Factors to consider when purchasing bespoke software October 25, 2007
Posted by Dan Stuchbury in : Business In General, Software , add a commentPlanning:
Do you actually need a bespoke software solution?
There are lots of purpose built off-the-shelf software packages, built for a variety of businesses. It is well worth evaluating these as well as talking to a bespoke developer.
Your business comes first
When evaluating off-the-shelf software, remember that the software should fit your business, not the other way round. Businesses that purchase software, then adapt their processes to fit that software are taking the wrong approach.
What makes you think you need bespoke software
Consider what you’re looking to achieve. No point in buying software just for the sake of it. Don’t buy software just to automate a single, possibly inefficient or unnecessary process.
Talking to a software developer:
Do they have experience in your sector?
A company whose experience is entire B2B are unlikely to be the best people to develop a solution for a B2C client and vice versa.
Set a realistic budget
Bespoke software is written solely for you, and should not be considered a cheap option. Whilst an off-the-shelf solution may cost £500-600, it is developed for the mass market and won’t necessarily do everything you need it to do,and in the way you need to do it.
Dedicate time to your project
Almost every software development company will need to spend time interviewing your staff about their experiences and expectations of your existing software and the bespoke solution being developed. A thorough developer will gather opinions of everyone in the company, not just one person from each department. The input of everyone is important in developing workflow processes that the software will follow.
The developer needs to understand what the software needs to do from the user’s perspective as well as the perspective of management.
Be prepared to give additional input
Often, the development team working on your project will require further information from you as development goes on. It should be considered a sign that good progress is being made, and that the developers place importance on getting things right first time.
BETA testing is an important step
When handed a BETA version of your software, it is advisable to give copies to several members of your team, to allow them to experiment with the new software and provide valuable feedback as to the real-life usability and efficiency.
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Stuchbury Associates Ltd are bespoke software developers, specialising in bespoke CRM software. As developers exclusively using FileMaker Pro, software from Stuchbury Associates is 100% cross-platform (PC & Mac). Full details are available at http://stuchburyassociates.com/
Copyright © 2007 Stuchbury Associates Ltd, All Rights Reserved. You may reproduce this article in its entirety but you must keep this copyright notice intact and notify info@stuchburyassociates.com including a link to where the article is published.
Synchronising FileMaker Databases - It Can Be Done! February 25, 2007
Posted by Dan Stuchbury in : Business In General, FileMaker Pro , add a commentI was asked by another Ecademy BlackStar member last week if it was possible to have a stand-alone, but synchronisable version of a FileMaker database on a laptop, for remote users, and to allow users to work on their data away from the office. After a bit of research in FMForums.com, it appeared that the answer was “yes, but it’s complicated, and very difficult to achieve (therefore likely to be prohibitively expensive”, so that was what I passed on.
However, a bit more digging around brought-up a company called WorldSync, and their product SyncDek. I requested a 30-day demo, and was contacted by a guy called, Jason Erickson - who, it turns out, is their CEO and chief architect of SyncDek, with over 10 years development experience. He knows his stuff then.
I took some time to comtemplate the opportunities that a product like this could bring. SyncDek would have been ideal for a prospect I met recently, it will be ideal for an existing client in the future, and may well aleo be ideal for another existing client fairly soon. We could use it internally, as it’s often useful to be able to take my own CRM database out on the road - so I’ve got telephone numbers of people I’m due to meet, and people I need to talk to that day without having to take bits of paper with me. OK, so I could just have the database on my laptop, but the laptop is my secondary computer, so it’s not always out, and desk space is at a premium.
The download links arrived in my inbox not long after, and after a brief look around the developer guide, it looked complicated to get working, so I put it off for later that day, when I had some time to devote to it.
It wasn’t as complicated as I first thought, and the development guide is excellent. Some changes were required to a few relationships and scripts in Knowledge Base CRM, and it took me a few attempts, and an email to WorldSync, who responded within 10 minutes (it was late at night, and they’re based in Berkely, CA), to get it right, but this evening, I got it right, and it worked perfectly. I had expected it to work, but given that I screwed it up a few times, it came as a nice surprise.
So, using SyncDek, I’m able to maintain multiple copies of a database, and synchronise them with a master copy stored on SyncDek server (no dedicated machine required), at the click of a button.
I don’t yet know how much SyncDek costs. I imagine it to be expensive, as there is no indication of pricing on WorldSync’s web site, but we shall see.
Web-Based CRM System Wanted February 15, 2007
Posted by Dan Stuchbury in : Business In General , add a commentI met a company this week who were after a decent CRM system, for little money. I couldn’t help them with our solution, Knowledge Base CRM, but suggested they take a look at SugarCRM Open Source, because there is no cost involved apart from web hosting (which, by the way, we can now offer through StuchHost, but more about that another time).
I was thinking about it in the car on the way back from this meeting, and decided that we should think about offering a web-based CRM system as well as the desktop-based Knowledge Base CRM. I think it’s important to be able to offer more than one solution, as desktop-based is not always ideal for the client. (See the topic in The CRM Club on Ecademy for discussion on this subject.)
There is no reason why I couldn’t refer prospects for a web-based system to someone in my network, I know at least one NetSuite Consultant for example, but what do I do when the client wants to spend as little money as possible? That’s what got me thinking about SugarCRM. I don’t intend to become a PHP expert (Julian Bond is your man for that, if you can afford him), but in terms of having the ability to deploy SugarCRM for small companies, and recuit the expertise of a specialist where necessary, there is definitely some mileage.
Do we take Golf Tracker to the next level? January 23, 2007
Posted by Dan Stuchbury in : Business In General, Stuchbury Associates , add a commentA while ago, I thought it would be great to have an easy to use, stand-alone application to record my golf scores, and show me how I was progressing over time. So, I developed a little application called Golf Tracker. I then forgot the master password (yes, yes, I know - always write down every password in at least three places…), so I had to start again.
A bit of research showed that this was a commercially viable application, with a market to sell it to, so a commercial application it became. I spent a bit of money plavcing adverts in golf club diaries, with a company called Graham Cumming Group. Unfortunately, they screwed up the artwork for at least one diary, and don’t appear to have bothered to print the others, so that was largely a waste of time. Consequently, I put the Golf Tracker project to one side and haven’t done much with it.
The opportunity remains to tweak it, get some really nice looking graphs integrated into it, and invest some time and money into getting some results.
To answer the question…
Yes, but not just yet. I need to invest some time in generating some serious interest in the product and in opening multiple channels to market. Then, it’ll take off.
POS in FileMaker - The Verdict January 21, 2007
Posted by Dan Stuchbury in : Business In General, FileMaker Pro , add a commentFollowing on from my last post, I’ve been able to consider our options with regard to developing a commercial Point Of Sales system in FileMaker Pro. The short answer is “we’re not going to do it at the moment”, and the long answer is below…
There is, without doubt, an opportunity here. My research suggests that whilst there are a few POS systems specifically for the independent retailer on the market, the user interface of those that I’ve researched leaves a little to be desired, which suggests that ease of use is potentially an issue. Our experence is in the B2B sector, and I want to maintain this as it’s a sector I understand - know very little about the consumer market and don’t currently see the real need to change this.
The key reasons for leaving this opportunity then, are:
- Lack of understand of B2C marketplace
- Lack of understand of retail sector
- Unsure about return on time investment due to this lack of understanding
I am currently investigating a number of other application opportunities, and will post details here as soon as I’m able to.
POS in FileMaker January 11, 2007
Posted by Dan Stuchbury in : Business In General, FileMaker Pro , add a commentIt is very possible, I don’t doubt, and has probably been done elsewhere, but I wonder how commercially viable it would be to develop a POS system, in FileMaker Pro? I can see how it’d work, or at least the basics of it, in my mind, but I’m not going to put hours of work into something that isn’t going to generate sufficient return.
It would be great to talk to an independent retail business about their views on such a system, and perhaps enlist their opinions throughout development, probably in exchange for a complimentary license. One such business cones to mind, but I’m not sure about their willingness to adopt new technology - not that ePOS is new, but to them, it would be!
I’ll put some initial thoughts together, and see how it pans out. I won’t be able to share these thoughts here, to protect our intellectual property, but I will share the decisions made as a result.
Time Management - My Weakness January 11, 2007
Posted by Dan Stuchbury in : Business In General , add a commentOne of my biggest weaknesses is time management. I find myself getting side-tracked easily, and then end up running out of time to do the things I should be doing. I pledged to start resolving this by using OneNote to create a to-do list for each week, and aim to have everything ticked-off by the end of the week. This is working reasonably well, but I think I need to print this list and stick it to my wall above my desk, therefore providing an always-on visual reminder. The downside to this is it moves in the opposite direction to my move towards an ‘as-paperless-as-possible’ office - some things just have to be on paper, original signed client contracts & sign-off forms, for example, need to be kept in the relevant file, and people will insist on sending invoices through the post.
I’ve not used a project management system for managing & scheduling client projects before, but I was thinking the other day that this could be a really effective solution. I even had a conversation with someone this afternoon about his requirement for a project management system, so this could be the next step in improving my time management, and helping others do the same.
Getting back into it January 10, 2007
Posted by Dan Stuchbury in : Business In General , add a commentI had an email this morning from a guy called Robert Jackson - we’d never spoken before, but he came across this blog, presumably via Google or similar. I’d never had a contact like that, and it re-ignited a blogging spark from a few months back when I originally created this blog.
So, with that spark re-ignited, it’s time to get back into it, and blog here regularly. I’ve had some tips from a few people about content, but feel free to comment on a parcicular post if you agree, disagree, or whatever.