My intent wasn’t to suggest that organizations limit themselves to one day “toy” POCs. Ultimately, there’s no point in running a POC if the results don’t help establish that vendor’s ability to deliver on a broader project. So it’s essential that the POC not be a toy, whether it takes a day or a few weeks.

Here’s what I wrote:

“Operate on a timeline. At Altosoft, we typically do a one day POC. Sometimes two. Other vendors probably require more time. Ask your vendor how much time they need, negotiate this with them up front, and hold them to completing the POC in the requisite time frame!”

My point is that setting some kind of a structured timeline is important. If a vendor can’t deliver a POC in the time they promise, then, in my opinion, that should be a big red flag for a full scale project.

That being said, we take a lot of pride in the productivity of our solutions compared to other options out there, and that obviously came through in my post. I don’t think any company that has experienced a one or two day POC with Altosoft would consider the results to be trivial. Of course, some customers want to do even more, and naturally we are happy to accommodate that as well.