Buying22 July 20267 min read
A principal's checklist for evaluating school software
Ten questions that separate a vendor from a partner — written for the meeting where the salesperson is present.
Every principal has sat through the demo that went beautifully — and lived with the software that did not. The gap between the two is rarely about features. It is about the questions that were never asked while the salesperson was still in the room.
Here are ten worth asking, with the answers you should hope to hear.
Ownership and exit
- "Where exactly does our data live, and who else can read it?" The best answer names a machine in your building. The worst answer contains the phrase multi-tenant cloud said quickly.
- "If we leave you in two years, what do we take with us, and in what format?" You are not planning to leave. You are checking whether they planned for you to be able to. A vendor confident in their product puts exports in the agreement.
- "Show me the clause in your agreement about student data." Not the privacy policy on the website — the agreement you will sign. If protecting student data is real, it is contractual.
The everyday reality
- "What works when the internet is down?" Ask them to demonstrate, not describe. A lesson that buffers is a lesson lost.
- "Who trains our staff — and where?" On-campus training in your actual workflows is worth ten webinar links.
- "When something breaks during morning assembly, who answers the phone?" One support line beats a ticket portal. A named person beats both.
- "How many vendors will our campus need for administration, content, labs and the parent app — with you in the picture?" Every additional vendor is another invoice, another support number, and another opportunity for finger-pointing.
The money
- "Price it for our exact section count, in rupees, with GST shown." If the price needs a discount dance to become reasonable, it was not a price — it was an opening position.
- "What is the per-student charge?" The right answer is that there is none. Schools budget by sections; software priced per student punishes you for good admissions.
The proof
- "Name a school like ours that runs this — and may we call them?" A reference school of similar size, board and budget, reachable without the vendor on the line, is worth more than every slide in the deck.
A vendor who welcomes these ten questions is telling you something. So is a vendor who does not.
Our own answers to all ten are on the platform page and the pricing page — including the arithmetic. The reference school is real and named.