Planning software vendor selection process

Customer Reference Call Questionnaire v2

1
Company Name
Contact Information:

Background
Revenue, Size, Brands ?
Scope of Operations (Geographic Reach)
If global, how did vendor support activities?
Scope of planning activities (high level, merchandise assortment, OTB, store
level, price/markdown)

Approximate number of business users
Why did the vendor choose your company as a reference ?

Information Technology Infrastructure
Who Hosts the Application? Is it internal or External ?
How much internal or external support is required for application ?
How is security access handled for users?
Describe support process. What is your satisfaction with support process ?
If external - How is external security access handled ?
If external What types of data access tools are provided ? Archiving tools
? Data security tools ?

If external What system monitoring processes are in palce ?
If internal, what Environment/Infrastructure is required?
Platform(s)
Number of Servers
Database Engine
Landscape (Sandbox/Training, Development, Test, Production)
Reporting Tools, Data warehouse
What is the scheduled availablility of your planning system ?
Any performance issues with internal systems ?
What kind of support does Vendor provide?
Do you have a Contingency plan?
Downtime experience?
Frequency of Hot Pack/Support Pack Application (Time/Effort)
Support 24x7 available ?

Implementation
What Was the Scope of Implementation? (Scope, Modules, Functionality
Planning software vendor selection process
Customer Reference Call Questionnaire v2

2
and Geography)
What planning software is installed ? where ?
How would you access the vendor product and implementation knowledge ?
How well did the vendor meet the project plan ? What were the major issues
that affected the project plan ?

How active were you in developing the project plan ?
Did you construct a prototype, model, or test system ?
Did Vendor deliver on the initial implementation scope and cost estimates?
How did you contract (fixed bid, T&M)?
Size/Skills of the Implementation Team
Describe the personel on the implementation team ? How many
Business/IT/Consultants

How do you acess the training and documentation provided by the vendor ?
What did vendor do to ensure adequate knowledge transfer?
What was duration of the implementation ?
What major issues were encountered? How did Vendor respond and
contribute to solving the issue?

What tools or mechanism did vendor use to manage the implementation?
How many Interfaces were built?
Did the vendor use off-shore support and if so what for? How did it work?
How satisfied were you with off shore support ?

Who performed the interface testing and validation ?
Were there any other third party costs ? How much ?
How did vendor assist you with data conversion and cutover ?
Overall, how would to rate the vendor ability to deliver and support the
software


Lessons Learned/ In Closing
Where there any surprises ?
What would you do differently?