See you next year
I’ve now talked to three different organisations trying to escape the same well-known software platform.
All three set out with what seemed like generous runway for a platform of that size, one of them 6 months ahead of renewal. They all failed, and they all had to renew for another year.
This is how lock-in works. It’s a feature, not a bug.
Migrating off any platform, even a modest one, will take far longer than anyone has budgeted for. There are the obvious demos to sit through, but you also have to negotiate with vendors and colleagues, implement, and test – usually multiple times. And, at the same time, you’ll be trying to align stakeholders with messy agendas.
Before booking even one demo:
- Talk to IT and figure out what the actual workload would be, not the optimistic one.
- Work back from the renewal and go-live dates.
- Add buffers, then add more. And probably more.
If your renewal is under 12 months away, assume you’re already too late. Start now or try to negotiate a little extension in order to avoid another year in software prison.
Colin