82 Customer Relationship Management Systems Handbook
Vendors have an important responsibility in the selection process and need
to provide specific responses to questions regarding the state-of-the-art of their
proposed data warehousing systems. Vendor responses to requests for pro-
posals should include a full range of answers to evaluation-based questions
on their products or services, including the following:
When was the system first installed at a customer site?
How many sites are in production?
Can existing customers be contacted?
What elements are included in a production-ready package?
What is the total cost of the package?
Other information provided in vendor proposals — number of orders
received, number of implementations, number of ...