- Interest. The first step is identifying features or functions in an upcoming product release that may benefit your organization. That means that if your company has decided to regularly participate in betas, you need to be aware of the vendor's product release schedule -- to know what's coming and when. Renee Klish, IT supervisor and database administrator at the Detroit Zoological Society, signed on for a beta test when she identified a new analytic function in Blackbaud's Raiser's Edge that would allow her organization to eliminate another product, saving on license fees and simplifying its IT environment.

- Negotiation. This is an internal process. The user organization decides whether the potential benefit in the new release merits the time, energy and resources required for beta participation and then goes to senior IT management for approval. If your upper management is risk-averse, this step may be a challenge, says Jarvis-Haig.

- Qualification. Next, the user and vendor must agree that the beta test makes sense for both sides. If the user company pushed for a capability that the vendor just added, the vendor may be eager to have the user take part. On the other hand, the user company may be a stretch candidate, and the vendor may have to be convinced that it should participate. "We look for user breadth [of feature use] in the next release," says Teradata's Lea. Other qualifications may include having prerequisite products in the user environment, assurance that there are no schedule conflicts and a history of good beta participation.

"It's a two-way street," says Jarvis-Haig. "They're not going to qualify us if it isn't in their interest."

Once the user is qualified, there most likely will be a formal agreement. Blackbaud beta participants get a program guide that includes the beta agreement, nondisclosure forms, details on incentives and descriptions of the beta process. Teradata beta participants sign an agreement and develop a plan with NCR.