One of the most challenging aspects of moving to a new system and vendor is "not knowing." There are some questions that just aren't answerable in the moment.

Here are some examples of questions my clients will ask that are really unknowable:

• "How much work will staff have to do during implementation?" Vendors (and I) can give you estimates and best guesses based on experience, but the correct answer is unknowable.
• "Will their API work for this integration they've never done before?" Impossible to say at this moment. We'll have to see if they have done comparable integrations and try to learn from that.
• "Will their customer service be better than what we're getting now?" Depending on your current situation, and depending on the vendor being chosen, yes. Or maybe. Difficult to say.

So how do we address these unknowable questions? This is where reference calls play a key role. If you need answers to these questions before you make a final decision, you should talk to multiple references and ask them. Their answers will not be definitive, but they may provide you with some additional insight and some sense of whether you're on the right track or if some unacceptable level of risk still exists.

The truth is, some answers will only come once you've experienced them. But a good reference call can help set a level of comfort that will allow you to proceed apace with the project.