IT is hard. I’ve written about the difficulties of automating your logistics business—the fact that you don’t have someone you trust 100%, that software projects fail big, that it’s risky to trust an IT person. Some people think that one answer to this question is to choose a supplier who offers a warranty.
This can sometimes help, but, unfortunately, it’s not that simple.
Simply put, your IT supplier will give you a warranty on… what?
A warranty that they will install or create the software they promised? What if they do install or do create it, but it turns out it isn’t useful to you? A warranty they’ll fix any important bugs? What is, then, an “important” bug? A warranty they’ll fix all bugs or provide a reasonable workaround? What is “reasonable”? What if they give you software that does really everything they promised but it’s so unintuitive it’s virtually unusable? Who will be the judge of all that?
Such warranties are useful only if you trust that your supplier is on the same wavelength as you are. But if you already trust your supplier, you don’t really need a warranty. So a warranty of this kind does not help with the problem of trust—and the problem of automation is a problem of trust.
An alternative is an unconditional warranty. In this case, the supplier practically promises they’ll return all your money simply if you ask so, without your needing to provide explanation. (In this case you need to trust the supplier will keep his word, but most people do, so it’s a much safer bet.)
Suppliers who offer unconditional warranties exist. However, such a warranty requires the supplier to trust you, and I believe that not all engagements are appropriate for a warranty. Even if they are, there can be caveats, like the period of validity of the warranty. You might be given a six-month unconditional warranty, you might be satisfied by the work during these six months, and the shortcomings of a mediocre work might show two years later.
So warranties can help, but I don’t think they are the answer to the problem of trust.