Vendor Interface

 

Any potential vendors need to be examined for their reliability, dependability, and stability over time. The nature of a strategic service such as electronic mail implies the service will have a long lifetime, with evolving requirements. Any selected vendors thereby becomes a critical factor in the the service provider's ability to succeed. A good choice of vendor will provide many benefits over the life of the service, such as:

• enhanced ability to address changing needs
• increasing level of product functionality
• second level support for problem resolution
• rapid fixes to software problems
• continued supply of the product

A potential vendor will need to be evaluated based upon criteria such as:

Strategic direction

The vendor will have identified that support of standard protocols, and a heterogeneous, multi-platform product are overall corporate goals. A commitment to the objectives outlined in section is important.

Profitability

The potential vendor should be financially viable, with the expectation they will actively continue in the market segment for some time to come.

Development activities

The potential vendor should be evaluated on the amount, kind and direction of product development activities, and their relavence to our architectural goals.

Upgrade policies

It is a design assumption that the project will refine the requirements of the electronic mail clients. Vendor upgrade policies should provide a smooth path for continued evolution of the service as these new requirements emerge, if possible.

Customer support

Easy, direct, second or third level technical support is a necessary requirement of any vendor. Procedures for ensuring rapid resolution and escalation of software problems that affect any service performance guarantees should be carefully considered and negotiated with the potential vendor.