With the growing popularity of cloud based technology, there has been a lot of discussion about a Vendor Lock-in with the cloud. But we also would like to bring your attention to Vendor Lock-in with consulting assignments or with software integrations.
What is Vendor Lock-In?
Vendor lock-in is commonly defined as Proprietary lock-in or customer lock-in and makes the customer dependent on the vendor solution and is unable to move to another solution without substantial cost.
At Wyngate Solutions, we specialize in SharePoint solutions. We try to provide solutions to clients that stay with out-of-box features. Lately we have encountered clients who had hired consulting companies to develop solutions for their business needs.
Why is vendor lock-in a concern?
There are various circumstances when vendor lock-in could negatively impact a business:
- If the quality of vendor’s technical support declines, the client will be stuck with a solution that does not work as required.
- The vendor’s solution architecture does not allow new feature add-ins in the future and requires substantial development cost.
- A vendor is bought out by another company who would like to kill the software.
- A vendor might go out of business altogether.
- A vendor might require yearly maintenance fees to use the software. This can lead to price increases in the future.
How to avoid getting locked-in in the first place?
Following are some steps to avoid vendor lock-in –
Understand the software licensing model –
If you are planning on buying a solution to integrate with your current software or use it as a standalone solution please review the software licensing model for the solution. The most common types of software licensing models are as follows:
Perpetual License
A perpetual license is where the software application is sold on a one-time basis. This allows the licensee to use a copy of the software forever. It normally applies to a specific version of the software product. A perpetual license may not include subsequent software patches, fixes or enhancements. Most software vendors are moving away from this model.
Floating License
A floating license defines a specific number of licenses to an application that can be shared. A floating license works on a first come first serve basis. So, if all the licenses are used then the next user requesting for license won’t get one till someone releases their license.
Subscription License
A subscription license is one in which the end user licenses the application on a re-occurring basis for a defined period of time. This license typically does not have an end or termination date and is renewed automatically. In certain scenarios, vendor may require a 30 to 90 day advance notice to terminate the use of a subscription license.
As a business owner or decision maker, evaluate –
- From a business perspective which license works best for me.
- What is the best exit strategy with these licenses?
- Review the license contract with an attorney.
- What are the termination clauses?
- How often does my business need change?
- How easy it is to move data out of the software? This is typically important because in the future if you decide to move the stored data to some other solution you need to move it for historical purpose.
- Access of data for reporting purpose. Some vendors won’t allow a licensee to write queries against the database for a reporting purpose. Most vendors will require licensee to hire them for querying your own data.
Stay involved during the development / deployment process
This is very important as a lot of companies use consultants to create solutions for their business needs. If you have developers / architects on staff, make sure they are involved in the entire process from the beginning. Here are a few tips –
- Make sure the vendor understands that one of your own developers will be involved during the development process.
- Define the basic standards for the solution. Come up with the development platforms that your company or your staff is skilled at. Do not use any proprietary software. For example, if your company has standardized on React, insist the vendor uses the React platform and not Vue or Angular.
- Documentation, Documentation and Documentation. It is very important for companies to have technical and user documentation for any solution that has been developed. This is critical to maintain for future developers that are hired by the company.
- Insist on using the best practices. This is critical for any solution to succeed in the long term. This helps with maintenance of the software in long term too.
- Try to stay out-of-box. This is very important when building solutions for tools like SharePoint, Dynamics etc. Most vendors would like the company to build a customized solution. But insist the vendor try to find a solution that is out of box. At Wyngate we have found clients have deployed customized solutions that could be easily built with out-of-box features. Google your requirements, you might find different ways to approach the solution.
- Define how you are going to maintain the solution in the future.
- Make sure your developer is able to make changes in the solution.
Define your exit strategy
Business needs change constantly. Define the following before deploying any solution –
- How do I get rid of the solution in the future?
- Can I copy the data from this solution to another solution?
- Is there cost involved in removing the solution?
- In case of software integrated solutions, can the solution be upgraded when the software is upgraded?
