The last phase of the software selection process, negotiations, is often the most overlooked, especially from the perspective of the IT organization. But once you have analyzed a vendor’s initial total cost of ownership (TCO) and evaluated the options via a balanced scorecard framework, you need to have a plan for software negotiations; it cannot be an afterthought of your selection process. There are many negotiation points in the procurement process to consider when negotiating software versus solely focusing on the bottom-line price of software licenses, but instead evaluate the overall value and bigger picture.
Before diving into specific negotiation points of the business agreement, an overall negotiation strategy should consider the following points:
Once the strategy is laid, there are several tactical negotiation points that we have advised our clients to pursue in the software end user license agreement, maintenance agreement, and implementation professional services SOW:
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