more?

First, ask the vendors these questions.  Ask follow up questions if you don’t understand.  Then ask yourself – can my business live with that?