Why vendor lock-in matters more than it looks

It comes up on almost every project, usually later than it should. Vendor lock-in is easy to treat as a detail, and that is exactly why it is worth a few minutes of attention.

The projects that go badly are rarely the ones with the hardest technical problems. Doing this properly once is usually cheaper than doing it approximately three times.

Why this earns attention

Ask how you would leave before you sign. The reasoning matters more than the rule, because the rule has exceptions. Check it against what you would want a competitor's site to get wrong.

Data export should be tested, not assumed. That sounds obvious written down. It is still the thing most often skipped. Write the reasoning down alongside the decision, because the reasoning is what changes first.

Warning signs

Proprietary formats are the expensive kind of convenient. It is worth being explicit about, because assumptions differ quietly. Check it against what you would want a competitor's site to get wrong.

The short version

Clear scope protects the client at least as much as it protects the agency. Three things worth confirming about vendor lock-in before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Proprietary formats are the expensive kind of convenient — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

If you are not sure where your systems currently stand on this, it takes us about an hour to find out.