If your firm is in the market for commercial real estate asset management software, then you should beware of vaporware.
Vaporware is software that’s marketed as a finished product, but in reality exists only on paper or in an incomplete beta state. Investing in vaporware can have significant negative repercussions when the software you’ve purchased doesn’t adequately meet your needs.
Wondering how to spot vaporware? There are steps you can take to ensure that you don’t invest in a vaporware platform. Here are three simple ways to avoid being sold vaporware when shopping for commercial real estate asset management software.
How to Spot Vaporware
Ask lots of questions.
“Educated buyers need to ask questions,” says Daryl Pitts, SVP of Global Sales for Pereview.
Take the advice of innumerable journalists and detectives before you and ask as many educated questions as you can. Here are some must-asks:
- How long has this platform been in production?
- What version of this are you on?
- Who else is using this?
- If I were to talk to one of your current users, would they agree with your sales pitch?
Vaporware won’t hold up to scrutiny. If you feel like you’re not getting adequate answers to your questions, then how can you feel confident that your investment in the product is worthwhile?
By the way, those final two questions are a perfect segue to our next tip for how to spot vaporware…
Ask the clients.
The best advertisement is a referral – and the best way to determine whether or not a product meets expectations is to ask someone who’s already using it.
(Warning: If the product has no current clients – or if the company tries to dissuade you from talking to their clients – that signals some clear and present danger.)
“My preferred way of spotting vaporware is by talking to someone who actually uses the product,” says Pitts. “If no one is using it, then, you can start to ask why. Unless they have a great answer, things should begin to break down.”
DIY Demo
No software should ever be purchased sans demo. But the best way to leverage the demo to your advantage – and potentially spot vaporware in the process – is to be interactive.
“There are three words that are key to a demo: ‘Let me drive,’” Pitts says. “Tell them: ‘Close every window, log-out, and let me try and do exactly what you just showed me. Look over my shoulder, tell me where to point and click – but let me try it out.’”
At Pereview, we call this a conference room pilot. We’ll show you Pereview’s functionality, and then we let you conduct your own test drive. You get in the driver’s seat and point-and-click, yourself. That will absolutely help you determine what’s vaporware and what isn’t.”
Proven Asset Management Software for Commercial Real Estate
You need a dependable asset management software solution, one that manages every step of the asset lifecycle, from acquisition to disposition. Pereview is the only Life of the Asset® solution on the market today.
Built by real estate professionals for the real estate industry, Pereview integrates all your data into a single source of truth, allows for push-button reporting, provides customized dashboards, and establishes standard workflows and guidelines for asset and data management.
Let’s chat about how you can do more with your data. Schedule a demo and interact with the software directly, then chat with our clients to confirm that, far from vaporware, Pereview is the only all-in-one solution you need for commercial real estate asset management.
