Questions to Ask Before Buying School Software

Overview

Vendor sales pitches are designed to highlight strengths and gloss over weaknesses. The only way to get the information you actually need is to ask specific, probing questions and press for concrete answers. This guide provides 30 questions — organised by category — that school administrators in Africa should ask any school management software vendor before committing to a contract. The questions are designed to surface hidden costs, reveal technical limitations, expose inadequate support structures, and probe vendor credibility. Use them as a formal RFQ (request for quotation) framework or as a structured interview guide during the demo.

Questions about product fit

These questions establish whether the product can actually do what your school needs without expensive customisation. Ask: (1) "Show me a sample report card in Ghana SHS / Nigeria SS / Kenya KCSE format — can your system produce this exactly?" (2) "How does your system handle our three-term academic calendar structure?" (3) "Can we configure multiple fee types — tuition, boarding, PTA levy, development fund — as separate line items in the student invoice?" (4) "How does the system handle students who transfer mid-term or join mid-year?" (5) "Can the parent portal be accessed on a basic Android smartphone without downloading an app?" (6) "How does your system support continuous assessment — can teachers enter CA scores progressively throughout the term, or only at term end?" (7) "Does your system support multiple user-defined grading scales, or is it fixed to one grading format?" Insist on live demonstrations of each feature rather than screenshots. If a vendor hesitates to show something live, it is usually because it does not work as described.

Questions about African-context support

These questions determine whether the vendor understands and supports the specific operational environment of African schools. Ask: (8) "Which Mobile Money platforms do you integrate with in our country, and how does the payment reconciliation work?" (9) "Can you show me a live Mobile Money test transaction from a parent paying fees to the school account?" (10) "What is your system's performance on a 3G mobile internet connection — can you demonstrate it throttled to 3G?" (11) "Do you have an offline mode? What can staff do when internet is unavailable?" (12) "Where are your servers located? Do you have a data centre in Africa or within the region?" (13) "How do you handle Ghana's GES academic calendar or Nigeria's state education authority requirements?" (14) "Have you integrated with WAEC or BECE/KCPE examination portals for student registration or result uploads?" The answers to these questions quickly separate vendors who understand African schools from those who have adapted a generic international product with minimal local knowledge.

Questions about vendor credibility and references

These questions assess how trustworthy the vendor is based on evidence, not promises. Ask: (15) "How many schools of our type and size are currently using your system in our country?" (16) "Can you give me the phone numbers of three headteachers or bursars I can call as references?" (17) "How long has your company been operating, and who are your investors or owners?" (18) "What was the last major feature you added to the system, and when?" (19) "What percentage of schools that start with you are still active customers after two years?" (20) "Have you experienced a significant data breach or prolonged system outage in the past two years? If so, what happened?" Calling references is not optional — it is the only reliable way to learn what the system is actually like to use day-to-day after the honeymoon period. When calling references, ask specifically: "What would you do differently if you were implementing this system again?" and "What is the one thing the vendor does badly?"

Questions about support and implementation

These questions establish what happens after you sign the contract. Ask: (21) "Who specifically will manage our implementation, and what is their background?" (22) "What does your onboarding process look like — what will we need to provide, and what will your team do?" (23) "How long does a typical implementation take for a school our size?" (24) "What are your support hours, and how quickly do you respond to urgent issues?" (25) "Can we contact you by WhatsApp or phone, or only through a ticketing system?" (26) "What training do you provide and for how many sessions? Is additional training available if we need it?" (27) "What happens if our designated system administrator leaves — can we get retraining for a replacement?" (28) "Do you have an in-country team who can visit us in person if needed, or is all support remote?" Support quality is often where international vendors underperform relative to local African vendors: a system that is technically superior but supported only through a 48-hour ticket queue is operationally inferior to a slightly simpler system with a WhatsApp group that responds within the hour.

Questions about pricing, contracts, and data

These questions protect your school's financial and legal interests. Ask: (29) "Please provide a fully itemised three-year cost projection including all fees, SMS credits, and any per-module charges." (30) "What are the contract cancellation terms — how much notice is required and are there early termination fees?" Additionally, confirm the following in writing before signing: that your school owns all data generated in the system and can export it in full at any time, that price increases require a minimum 90 days' notice, that the vendor's privacy policy complies with your country's data protection law (Ghana Data Protection Act, Nigeria NDPR, Kenya Data Protection Act), and that you will receive a copy of the data security practices document. Any vendor unwilling to put these terms in writing should be disqualified from the evaluation.

Key Takeaways

Frequently Asked Questions

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