Procurement and implementation

How to use these guides

A useful request describes how your store works: the workflows that must run, the systems the product must connect to, the evidence you want, the commercial terms you assume and how you will accept the result. A feature wish list invites every vendor to answer yes. A demo works best when the dealership controls the script, asks to see live workflows with your own sample data and records what is native, what is configured, what comes from a partner and what is only planned.

Price needs the same discipline. Put every quote on the same basis: number of rooftops and users, modules, volume charges, setup, training, integrations and renewal terms.

Ask about security and data ownership before you sign, including who may see your customer information, how it is returned or deleted and how you will be told about an incident. Plan the move before the contract, because migration, parallel running and training are where most of the cost and risk sit.

Read renewal and cancellation terms first. Notice windows, automatic renewals and data-export rights decide how easy it is to change your mind later.

Contracts deserve their own pass, because the terms outlast the people who negotiated them. Read the term, the renewal clause and the notice window, and write the notice date in a shared calendar the day you sign.

Check what happens to your data and your domain if you leave, who can export customer records and in what format, and how long the vendor keeps them. Ask which parts of the price are fixed and which are usage-based, and whether integrations are included or billed separately.

References are the cheapest test. Ask for two customers of your size and brand, and one that left.

A vendor with nothing to hide will usually provide all three. Then call and ask the same questions in the same order: what took longer than promised, what the first invoice looked like, what support does when a problem is urgent and whether they would buy again.

Write down the answers and compare them across vendors before anyone signs.

Last, keep a decision file. Put the scored demos, the quotes, the reference notes and the contract in one folder so that the next person who inherits the tool can see why it was chosen. Good records save an argument at renewal.