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Sample General
Questions from
the ON-LINE CONSULTANT:
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► Vendor Profile |
| How many years has your company been in business? |
| What form of ownership (e.g. corporation, private) exists for
your company? |
| What were your company's gross and net revenues during the last
three years? |
| How many employees are dedicated to support, implementation, and
development of the proposed system? |
| How many NEW customers acquired the proposed system last year?
In the year before that? |
| Is your company involved now in any litigation with a customer
or other entity? Within the past 3 years? If yes, briefly describe. |
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► Software |
| When was the software first developed and installed? When was
the last major release or upgrade? |
| When is the next major software upgrade planned for this system?
Briefly, what will be new? |
| Are all software upgrade costs (e.g. custom programming,
installation, training) included in support fees? If not, explain. |
| Will your company guarantee in the contract that the software
will comply with all current and future federal and state mandates? |
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► Support |
| Where is the nearest software support office to our location?
How many technical staff? How many programmers? |
| Is your support department fully staffed 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for
customers in all time zones (e.g. EST to PST)? |
| Do you have a guaranteed response time for answering customer
problem calls? If yes, what is it? |
| How and when are known software problems (e.g. bugs, errors)
resolved? Do you publish a list of known problems? |
| How are monthly support fees billed (e.g. fixed amount,
variable, hourly)? |
| Is travel time to our site billable? If so, at what rate?
Briefly explain policy. |
| Will your company assume prime responsibility for all aspects of
hardware and software implementation? |
| Will initial training be performed at our offices or at your
facilities? |
| Is there an organized national user group? Is there a regional
user group in our area? How often and where are meetings? |
| What is maximum delivery time for custom programming jobs? Will
you guarantee this in the contract? |
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► Database |
| Does your system include any database reporting tools or special
links to popular reporting products that run under Windows? Which ones? |
| Will you provide a complete database dictionary that defines the
contents and links for each record and field, and allow access to the database from other
Windows applications? |
| Are DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange) and OLE (Object Linking and
Embedding) supported? Can other Windows programs query your data and obtain access to
records and field? |
| Does the database include any functions that are designed to
ensure integrity and fault-tolerance in a network environment? |
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► Hardware and Network |
| On what hardware platforms and operating systems does the system
run? |
| Briefly describe the system architecture (e.g. centralized,
network, open systems, PC based, LAN, etc.). |
| What safeguards (e.g. fault tolerance, hardware redundancy) are
included that eliminate unplanned downtime? |
| How much memory (e.g RAM) can be added to the main computer or
file server? |
| What is the maximum number of users or peripherals (e.g.
printers, CRTs, workstations) that can be supported? |
| If the system employs a network, can more than one protocol be
supported? |
| What items (e.g. cabling, air conditioning, backup power supply)
are required that are not included in your proposal? |
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► Operations |
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What personnel and qualifications do we need to support and
operate this system? |
| Does the system require regularly scheduled (e.g. daily,
monthly) down time for backups, system maintenance, etc.? Briefly explain. |
| What are the data retention capabilities and recommendations for
maintaining history on-line? |
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► More... |
