Leaving FACTOR, DM2, FireStream, or FuelSmart: Nine Questions to Ask Any Vendor Before You Sign

Anyone who has been through a software migration knows what it takes out of an office. Evenings, nerves, and a month-end everybody dreads. We know it too, and the way you keep it smooth and simple is to ask the right questions before you sign.

If you run FACTOR, DM2, FireStream, or Pinnacle FuelSmart, you already know the platform has a new owner and a new roadmap. Where a jobber, marketer, wholesaler, or c-store owner goes instead is one article. This is the other one: what to ask every vendor on your shortlist, us included, and what a straight answer sounds like. Bring the same nine questions to every demo and the comparison takes care of itself.

The short version: ask who does the conversion, how long it takes, whether you can run both systems, what happens to history, who answers the phone, what the first year costs in writing, what happens at renewal, whose data it is, and which modules you need. Our answers are under each one.

1. Who does the data conversion, and what comes across?

A named team on their side does it, from your exports, and the list is written down: customers and ship-tos, vendors and suppliers, open receivables and payables, tax setups for every state you file in, price formulas, tank and site records, and the current year of invoices with tax detail. If the answer is "you fill in our spreadsheets," the conversion is your project.

FastDragon's answer. Our team does the data work. You send exports, we map and load them, and you keep running your old system the whole time.

2. How long, really?

A number with the reasons behind it. History, state count, and module count are what move it. A vendor that says nine months to a year is telling you how they staff a migration, and it is worth asking why.

FastDragon's answer. Think six weeks, not six months, depending on the client. A complex one can run a couple of months.

3. Can we run both systems for a while?

Yes, for a defined stretch, with one system named as the record. One close side by side is the useful amount. Past that, double entry wears an office down.

FastDragon's answer. One overlap close, then your old system becomes a read-only archive until the contract ends.

4. What happens to our history?

The current year comes across with its tax detail, because filings and audits reach back. Older years stay readable somewhere, either converted or archived, and the vendor says which and what it costs.

FastDragon's answer. Current year in, older years archived in the old system, and you keep the export either way.

5. Who answers the phone after go-live?

A person, by name, who knows fuel and knows your account. Ask what happens at month-end when something breaks, whether support is in the monthly or billed per call, and whether the people who did your conversion are the people who pick up.

FastDragon's answer. We answer the phone. Our family working with yours, and the person who set you up is the person who knows your account.

6. What is the all-in first-year number, in writing?

One figure that includes the software, the conversion, the training, and any per-site or per-module fees, on paper before you sign. Quote-only is normal in this trade. Refusing to write the quote down is a different thing.

FastDragon's answer. You get the monthly and the one-time onboarding, and exactly what is in each, in writing.

7. What happens to the price at renewal?

A stated escalator and a cap, or a statement that there is none. This is the question people forget, and it is the one that decides what the software costs in year four.

FastDragon's answer. Written before you sign, and written again before anything about it changes.

8. Whose data is it, and can we get it out?

Yours, and yes, in a format you can open, on request, at no charge. Get that sentence into the contract. It is the sentence that keeps every other answer honest.

FastDragon's answer. Your books are yours. The ledger and every report export whenever you ask.

9. Which pieces do we actually need, and can we add later?

A vendor that sells the suite will tell you that you need the suite. A vendor that sells modules will ask what you run. Either way, the answer should include what it costs to add a piece a year from now.

FastDragon's answer. Modular. Wholesale, commissioned agents, c-stores, books, compliance, real estate, fleet, rebates, loyalty. Run two and pay for two. Add a third when the business does.

Before the first demo

Three things make every answer above easier to check. Read your current contract for the term end, the notice period, and the data export terms, because those decide your timing. Pull one month of your own invoices with their tax lines, so every vendor benchmarks against the same real numbers. And put one person from your office in charge of the move, someone organized who can say yes.

The general version of the cutover, including what tends to get lost in any migration, is in how to switch fuel software without the pain, and the buyer's guide has the questions to ask about the software itself.

My marketing guys wanted this to end with a paragraph about how FastDragon answers all nine. It does. I would rather you make us answer them out loud.

Questions people ask

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