> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.nalpeiron.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.nalpeiron.com/about-nalpeiron/nalpeiron-overview/key-questions-to-ask-a-software-licensing-vendor.md).

# Key questions to ask a software licensing vendor

Learn which questions to ask a software licensing and entitlement management vendor to evaluate their experience, support, and track record before you commit.

Selecting the right software licensing and entitlement management vendor is a critical decision that can significantly impact your organization’s operations, scalability, and long-term success.

To ensure you make an informed choice, it’s essential to go beyond surface-level features and dig deeper into a vendor’s experience, business structure, technical capabilities, support infrastructure, and track record with clients.

By asking targeted questions about their history, focus, intellectual property, support resources, service levels, and client portfolio, you can assess whether a vendor meets your immediate requirements and if they have the stability, expertise, and scalability to support your evolving needs.

This comprehensive approach to vendor evaluation helps minimize risk, maximize value, and ensures a partnership that aligns with your strategic objectives.

<figure><img src="https://952415364-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F8tBSQqR1NJ4p8v0kM7eW%2Fuploads%2FNM69QkfOyvK7YTNXwYLh%2Fsupport.png?alt=media&amp;token=f211a0ae-81df-4b11-a3a9-d3e1638e74d4" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

### Before the questions, after twenty years, if you had to pick only one thing to test before choosing a vendor, what would it be?

{% hint style="warning" %} <mark style="color:red;">**- Test their Support very thoroughly**</mark>
{% endhint %}

Always ask for a trial/POC. Here are some tips.

* **Request a Trial or POC:** Always ask for a trial or proof of concept before deciding.
* **Setup Experience:** Pay attention to how quickly and easily the vendor sets up the trial, and how much effort they put into understanding your needs.
* **Responsiveness:** During the trial, notice how fast and helpful their responses to your questions are.
* **Personal Interaction:** Did you meet with a real person who took the time to understand your specific requirements? Do they seem knowledgeable and capable of meeting your needs?
* **Product Usability:** Is the product modern, intuitive, and easy to use? Can you get started without needing expensive professional services or extra training?
* **Support & Costs:** Determine whether you’ll need to pay extra for support or other necessary services. Are these costs reasonable?
* **Implementation Speed:** How quickly can you roll out the solution? How many people from your team will be needed for setup and ongoing use?
* **Reliability:** Do you feel confident that the vendor will support you when issues arise?
* **Partnership Potential:** Does your team work well with theirs? Do you see them as potential long-term partners, not just suppliers?

***

### Good questions for software licensing vendors:

<table><thead><tr><th width="449.5390625">Question</th><th>Answers for Nalpeiron</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>How long have you been around?</td><td>20 years, since 2005</td></tr><tr><td>Are you part of another business or PE firm?</td><td>Employee owned, independent</td></tr><tr><td>Is licensing your total focus, or are you part of another company?</td><td>Total focus - that means way better support - outstanding support is what sets us apart</td></tr><tr><td>Do you have any issued patents or your own IP?</td><td>Yes, 2 issued US patents</td></tr><tr><td>Where are you located? (really, not just a serviced office in the US)</td><td>Boulder, USA + UK and Europe</td></tr><tr><td>Support time zones?</td><td>Across the world, business hours</td></tr><tr><td>Response times? Priority support? Phone support?</td><td>Usually, within an hour, with priority phone support for Enterprise customers</td></tr><tr><td>Do you offer training, consulting, support services and custom solutions?</td><td>Yes. Unlike our bigger competition, most clients don't need expensive and time-consuming training and PS, as we designed Zentitle2 to be easy to use and integrate</td></tr><tr><td>Uptime SLA? Average uptime last 10 years?</td><td>Over 99.9% consistently for 10+ years straight - longer than many competitors have been in business</td></tr><tr><td>What's the size of your biggest client?</td><td>$33 billion, with all the associated requirements for security, risk management, and reliability</td></tr><tr><td>How many clients do you serve?</td><td>1000s</td></tr><tr><td>Do you work with startups/scale-ups?</td><td><p>Yes, we offer very competitive pricing for enterprise-class infrastructure.</p><p>We are not a fit for super small, low-support requirements, as we provide very high levels of security, quality, and service response times.</p></td></tr><tr><td>Have you handled larger clients/deal sizes/responsibilities?</td><td>Our larger contracts are worth over $1M a year, with millions of end-users and the associated scale and reliability SLA</td></tr><tr><td>The average time a client stays with you?</td><td>The current lifetime average is eight years plus</td></tr><tr><td>What scale of operations do you support?</td><td>Billions of transactions a month</td></tr><tr><td>The amount of revenue on the vendor platform $?</td><td>$Billion+ estimated</td></tr><tr><td>Volumes of end users? Scalability? Speed?</td><td>Over 100 million licenses on the platform - we have built out a special scalability product called <a href="/enterprise-security/security-and-platform-details/turboscale.md">Turboscale</a> that will scale to billions of transactions</td></tr><tr><td>Transaction volumes per month?</td><td>Varies, usually over 300M</td></tr><tr><td>Have you implemented something like my scenario before?</td><td>After 20 years, we feel we have likely seen every possible use case and can handle most of them very well</td></tr></tbody></table>

{% hint style="success" %}
Put Nalpeiron to the test, [get a free trial/POC today](https://nalpeiron.com/free-trial)
{% endhint %}


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