Who Implements DPDP Software After You Buy It?

Eight DPDP vendor websites, read in one sitting: none of them prices implementation as a product. The doing is the part you are left holding.

The reading exercise

I read the websites of eight DPDP software vendors in one sitting: feature pages, pricing pages, process pages. Implementation appears nowhere as a priced product. The quote covers the licence, and the work of making the licence do anything is left off the page.

The arithmetic behind the gap

A SaaS business runs near 80 percent gross margin. Implementation services run at 30 to 40. Bolting a services line onto a SaaS company damages the number its investors price it on.

They leave the doing out of the quote because their business model cannot carry it. That structure means they can never fix it, however much they want your business.

What the doing includes

• Receiver code that catches the tool's webhooks in your systems.
• Identity mapping across the tools that know the same customer differently.
• Data Processing Agreements drafted and negotiated with every vendor.
• Process change and staff training so the tool gets used.
• Evidence trails that survive a regulator's questions.

The bill for this work is the setup tax, and it usually dwarfs the licence.

The one question

Whoever you shortlist, ask one question: who implements the software after it is bought? A real answer names people, prices the scope, and goes in writing. A vague answer tells you where the work will land.

Read a vendor site like this