Getting SaaSy with your Vendor Posted By Daniel Kaiser, Esq. on March 10, 2010
Choices, choices.. Trying to decide amongst all those competing SaaS Providers?
Today’s post is a direct hat tip to Joshua Poje, attorney and Research Specialist with the ABA’s Legal Technology Resource Center (LTRC), and coauthor of the LTRC’s legal technology blog “ABA Site-tation.” In January Mr. Poje brought us The ABCs of Cloud-Based Practice Tools, including this list of 18 key questions to ask a SaaS Vendor before signing on the dotted line. Several of these questions apply equally to a potential IaaS Provider. It pays to ask a few questions, so go on, get SasSy!
Drumroll, please:
- Do you offer a trial period or demo of your product?
- What training options are available for customers?
- How often are new features added to the product?
- How many attorneys are currently using your product?
- What hours is your tech support available?
- Do you offer a Service Level Agreement (SLA) and/or would you be willing to negotiate one with me?
- What types of guarantees and disclaimers of liability do you include in your Terms of Service (TOS)?
- How do you safeguard the privacy/confidentiality of stored data?
- Who has access to the firm’s data?
- Have you ever had a data breach?
- How often, and in what manner, is users’ data backed up?
- What is your company’s history – e.g., how long have you been in business, and where do you derive your funding?
- Can I remove or copy my data from your servers in a non-proprietary format?
- Where does the data reside – inside or outside of the United States?
- What happens to the firm’s data if the company fails?
- Do you require a contractual agreement for a certain length of service (e.g., 12 months, 24 months)?
- What is the pricing history for your product? That is, how often have rates been increased?
- Are there any incidental costs I should be aware of? [1]
[1] http://www.abanet.org/lpm/lpt/articles/ftr01103.shtml
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