Shepherd Licensing: Planned Around Long-Term Partnerships

Shepherd does not charge licenses to its customers until they go-live.  That practice may make us stand out for potential customers when comparing Shepherd to its competition.  Having thought a lot about this approach the conclusion was that it both fair and appropriate for Shepherd customers.  Unlike NetSuite, Shepherd does not provide production or sandbox servers during the implementation process, which means there’s little argument to bill.  Shepherd bills its hours according to the rules in the statement of work and that is it.  You might have already concluded that this practice serves as a strong motivation to get you live.  You’re right, it does!

Short term losses worth a long term partnership

Of course, that means lost initial licensing revenue during the implementation phase, but that is easily made up during the many years of cooperation with customers after go-live.  

Going live is sometimes a short process especially if you are already live on NetSuite.  In the majority of cases, however, you will be going live with NetSuite at the same time as you go-live with Shepherd and perhaps with other suite apps or even integrations. 

During longer go-live phases, it is often the case that you will choose to begin working with Shepherd’s software one to two months after you begin working with NetSuite, which constitutes yet another argument for delaying license billing until go-live.

All parties motivated to meet deadlines 

The idea is to get you live on time and, more often than not, that will require a little push.  Most organizations have a contingent who is rather happy to maintain the status quo and for whom change is startling or even intimidating.  This is natural and for such staff strong change management is essential.  Strong, confident leadership in this regard is critical.  

The long game

Shepherd plans to be your partner in the long term… there is still so much more ERP to bring to the field.  Your implementer will be there to support you after you go-live.  Your sales rep will check-in on you during and after go-live.  You will be on first name terms with your Shepherd team and you will be able to reach them directly long after you are live.  Shepherd will not cut you off from the staff whom you trusted to bring ERP to the field but rather encourage that relationship to continue and grow.

Partner with us and we solve the field together. Get in touch to get an idea of what Shepherd could do for your ERP needs.