faqs:evergreen_companies:faqs
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faqs:evergreen_companies:faqs [2014/10/16 16:54] – note, I represent a vendor, but I'm striving for a neutral POV :) phasefx | faqs:evergreen_companies:faqs [2022/02/10 13:34] (current) – external edit 127.0.0.1 | ||
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====== Frequently Asked Questions | ====== Frequently Asked Questions | ||
- | These are the frequently asked questions | + | These are the frequently asked questions for the [[faqs: |
- | **Note on the word " | + | **A note on the word " |
===== 1) Should I use a vendor with Evergreen? ===== | ===== 1) Should I use a vendor with Evergreen? ===== | ||
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Though there is no requirement to use a vendor when using Evergreen, it may be convenient to do so. The software is freely available to be downloaded and installed by anyone, and there are no licensing fees or contracts required for using, distributing, | Though there is no requirement to use a vendor when using Evergreen, it may be convenient to do so. The software is freely available to be downloaded and installed by anyone, and there are no licensing fees or contracts required for using, distributing, | ||
- | You should hire a vendor for the same reasons you would hire anyone--you want or need them to do work. With Evergreen you are free to develop in-house expertise in all aspects of the software, but you can also outsource it and develop in-house expertise at your own pace. | + | You should hire a vendor for the same reasons you would hire anyone--you want or need them to do work and/or you want or need to make use of their resources. With Evergreen you are free to develop in-house expertise in all aspects of the software, but you can also outsource it and develop in-house expertise at your own pace. |
Most Evergreen libraries use vendors in some way or another and are successful. | Most Evergreen libraries use vendors in some way or another and are successful. | ||
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* data migration | * data migration | ||
- | Different libraries mix and match these services, performing some in-house and hiring a vendor for others. | + | Different libraries mix and match these services, performing some in-house and hiring |
+ | |||
+ | ===== 2) How do I " | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Questioning the vendor directly ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | Just like you would interview a potential new hire, you should interview the vendor. | ||
+ | |||
+ | * hosting | ||
+ | * What service-level agreements do you offer for uptime? | ||
+ | * What is your backup policy? | ||
+ | * What redundancies do you have? Do you have more than one data center? | ||
+ | * What are you responsible for and what is out of scope of a hosting contract? | ||
+ | * support | ||
+ | * What service-level agreements do you offer for response time? How do you escalate support tickets? | ||
+ | * What support tiers do you offer? | ||
+ | * What are the normal support hours? | ||
+ | * What does support cover exactly, and what is out of scope of a support contract? | ||
+ | * training | ||
+ | * What are your policies for recording and redistributing sessions and training materials? | ||
+ | * software development | ||
+ | * How do you interact with the wider Evergreen development community? | ||
+ | * What are your policies for acceptance testing and bug reporting? | ||
+ | * data migration | ||
+ | * What experience do you have with the software we're coming from? Could you perform our data extraction? | ||
+ | * Do you offer test loads? | ||
+ | * What are your policies for resolving data-related issues post-migration? | ||
- | ===== 2) What questions should I ask the vendor(s)? ===== | ||
- | |||
- | The questions you may want to ask a vendor will vary by the type of work that you may want to use the vendor for. When hiring a vendor for migrating to Evergreen, one key first question to ask is if the vendor has ever migrated another customer from your current ILS to Evergreen. You may also want to ask for a reference of one of their customers who was migrated from that same ILS brand and/or version. | ||
- | |||
- | When hiring a vendor for support, make sure to ask how many library employees are allowed to submit support requests. Also, ask for expected response times to emergency help requests, and what hours of the days will they be available to respond to help requests. | ||
- | |||
- | When hiring a vendor for development, | ||
- | When hiring a vendor for hosting, ask about their service-level agreements. | ||
- | |||
===== 3) What information should I have available for the vendor(s)? ===== | ===== 3) What information should I have available for the vendor(s)? ===== | ||
faqs/evergreen_companies/faqs.1413492884.txt.gz · Last modified: 2022/02/10 13:34 (external edit)