We heard a disturbing story about a race who is going to be moving their registration platform, and their former vendor has locked them out of the system. So they are now fighting with that vendor trying to get access to their data. Ouch!
While most races want to find a system and then never leave, the fact is that technology changes (and more and more rapidly). New technology may enhance your event or nonprofit, and the pain of change is outweighed by the benefits of a new platform.
RunSignup was founded with several unique contractual approaches that have been a key to our success:
- Non-exclusive Contract. This means that a customer can leave at any time. We did this for two reasons. First, we simply did not want the burden of an unhappy customer. Second, we felt that in the age of SaaS and technology change it is not a good idea for an organization to commit to even a year of lock-in. We felt that this would be a competitive differentiator and we have been right.
- Ownership of Data. Your data is your data. RunSignup has no right to market or sell to the people who sign up for your events or make donations to you.
- Open, Free Platform. Many people are surprised that they can set up a race and do things like upload participants and results and have a free website and not be obligated to have registration on RunSignup. This also works on the back end if a race decides to leave us. Since the data is their data, they will still have access to all of their data.
It surprises us that other vendors in the market did not follow our lead on this. We also have standardized pricing and volume revenue share so we treat customers consistently.
Our recommendation is that you negotiate with other vendors to give you terms that are the same or similar to RunSignup. This includes Non-exclusive or a right to leave rather than be locked into a 1-3 year contract. Also ask for contractual access to your data after you have left the contract. On data sharing, you may not care but some of your sponsors may if there is a conflict with who the participant data gets shared with.
Finally, ask for pricing that is the same as RunSignup. Most vendors will match our pricing if you negotiate with them.