| Once a year everyone has to dress like a grown up. |
| It's a lonely job, but someone's gotta do it. |
| A quiet moment. Good thing the lab floors are FDA clean! |
| Project Managers and Technicians communicate daily. |
| Collaboration in the Bull Pen. |
| Regular Project Meetings synchronize all departments. |
| On-site testing and repair facilities. |
| It's either the Lab Rats, or the Wait Staff from the Olive Garden. |
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Welcome to a web site of The Cherokee Group.
This page is intended for use by those companies (“Vendors”) that produce or provide the Products or Services that are involved in an Evaluation being conducted by Cherokee.
If you received a communication from someone at Cherokee asking for information
about your organization's products or services, or if we invited you to
participate in an Evaluation, it represents
a sales opportunity.
Download Sample Agreement
If you would like to review and download a blank (Pro Forma) copy of our
Standard Evaluation Agreement, please click here.
This is a 4-page (162K) document in Adobe PDF format.
Evaluation Agreement -
Standard Terms
Here is the "General Terms" section of the Standard Evaluation
Agreement that must be signed before we can accept a Vendor's products or
services as part of an Evaluation. This is current as of November 2002.
1. For purposes of this Agreement, any hardware or software product, or service, may generically be called “the
material”, “the products”, or “the Subject of this evaluation”.
2. The Vendor verifies that the products or services supplied to Cherokee are essentially the same as Cherokee’s
clients will receive when they buy the same products or services through approved sales channels, and that these or comparable are expected to be available (i.e. life cycle) for 12 months from the date of this Agreement.
3. The Vendor verifies that it is authorized to submit the materials for testing, and that you are authorized to provide technical support.
4. Unless disclosed in writing, any technical support or Vendor attention or involvement will be the same as our clients will receive, no better or worse, if the clients purchase the Vendor’s products or services.
5. The vendor may not witness, review nor influence any testing, nor attend evaluation meetings, unless approved in writing in advance. Such participation is permitted only in extraordinary circumstances, where the Vendors
participation will clearly facilitate a more accurate or timely evaluation result.
6. Usability assistance. In those instances where software is being evaluated, especially tools and developer products, Vendor assistance in using these tools is in the interests of testing due to the otherwise long and expensive learning process before Cherokee’s software evaluators can create demonstration applications. In these circumstances, all Vendors will be offered the same participation, and this participation will be disclosed in the evaluation.
7. Cherokee will return the material in the same packing as was used to send. If this is not possible the vendor will
supply return packaging.
8. When the duration of an Evaluation exceeds 90 days, Cherokee may provide interim reports to its client.
9. If Vendor makes substantial product modifications, withdraws the products from the market, or goes out of business during the Evaluation cycle, Cherokee may disqualify the Vendor’s submission.
10. If our request is for the “Highest and Best” configuration of a piece of hardware or software, that means we are
asking that you include every option, your most robust, feature-rich configuration available. Any available options should be included. If in our evaluation, a competitor includes more options or functionality than you did, even if you could have, we will consider whatever you send us to be the best you have. A Vendor will prejudice its position and
products if you neglect this clause
11. Cherokee’s request for evaluation materials does not indicate that the Vendor or its products can be sold to our
clients. Most government agencies require pre-certification before products can be purchased. If your products or sales channel partners are not on New Jersey State Contract, sales may require competitive bidding.
12. Cherokee makes no representations as to whether this evaluation will result in any sales to the Vendor. Cherokee does not make purchase decisions, but merely performs evaluations and, where appropriate or at the client request, makes specific purchase recommendations.
13. Some evaluations are conducted for the purposes of a specific purchase by a specific client. These may result in a “winner take all” purchase. Other evaluations result in a “Consumer Reports®”-like rating, but giving the purchasing agencies the option of final decision.
14. Cherokee will accept responsibility for the materials while they are in our possession. Our General Liability
Insurance covers damage or loss of materials on our premises. Vendor must insure transit and be responsible for
materials until received by Cherokee. Damage during testing is the responsibility of Cherokee unless “destructive testing” has been approved in writing by the Vendor. The default testing mode is “non destructive”.
15. Cherokee’s policy is to not disclose preliminary test results with Vendors during the evaluation. After the evaluation is complete, Cherokee may discuss results in a general or statistical fashion, but will not disclose results of
competing products or services in any event. These conversations are a courtesy to the Vendor, and in the interests of Cherokee’s clients in that the Vendor may use this feedback to improve its products or services. Product ratings and evaluation comments may be adjusted in final reports.
16. In the event of a negative evaluation, the Vendor will be given the opportunity to attach a 200-word statement to the evaluation. This statement will be distributed, unedited, with the evaluation.
17. It is Cherokee’s policy to make every effort to provide evaluations that provide actionable information to our clients, and that are balanced, independent, objective, and accurate. Cherokee or its employees or contractors will disclose any real or apparent
conflicts of interest, including financial interests or other relationships, with any product or
vendor involved in any evaluation. Such a relationship is strongly discouraged, but not necessarily cause for
disqualification, but that any potential conflict is fully and openly identified, so that readers of the evaluation may form their own judgments about the results of the evaluation.
18. The Vendor, and Cherokee, certify that Cherokee has not, to the knowledge of the signers of this Agreement,
received any financial or other consideration from the Vendor or any affiliate or sales channel partner, in return for more favorable evaluation results, and that the Vendor’s firm has no existing business relationship with Cherokee that could create even the perception of conflict of interest.
19. Cherokee is not a VAR, OEM nor distributor. It does not sell hardware or software. Cherokee is paid by its clients to make impartial evaluations of Information Technology hardware, software, services, platforms and other consultants, using scientific as well as subjective evaluation criteria and protocols designed by or approved by the Client.
20. Cherokee will use its best efforts to fairly and accurately evaluate the Vendors products or services, but Cherokee is neither liable nor responsible for errors, omissions, or necessarily subjective conclusions of its personnel, or for any consequential damages to any Vendor or client. Our maximum responsibility is to notify our clients of any errors or new information when it is brought to our attention and verified.
Note: The wording of the Evaluation Agreement sent to you at the time an Evaluation begins may be different than the terms
or content of the "Pro Forma" shown on this web site. The terms of the Evaluation Agreement sent to you at the time an Evaluation begins supercedes whatever is on this web site or in the blank Evaluation Agreement downloadable from this web site.
The Next Step:
If you are interested in having your products or services considered as
part of an Evaluation being conducted by Cherokee, thank you.
Virtually every invitation to a Vendor to participate in a Cherokee Evaluation
represents a sales opportunity. We hope you will avail yourself of the
opportunity.
If you are interested in participating in an Evaluation, but you are unsure to
whom you should speak, please send an email to our general
"Evaluations" mail box at Evaluations@cherokee.to
This mailbox is monitored by a rotating team of associates.
By using this web site you are agreeing to abide by our
"Terms of Use."
Cherokee helps government make better IT decisions.
Cherokee
Group, Inc.
Administrative Offices:
133 Maple Avenue
Red Bank, N.J. 07701
(732) 741-2000
Fax (732) 741-2009
Click here to send
an email to the Cherokee Webmaster
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