Part 3, key insights from a fireside chat with Chris Yates. Read part 1 here, and part 2 here. 

Most database monitoring proof of concepts (POCs) answer the wrong questions. Here's how to structure a proof of concept that genuinely de-risks your vendor decision with the questions to ask during the process. A POC is often treated as the final hurdle in vendor evaluation, but too often, it becomes theatre. A guided tour of the flashiest features, run by one person, under unrealistic conditions. 

Chris Yates, Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Data & Architecture at Republic Bank, has a very different perspective. We recently sat down together to discuss How to Evaluate Vendors for your Database Monitoring, here is the final instalment of my takeaways from talking to Chris on this topic.  

A POC, done well, isn’t about proving the tool works. It’s about proving the relationship, the fit, and the outcomes. 

What to look for during a proof of concept

Chris shared a few principles to keep in mind when entering a POC: 

• Start with your specific pain point
  Can the product genuinely help with the reason you started this process for? You don’t need a feature checklist - you need clarity. 

• Agree a fixed, time‑boxed evaluation period
  Set expectations upfront and work with the vendor throughout. A POC shouldn’t drift. 

• Evaluate hands‑on vendor support
  What resources are available during the POC? Documentation, guides, and videos, yes, but also the human support. The level of engagement here is a strong indicator of what support will look like after the contract is signed. 

• Seek evidence from similar customers or industries
  Can you speak with another customer who has tackled a similar challenge while you’re evaluating the tool? 

• Test real workflows, not just functionality
  A POC shouldn’t be run in isolation. Consider who else needs visibility into the tool (remember our point about database monitoring through different lenses in part 1), and how it fits into your actual ways of working. 

A good POC isn’t a demo. It’s validation. As Chris put it during our conversation:

“I think a true partner has shared accountability. They care about outcomes, not just deliverables. They’ll challenge you respectfully when something won’t scale, and they’ll stay engaged after the contract is signed.” 

The hidden (soft) cost of switching

When evaluating a new monitoring solution, it’s easy to focus on licensing costs, but that’s only one part of the total investment. The more subtle (and often larger) costs sit in time to value, onboarding, and change management. How long will it take before teams trust the tool enough to rely on it? What effort is required to train DBAs, developers, and on‑call staff, and how disruptive is that process alongside day‑to‑day work? There’s also the cognitive cost of switching: rebuilding dashboards, re‑tuning alerts, redefining workflows, and unlearning habits formed around the old system.  

These costs aren’t always visible on a spreadsheet, but they directly affect productivity, adoption, and confidence. A strong vendor will acknowledge these trade‑offs openly and work with you to minimise them, reducing friction not just at purchase, but all the way through to long‑term value.  

Your POC is a good time to consider these factors and get a feel of the soft-costs before committing to signing a contract.  

Onboarding

The POC is also a good time to get a feel for what the onboarding experience might look like. So when you're evaluating onboarding support, look beyond the initial setup. The best vendors provide a joined-up experience across your onboarding manager, support team, and professional services; all working together to accelerate your time to value and reduce the risk of a slow or failed rollout.  

Chris called out professional services in our conversation, stating: 

"I've had installations with professional services and without professional services... In having the professional service on site, we were able to get full collaboration from multiple teams and work through things in a day, [or] two days" 

 Ask vendors how these functions collaborate post-sale, and whether professional services or premium support are viable options. 

Questions to ask vendors during a POC

A strong POC isn’t just about proving the tool works, it’s about understanding how the relationship works under real conditions. Here are some helpful questions you can consider when running a POC.  

• “Who owns my success six to twelve months after implementation?” 
• “How does this approach address our original challenge?” 
• “Can I speak with customers who’ve faced similar problems / have a similar set up?” 
• “What does ‘good adoption’ look like three months after go‑live?” 
• “What teething issues typically surface after initial rollout, and how do you help customers through them?” 
• “What options are there for supporting me? What is the typical response time for support tickets if anything goes wrong?” 
• “Do you offer professional services, or premium support options? What do they look like?” 

 The best vendors won’t have perfect answers to every question. But the way they respond can often tell you just as much as the answers themselves. 

Final words of advice

Evaluating database monitoring vendors isn’t something to rush or treat as purely technical. Yes, it involves sales conversations, but those conversations are often the clearest signal of whether this is a vendor you actually want to work with. 

Our final advice is simple. 

First: ask questions.
Don’t be afraid questions, even if you already know the answer. Even basic ones often unlock deeper insights. If you’re not happy with an answer, or you still don’t understand- ask again. Those conversations surface future challenges, hidden risks, and opportunities to work differently. 

Second: don’t do it alone.
Monitoring solutions are leveraged by lots of different people within an organization, so any changes to your approach shouldn’t be done in isolation. Seek out the people who will be impacted most and build internal alignment before switching.  

When you have a vendor in place that you trust, lean on them as if they are part of your team, challenge them and leverage them to the best of your ability- they can connect you to fantastic networks and thought leadership to support you in your day to day, and your career.  

And finally, talk to peers in the community- go to events, look at forums, join user groups. There will always be someone out there facing the same issues as you that you can learn from and exchange knowledge with.  

Monitoring works best when it brings people together around shared data, shared goals, and shared problems. The right monitoring approach - and the right vendor - should make that easier, not harder. 

And lastly...

Choosing a database monitoring vendor based on current functionality alone is a mistake. The process of finding the right database monitoring vendor is about trust, alignment, and long‑term outcomes. 

When monitoring supports your people, evolves with your organisation, and is backed by a vendor who shows up as a partner, it stops being something you react to, and becomes something you rely on. 

If you are considering switching from your current monitoring solution, and are ready to speak with a vendor, we come highly recommended by Chris Yates! Get in touch with us here.