What is important to you when looking for a supplier for Enterprise Software Licensing?
Today?s post is?from our??SafeSourcing archive by special request.
IT purchases can be daunting for many businesses and a task many procurement teams leave to that team for the best recommendation with or without regard to the best overall value to the company.? This can get even more daunting with ?commodity?-type purchases such as Microsoft Enterprise Software Licenses.?
It is important to note that even in the cases where there can be no substitute for the software, competitive vendor analysis can and should be performed to ensure you are getting the best agreement for the company.? In these cases, where the pricing can be difficult to compress between IT resellers, there are additional things to look for that will differentiate the companies from each other.? In today?s blog we will be looking at a few of these items.
The Training ? Most IT resellers have extensive offerings to train you and your staff on the best way to configure and use the software licenses that you are purchasing from them.? Being a Certified Training Partner of the software manufacturers will provide a great value to your company.? While many times there will be some charges applied to this training, it is a great tool to leverage when deciding who to award your software purchases to.
The Service ? Another offering that IT resellers will frequently provide their customers, either as part of the purchase, or for an additional fee, is the installation of the software.? So many companies have IT departments that are already extremely under-staffed, overburdened, or both that the option of having the IT reseller assist with some of the rollout can be a great value-add in the decision making process.
The Expertise ? One of the biggest area to collect information on and references for is the expertise that the vendor brings to your company.? The amount of training that their employees undergo in order to service you is critically important and something you should be understanding about any vendor you consider purchasing from.? The main reason this background work is so important is because this training will ensure the company has the resources to accurately assess your organization and provide the best recommendation for based on cost and based on your needs and future growth.? Millions of dollars can be saved or wasted if inaccurate assessments are performed. It is alarming at how often this occurs in companies all over the world every year.
IT purchases such as enterprise licensing can be intimidating on the surface but it is this the extra things vendors can offer you aside from the software that become important. This is also why this category needs to be run through a competitive process, so that you get the best value possible for the organization.? For more information about sourcing IT categories like enterprise software licenses, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.??
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