Vendor Selection Questions
In planning a system conversion project, it is best to start with investigating all of your business requirements. Learning of all your business requirements will help facilitate the questions your firm will need to ask prospective vendors. Do not be afraid to ask the potential vendor very specific and detailed questions about their platforms.
Below are some questions your firm should/could ask new portfolio accounting system vendors:
Has the vendor/outsourcer handled a migration from the firm's current system to the new system, in the past? Are there people with that specific experience, and will they be working on this conversion project?
Does the vendor have documentation that would assist with this specific conversion? Either previous conversion notes/documentation and/or a conversion checklist?
Is there any type of documentation regarding mapping of data points to convert from the specific current system to the new system that the vendor can provide OR does this need to be created, and by which party (firm or vendor)?
Is there a conversion Team that handles all aspects of the project OR do all questions go through a ticketing system/call center? If conversion team, is there direct access to the conversion team?
Is there a transition between 'conversion team people' and Go-Live people at some point? How does that transition typically work without a loss of transferable knowledge? At what point in time does that transfer of processes and personnel occur?
Is there a main point of contact/project manager that handles all of the coordination, or is is a 'committee free for all/consensus-based' conversion scenario?
Will the firm have 'hands on' access to the converted data after the conversion OR is it all just request and/or report driven in order to access that hard-coded data post conversion? What reports exist to provide access this hard-coded data, and are they internal/externally available reports/queries?
What is the pricing structure for the conversion: # of accounts converted, time frame of history being converted, etc? Do you charge per hour for consulting services or is all of this flat-fee based?
If the new system is not web-based and is subscription driven, is there a point in time where you have to upgrade and the old versions will no longer be supported? How does the vendor provide IT support related services to the new system(s)?
Were there any SLA deliverables agreed to in the contract for data to be provided by a certain time (ie BDx Vendor is to provide XYZ information) or a clear outline of all SLA deliverables and business day requirements should be created?
What is the process for parallel testing and how many months of parallel do you allow? Is there a cut off date where you MUST go live, and then if not, there are extra charges beyond that date?
What data testing does the vendor perform vs what testing is done by the Client, ie who is responsible for what? How are/if errors discovered and who's responsibility is that?
What type of checklists does the vendor currently have, regarding operational procedures that it currently performs? Can the vendor provide information that shows the steps it goes through do validate data on a daily basis, reconciliation, etc?
What types of processes/procedures does the vendor have in place (if the vendor is reviewing performance) to test for data accuracy when it comes to Live performance data? Are there daily reasonableness checks (missing benchmark prices test, crazy outliers test) that are tested, do they fix them AHEAD of the firm seeing them - what exactly is the process regarding HOW the vendor will 'check' the data?
What reports do they use and do we have access to those reports?
What time periods do they test?
What representative sample is tested?
Is there a tolerance level and how is that determined?
What output is provided with regards to testing (monthly, daily, calendar year, trailing returns, SI, etc)
Does the vendor test FIRST and then find preliminary errors BEFORE the firm does, or do we test congruently?
