1.What new clients have you added in recent years?2.What is the future direction of the products and how well can you support previous releases? How often are products upgraded and when do clients need to migrate?3.What percent of revenue goes back into research and development?4.How are product enhancement requests incorporated into future releases? What is the typical time frame for implementation of requested enhancements?5.How customizable is the application? (menus, screens, source code, etc. ). How do customized applications affect upgrades?6. How many live installs have you had on the products you are demonstrating7. How is the software sold and supported?8.What is included in the software maintenance fees9.What is the standard implementation time frame? How many resources are required?An alternative to installing expensive proprietary software is to install an open-source program. Open-source software is free and its source code is accessible via the Internet. This software is available under a no-fee license that permits users to download, modify, and improve the software, and to redistribute it in its modified form. Anyone who wants the source code can get it and adapt it to a specific situation with the expectation that it will then be placed in the public domain for others to use. This collaborative process allows for continuous improvement in the code; as the user base grows, the quicker errors are detected and fixed and the faster new developments are added.