Software vendors have a lot to offer enterprise businesses. Besides selling core software applications, vendors might offer to entice their customers with optional features that can make doing business easy. These after-the-sale upgrades usually provide impressive features, but they cost a lot, forcing buyers to make important decisions that could more than double the cost of a software purchase. With many software applications residing in the cloud, the cost of software options often becomes a recurring expense. Executives and managers want the best software and extra features for their company, so they must carefully decide between which software options to buy.

Need Evaluation
Managers must precisely define what they need a software product to do, so they can objectively assess software options. With product requirements in hand, corporate buyers can drive a hard bargain and resist the urge to add bells and whistles to a purchasing agreement. Buyers usually should avoid software options that do not meet stated needs.

Affordability/Budget Constraints
Corporate buyers should check to see how much money their company or department can spend before committing to buy additional software options. Budgets frequently dictate what options a company can or cannot buy. In the case of SaaS products, buyers should verify how much money the company can afford to add to its monthly budget. Extra software features can help boost productivity over time, but that advantage may not generate extra revenue for months or years.

Cost-Benefits Analysis
Managers must perform a cost-benefit analysis for every software product purchased. When vendors propose new software options, managers must sit back down to determine whether the benefits of software options can justify extra costs. Managers who add management costs, personnel costs, facility expenses and supply expenses to the cost of software options, they can compare total costs to tangible and intangible benefits of a product. Accountants can forecast net present value for products and then decide whether the projected benefits of a product exceed their cost. Other analyses including break-even analysis and cash-flow analysis can help decision makers decide whether or not they can justify the purchase of software options.

Service Plans
Enterprise software buyers often need service level agreements that will guarantee certain levels of software performance and vendor support. Some vendors strip service provisions out from basic software products and then offer support options separately. Managers should make sure to ask about product support costs and then add those costs to the purchase price of the software package.

Competing Products
Large corporations often stay with the same software vendors for years because they want to ensure compatibility and preserve relationships. Companies that think that way often pay too much for their software products and optional features. Companies that open their minds to other possibilities might find out that other companies offer similar software products for less money. These alternative products might even include extra features that other vendors sell as options.