{"id":1690,"date":"2018-11-05T09:15:23","date_gmt":"2018-11-05T09:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.coachmentoring.co.uk\/articles\/?p=1690"},"modified":"2018-10-18T10:24:16","modified_gmt":"2018-10-18T09:24:16","slug":"mentoring-platform-supplier-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.coachmentoring.co.uk\/articles\/2018\/11\/mentoring-platform-supplier-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Mentoring Platform \u2014 Questions to ask your supplier"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MentoringOur last blog discussed how you can decide whether you\u2019re ready to implement mentoring technology<\/a> to help you run your mentoring scheme. If you have decided that you might be ready for a mentoring platform, then this blog will help you with some questions you should be asking any potential technology provider.<\/p>\n

Will your Mentoring Platform supplier suit your organisation?<\/h1>\n

Question #1 \u2014 What is your Information Security and Data Protection Policy?<\/h2>\n

In today\u2019s world of GDPR, this is one of the most important questions, and one for which every IT provider should have a comprehensive answer. Any IT supplier should be able to give you details of how they will safeguard your personal data, where it is stored, what backups they maintain, and other information about how they comply with the GDPR. The contract they ask you to sign should also contain certain mandatory GDPR clauses, so check this is the case well before you have to sign and discover it\u2019s too late to ask the question! If your Mentoring Platform Supplier is not based in the UK or the EEA then they may not be as familiar with the GDPR as they need to be.<\/p>\n

Question #2 \u2014 What are the costs? Will you tailor your pricing structure to match how I want to pay?<\/h2>\n

The first question: \u201cWhat are the costs\u201d may seem a very obvious question, but the second is less obvious. There are many different ways of paying for software \u2013 one-off payment, monthly or annual payments, or a combination. You may receive your funding annually, in which case you\u2019d probably prefer an annual payment for the software. But if your funding arrives monthly, you\u2019d probably prefer a monthly payment to even out your cash flow.<\/p>\n

A good Mentoring Platform supplier will be able to tailor their pricing to match your funding structure, so ask if this is possible. And if you are paying annually rather than monthly then you should expect a discount for paying more in advance.<\/p>\n

Question #3 \u2014 How good is your support? And can you prove it?<\/h2>\n

I\u2019d be surprised if any Mentoring Platform supplier didn\u2019t answer \u201cfantastic\u201d to the first question, so the second is more important. The only way of finding out is to speak directly to other organisations who are already using the software.<\/p>\n