Customising Perform Zone

Can I request a customisation? How?

In the event that Perform Zone Software’ standard solutions do not meet your needs, you may request a customisation. We’ generally
discourage this, for reasons outlined below, but also because we have found ways to make the standard offerings work for most businesses-with
just a slight shift in your current workflows.

We’ prepared this article because it’ important for you to consider all the implications of a custom solution before requesting one.
Should you decide to proceed, please contact us and we will send you a customisation template to work from. This template assists in capturing
your requirements, quoting on costs and delivery date, and acts as a working document for testing and development and release sign off.

Why do you discourage customisations?

We have three main reasons for recommending against customising your system:

• Customisations cost money. And additional changes resulting from your initial customisation request cost
  more money. We like money, but we don’t want you spending yours if it’s not a good long-term investment. Ask
  yourself: will this customisation save my business money in the long run? Will I get a good return on this investment?
  You should only proceed with customisation if your answer to both these questions is a resounding, ‘!’
• Development takes time. We’ve built a lot of flexibility into Perform Zone, so it only takes you a few minutes to
  tweak your setup and get your system operating optimally. Compare that to our current customisation lead time of 10-12 weeks
  after you’ve signed acceptance of our solutions architect’s customisation design.
• Customisations make your system unique. That sounds cool, but unique is just another way of saying ‘non-standard’, which
  can cause problems. For example, it can make part of your system inflexible-you may be unable to adjust certain parts of the setup
  that most clients can easily access, or you may not be able to switch on a new feature that is available for other clients.
• Customisations can break. Regular software updates are necessary for the ongoing improvement of our software are considered standard practice
  for web- software. Any customisations may be incompatible with future versions of the software, and if this situations arises, it will cost
  you further time and money to fix broken customisations

What features can you customise?

The following customisations are most frequently requested by our clients, and generally do not affect your ability to receive software updates:

• Integration with 3rd party applications. You may have your own or one of your customers systems that can be integrated with Perform Zone via API’s
• Reports to give you a custom view of your business for analysis. In general, if the information is already available in the system, we can display it in
  a customised version of an existing report (e.g. with a new column or a new filter) or in a new, customised report.
• Scripts to perform background tasks or to automate parts of your workflow.
• Modules. These are separate screens within the software that refer to other parts of Perform Zone.
• New fields. We can add new fields into most screens within an hour.

Why are you asking so many questions?

We need to know exactly what you want, and the only way for us to establish that is by asking you about every aspect of your request in detail.
We don’t want to work on assumptions, because that introduces a risk of the end result differing from what you pictured

Of all the questions we ask you, the one you’ll hear the most is, ‘Why?’ Many of our clients tell us what they want to see, which is a great starting
point, but it’s just one solution. We want to go right back to the problem you’re trying to address—the ‘why?’—and come up with alternative solutions.
Some of these may be cheaper or simpler customisations to implement, or ideally be part of our standard product.
It’s only by asking these questions that we’ll really understand your goal, so we can deliver the best solution for you.

How much does a customisation cost?

Each customisation is unique, so each gets estimated individually, and we are unable to provide a quote until our
solutions architect has fully determined all requirements and scoped a solution. The quoted amount includes scoping,
development and testing, and our expert developers are consulted to ensure reasonable time is allowed for each stage.

Keep in mind that even though the customisation may look simple, the system and processes underneath are complex. We need
to do significant background work to ensure your system remains robust-backing up your build, investigating the database
structure with data that is realistic for your industry, and checking thousands of lines of code to ensure the solution
will fit. We then implement and test the changes thoroughly in both development and staging builds before releasing to your
live build. All of this takes time-it’s never a five-minute job.

Many people seem to want this customisation. Can you make it standard?

You may be right! Please post your idea on the Feature Request Forum, accessed via the help menu in Perform Zone.
If other clients vote for your request, it may get implemented in the core product as part of our usual release schedule.
Our continual upgrade program releases new feature and enhancements that benefit all users. This program releases these benefits
based on majority voting from existing users and surveying potential new clients.

Can you show us what this report would look like on one of our jobs?

We can’t show you how a custom report will work in the system without actually developing it, which we can’t do
during the scoping phase. However, we can show you a small sample of representative data in a spreadsheet or
image file, to give you a clear impression of the layout and purpose of the report so you can check it meets
your business needs. ( key word here is ‘sample’-please don’t confuse this with data entry.)

How long will customisation take?

When we quote the cost of the development we will also be able to give you an
estimate of the delivery date. Our current development lead time is 10-12 weeks
from the date you approve the quote. We don’t envisage this decreasing in the near future.
During this time our developers are busy working through our backlog of customisations and
improving our core product, so there is no way to jump the queue.

We’d like you to use this time to reconsider your decision to customise and check that the
approved customisation is exactly what you require. This is your last opportunity to
cancel your request or make small changes. Any considerable changes will need to be
fully scoped and estimated again.

After the lead time, we will start developing the customisation. The estimated development and
testing time is outlined in the customisation quote, but if problems arise it may take longer.

You sent me this quote four months ago. Here’s the approval. Please implement it immediately.

Our quotes are only valid for thirty (30) days. As described earlier, our developers are constantly improving our core
product, and these ongoing changes must be considered in the customisation scope. Therefore, any quotes not approved
within thirty days must be re-scoped and re-estimated. Further, it will only be added to the queue once the new quote is approved.

We encourage you to approve the quote as soon as you are confident it’s the right solution, as only approved quotes are added to the development queue.

As I purchased a customisation, can you deliver the source code to me?

As outlined in our Terms and Conditions, Perform Zone retains ownership of all code we create, including that developed for the
purpose of customisation. However, we understand that the source code is a critical part of your business systems and you
will want assurance that it can be accessed and maintained if required. At your request, we can place the source code in
software escrow with Assurex Escrow Pty Ltd, once you have an agreement in place with them.

What’s to stop you on-selling the code I have paid for to my competitors.

We are yet to find two firms that have requested the same customization. If they do by some co-incidence come up with
the same or parts of your customization idea, we’ll charge them the equivalent of what it cost you.

Why did I receive an invoice, I did not sign off on the works yet?

Important: Once you receive the message that the customisation is available for testing or has been included on your production system,
you are expected to thoroughly test and confirm it works as per the scope that you have approved. Please do this as soon as possible – because
it’s much easier to get a developer to make fixes to a “freshly-baked” customisation.
If you fail to confirm OK or send feedback within 10 business days, we will consider this as signed off and complete and an invoice will be sent.
The invoice must be paid as per standard invoice terms, otherwise we reserve the right to disable the customisation if the invoice becomes overdue.
If you find any issues with the solution implemented, please let us know immediately so that we can address these.
Please keep in mind the warranty period of 3 months from the implementation date. If issues are discovered after this date, they may be chargeable to rectify.

The customisation is done but it’s not exactly what I wanted! I need further tweaking.

Our scoping phase is aimed at thoroughly exploring your requirements to give you the best possible solution. When you approve the
quote with the attached scope, you are confirming that the scoped customisation meets all your requirements.
Our developers work from this approved scope. Should you later decide the approved customisation does not meet your requirements, we will need
to go through the scoping phase with you again. Any amendments taking over 30 minutes of development time will incur a further charge.

Will I have to wait again for the new changes to be implemented?

Yes. This is why it’s so important for you to thoroughly check the scope meets your requirements prior to approving the quote.

My customisation is broken after a Perform Zone update! What can I do?

As mentioned above, this can happen, and it’s one of the reasons we discourage customisations. It usually
means the customisation is no longer compatible with some core software components.

Please assess whether you still need the customisation. If the customisation is not critical to your business, you
may instead choose to remove the customisation, which we’ll gladly do free of charge.

At your request, we’ll attempt to fix it, but this development work will incur additional charges unless the customisation
is within its warranty period.

Unfortunately, we are unable to quote for the required works in advance because the time taken to uncover the cause of the break and
then rewrite the code is so highly variable. Instead, we’ll ask you to agree to pay all charges associated with fixing the customisation

Once you’ve confirmed, we can begin development. The fix may take some time, but we will take into account the urgency of your request.
If the broken customisation interrupts your workflow, we can disable it until it’s fixed.

Why are you charging me to fix something that was broken on your end?

Please refer to the warranty information contained in the Terms and Conditions you received as
part of the customisation quote. If the specified warranty period has ended, we may charge you for any work we
perform to fix customisations broken by software updates.

Keep in mind that customisations are not covered under our Software Maintenance Agreement and you
are not being charged for the ongoing maintenance or support for associated with the customisations you use.
We only charge for maintenance you request, outside of the warranty period.

We also offer an optional, charged Customisation Maintenance Agreement (CMA), which may appeal to
you if the customisation is critical to your business.

What is a Customisation Maintenance Agreement (CMA)? How do I get one?

With every customisation quote, we offer an optional, charged Customisation Maintenance Agreement (CMA),
based on the full price of the customisation (before any discounts were applied). If you choose to accept the CMA with
Perform Zone Software, we will rectify any problems with the customisation caused by our updates to
the core product for the duration of the agreement, at no additional cost.

We rely upon you to advise us of any customisation breaks. As the CMA does not give you any precedence in the development queue-though
we do take into account the urgency of your request-we urge you to contact us as early as possible with full details of the issue, including the date
you first noticed the problem and screen captures or other samples that clearly illustrate the problem.

If you do not accept the CMA, you will be charged for any fixes at the usual customisation development rates, as explained previously.

NOTE: the CMA only covers fixes to customisations where the break was caused by a Perform Zone Software update. It does not cover any functional
changes you may request, or breaks caused by modifications by the client or any other entity-these will be quoted separately. For example, if you use a customisation
to import a file from a third party, and the third party then changes the file format, this will not be covered by the CMA. It will be treated as any other change of requirements,
requiring a new scope and quote.