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adaptation costs: how much do they ask to adopt the package to your hardware? How much to include your additional hardware and /or software libraries |
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the initial costs are different. In most cases the software environment needs adaptations. These can range over a broad area:
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the name of the product as appears on the screen |
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the adaptation to your specific hardware environment |
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the adaptation of the user manuals to you needs |
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the creation of user manuals under your own name |
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the inclusion of additional requirements, like linking to your specific compiler |
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licensing: besides the initial adaptation costs, licensing can be applicable. How much
do they charge? How much for a one time buy-out? Do the royalties include future updates? |
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strategy to deal with minor and major updates |
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the quality of the software and training manuals, and there availability in the required languages |
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is the products itself, including the on line help functions, available in the required languages |
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support: they all claim it, but who provides it best, and in your language. And at which costs. What is their strategy with respect to dealing with errors, minor and
major |
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training: can they provide on-site training for your people. Can they help your users.
How does their training manual look like. In which language? Can you use their material as basis for your own training? |
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Update: how do they deal with updates? How do you deal with updates? |
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does the system provide on-line help? In which languages? Does that cover your needs |
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is the company financial stable? |
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which references / installations does the company have? Do they include your competitors? Does that help you? Can you contact some of their references? |
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how well can the company cope with your future architectures? Do they support distributed systems, if needed? |
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if you have existing code which you want to include, can they support you? Does the environment support it? How well does it match? How much effort is estimated by them and by you to do the job? Are they willing to do it (at fixed costs), showing confidence and giving you a guarantee? At which costs? Which time frmae |
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can they provide an evaluation package? |
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how fast are they in their response? |
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do they speak your language, not only in your home language, but also do they know your environment? |
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is the product certified by PLCopen? At which level? For which language? How many updates after their certificate? Can they show (a copy of) the certificate? |
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can they provide a compliance statement by sending the IEC 61131-3 feature tables showing clearly what they support? |
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what are your main (expected) programming languages for this environment? How long are these languages supported? Which release are they on? |
