Digital White Papers

55 WWW.ILTANET.ORG | ILTA WHITE PAPER LITIGATION AND PRACTICE SUPPORT Vendor Consolidation: What's in It for Me? How easy is it to do business? At a minimum, vendor consolidation should make doing business with that vendor easier. Master services agreements, pre-negotiated discounts and streamlined invoicing should be givens. The most important question to ask is about how account management will change. Following consolidation, you should receive more aention, more "insider" information and more influence with your vendor. What To Look for in a Vendor Here are some guiding principles for what to look for when choosing a vendor and their products/services: » The vendor has a proven track record of great support, and your team likes dealing with them. » The vendor has a proven track record with administration, being responsive and reasonable and treating your procurement and accounts payable staff with respect. » The vendor has the appropriate geographical footprint and is well-capitalized to support consolidation. » The consolidated suite of products and services meets all core requirements and is consistent with your organizational culture, even though it might not be "best- of-breed." A new vendor enters your world. They acquired one of your key providers then discontinued one of your most important products. Is it time to panic? No, but you need to be proactive in order to make the tough decisions necessary to ensure a smooth transition for your team. Here is a list of questions to address with the vendor: » What is the timetable for discontinuation of product support? » How do you define support? Will there be security updates or bug fixes? Will any enhancements be available? » What rights, if any, do you have to any merged and/or successor product? Automatic use rights? Reduced cost? » What assistance is the vendor willing to offer in migrating you to a new platform? » Is the vendor willing to sell you the source code, so you can support it yourself? » How can you retrieve any data that may be in the vendor's possession? Once you have the answers to these questions, ask yourself what your risk appetite is for running an unsupported product. The answer to this question will help drive your final decision. In the spirit of "an ounce of prevention," you can help protect yourself in this area by negotiating termination clauses. Pay special attention to the availability of product support, rights to successor products, potential escrowing of source code and disposition of your data. Handling the Acquisition/ Consolidation Transition

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