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January 10, 2020
Yair Segav is the Non-Profit Vertical Lead, CFO Services at Escalon Business Services. A detailed-oriented leader admired for his outstanding skills in financial forecast, planning, analysis, budgeting and cash management, he has been instrumental in navigating a firm’s financial growth. Prior to joining Escalon, he has advised several firms including Nielsen Social, Kemlink USA Inc., Solomon Schechter High School, RSL Liquidating Trust, Citibabes, Maryland Engineering & Dredging Co., and Oceana Advanced Industries Ltd. He holds a bachelor’s in Accounting and Economy from Tel Aviv University.
If you’re evaluating options for a technology stack, it’s important to know exactly what third-party vendors might be able to offer you, beyond what’s obvious on their sales sheets. If you are planning to work with an outside development partner to build your stack, ask yourself these questions.
The last thing you want is to be locked into a years-long contract with a vendor before realizing that the technology is not what you’d hoped. Ideally, you’ll be able to try out the vendor’s technology before purchasing, or you could have a trial period after implementation where you can get out of a contract within the first few months if you don’t like it.
In a perfect world, you’ll work with a vendor who has proven experience working with businesses like yours. If your vendor is a startup, there’s always a chance it won’t be around long enough to support you as you need upgrades or adjustments to the service, so if it’s a newer business, it’s more important than ever to get references from existing clients.
To build on the question posed above, you want your vendor to be around for the long haul, since you may need help along the way. Make sure you have a support period that spans as long as possible, so the vendor is available to handle updates, migrations, bug fixes, new tech integrations and other features that you may need.
With many modern tech stacks, the data is saved in a cloud-based storage capacity, but that’s information you’ll need to know up front. In addition, find out who will have access to that data. It’s imperative that key staff members at your organization can access the information from your platform on an as-needed basis without having to get the vendor involved to retrieve it for you, so this question is essential.
Because you expect your business to grow, the tech stack vendor should be able to show you exactly how its technology will scale with your startup. The tech must be flexible enough that simple adjustments will allow for swift growth, without slowdowns or crashes in the process. You certainly don’t want to have to buy a new technology stack a year from now because yours couldn’t handle your growth, so find a solution that can grow with you.
Some vendors will give you a low price up front, only to reveal later that things like support or troubleshooting are charged on an a la carte basis. Get a list of everything that’s included in the price from day one, in writing, so you don’t face budget surprises later.
Even if the technology stack is ironclad when you get it, that doesn’t mean it’s always going to be safe from threats. As new security bugs come out and as your technology evolves, you could open yourself up to becoming a target. Make sure security is a top priority with your vendors so you don’t face any breaches along the way, which could sink your reputation and your standing with customers.
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Say goodbye to the hassles of hiring, training and managing in-house finance teams. You will never have to worry about unexpected leave of absence or retraining new employees.
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