Diary of a DMS Guy

Recently, I've been involved with several prospects in the sale process who all have come to the same position.

They have in principle made a decision that our Navigator DMS solution is right for them, pricing is agreed and they are ready to sign.

They then review the Termination Process with their incumbent supplier.   This is where the problem occurs.   As DMS systems evolve, we rely on them more and more not only for processing of active transactions but also to retrieve historical information.   

As part of the migration process a lot of data is migrated, but often it's required that the incumbent supplier supply some data extracts.  In addition, it's often a requirement to keep the existing system for archive purposes (eg so that historical copy invoices can be printed).   This is the point where the process get's complex!

Pretty much every contract for the supply for DMS solutions in the UK is silent on what happens in this scenario.   

Here at Navigator, we supply a single user licence for a term at a proportion of the existing user licence - so a dealer with a 20 user licence would simply continue paying for 1/20th of his existing licence.  Data is supplied on a time basis  which varies depending on the amount of data supplied.

However, all is not equal with all suppliers.

It is becoming increasingly common for incumbent suppliers to  make large demands for retaining the use of the existing system for archive purposes - I was speaking to a dealer recently who was being quoted £20,000 pa for continued single user use for archive data retrieval.    This was more than our price for supplying Navigator!

Fortunately, we don't require the incumbent supplier to supply much data as we can extract much of it from their systems - we document these for our new customers to use.   

For many dealers, this is a shock as they find themselves tied to a system they don't want to continue using!   This is particularly frustrating for them when the reason they are changing systems is because the incumbent supplier will no longer support their existing system.  So, the dealer is left with the Catch-22 scenario where they can't stay on their existing system but would rather move to a competitive solution, but are prevented to do so by the high cost of exit !

The reality is that it is likely that you will be in the scenario of wanting to change your DMS supplier in the future! 

Find out before it's a problem

So, check now, with your supplier, when you aren't in the position of needing to change, what would happen if and when this happens.   This will likely mean that when you do review your solution, you will be able to mitigate or reduce the likely cost by knowing upfront where you stand.

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