An IT purchase can be competitively priced and still fail to solve the problem. Often, the missing detail is in the specification. The equipment arrives, the invoice is correct, and the thing the organisation actually needed still does not happen — because the gap between what was bought and what was required to make it useful was never written down.
This is a practical checklist of what to settle before a purchase order goes out. It deliberately does not cover procurement regulations or approval thresholds: those differ between institutions and change over time, so confirm them with your own procurement office.
Start with the problem, not the product
A specification that begins "we need 25 laptops" has already skipped the step that matters. One that begins "our records office cannot process two applications at the same time" leaves room for a supplier to propose something better than what you had in mind.
Before naming any product, write down:
- What is not working today, in one or two plain sentences.
- Who will use the result, and how many of them at once.
- What they currently do instead, including the paper steps.
- What "better" would look like well enough that you could tell whether it happened.
Specify the environment, not just the equipment
The same equipment behaves differently depending on where it runs. Agree in advance what the system must tolerate:
- Power: what should happen during an interruption, whether backup power is included, and how long it needs to hold.
- Connectivity: whether the system must reach the internet to function at all, or only to synchronise later.
- Physical conditions: ventilation, dust and heat in the room where equipment will actually live, not where it was demonstrated.
- Access: who is allowed to physically reach the equipment, and who holds the key.
A system that assumes uninterrupted power and a permanent connection is a different purchase from one designed to keep working through interruptions. Decide which you are buying before you compare prices, because these requirements can materially affect the price.
Be explicit about licensing
Licensing can become a source of unexpected renewal costs. Ask, and get the answers in writing:
- What exactly is licensed — per user, per device, or per installation.
- How long the licence runs, and what renewal will cost.
- Whether the licence transfers when staff change or hardware is replaced.
- What happens to your data if you stop paying.
Treat installation and configuration as part of the purchase
Delivery is not installation. Installation is not configuration. Configuration is not working. These are four different states and suppliers do not always price all of them.
Agree which are included, and define what "done" means for each. Agree a short acceptance checklist alongside the warranty, so everyone knows what must work before you sign off.
For the records office above, an acceptance check might require two authorised staff members to process separate applications at the same time without losing or overwriting information.
Agree what support actually means
"Support included" can mean anything from a replacement part to an unanswered phone number. Pin down:
- How you report a problem, and to whom by name or role.
- How quickly someone responds — and separately, how quickly someone attends.
- Whether attendance is on-site or remote.
- What is excluded, particularly damage, power events and user error.
- Who pays for parts, and whether replacements are new or refurbished.
Response time and resolution time are different promises. A supplier who answers within an hour and repairs within three weeks has met a one-hour response commitment. Ask for both numbers.
Confirm what applies locally
Some of what matters most depends on where you are, and it is worth asking rather than assuming. Ask each supplier to confirm:
- Where repairs are carried out, and whether equipment has to leave the country to be serviced.
- Which replacement parts are held locally, and the expected wait for those that are not.
- Whether the quoted price includes delivery and installation at your actual premises.
Ask how data is protected and recovered
Physical access is only part of the picture. Before the system holds records you cannot afford to lose, agree:
- Who can access the data, and how that access is removed when someone leaves.
- Where backups are stored, who checks them, and whether a restoration has actually been demonstrated.
- Whether the organisation can export its data in a usable format if it changes supplier.
A backup that nobody has ever restored from is an assumption rather than a safeguard. Ask to see one restored before you sign off.
Define handover before you sign
Handover is what you are left holding when the supplier is no longer involved. It is straightforward to agree before payment and very difficult to obtain afterwards.
- Administrator credentials held by your organisation, not only by the supplier.
- Written documentation of how the system has been configured and why.
- Training for the people who will operate it day to day, not only for whoever signed the contract.
- For custom software: what source code and deployment instructions will be handed over, what rights the organisation has to use and modify the software, and which third-party components carry separate licences.
If a supplier is reluctant to commit to any of these in writing, that reluctance is itself useful information at the point when you can still act on it.
Plan for the second year
Most procurement plans stop at delivery. The costs that follow are predictable and are usually the ones that go unbudgeted: licence renewals, replacement parts, additional storage as records accumulate, support once the warranty lapses, and retraining after staff turnover.
A purchase that fits this year’s budget but cannot be maintained next year is more expensive than one that costs more today. Ask every supplier for the expected cost of years two and three.
Using this checklist
Take these points into your next supplier conversation and ask for written answers to each. A capable supplier will welcome the clarity, because a well-specified requirement protects them as much as it protects you — and written answers let you compare offers on the same terms rather than on price alone.
Preparing an IT purchase in The Gambia? Talk to Nexbridge about reviewing your specification, including installation, support and ongoing costs. You can also see what our IT procurement and infrastructure work covers.