I have found that one of a few big reasons that customers stick with us is our great customer service. I have discovered this through conversations and through surveying customers with Survey Monkey, that they really like and really want great customer service. For our custom software business that means providing them with: Quick responses Solid technical […]
There are two primary methods to estimate and propose custom software projects that we hear about. Those methods are: Fixed cost – The development team may attempt to estimate the time and costs related to creating a software application. The estimates are normally generated using a requirements specification document, which defines what to create in […]
We face this question, “Rewrite or not?” with customers every year. “We have a custom software application written by [ABC company or programmer] in [XYZ technology]. It works but it has problems. Should we keep it alive and continue modifying it? Or should we start from scratch again and rewrite it?” That is a very […]
Here are several questions and answers regarding estimating custom software application projects with companies. This topic is something I have spent a lot of time thinking about over the past years. Keep in mind, the idea here is to start the conversation early about a software project. Q: When should a software developer or company […]
The #1 key to the success of custom software projects, in my humble opinion, is open communication. If the developer and the customer aren’t openly communicating on any number of levels, the project will fail. The only question then is how severe will the failure be. There are a few areas I think are extremely […]
In the last post I was talking about when custom software might be the next step in the progression of using software to track and report on data about one’s business. To continue… That next level is a software application which uses a database to store the data behind the scenes. That software will display forms […]
When is a custom software application the next appropriate step after the current solution you’re using to run your department or business? This is a question I’m asked frequently. I have also seen this situation quite frequently as well. It comes from people who are trying to run their business with tools that were easy […]
I follow the 37 Signals blog regularly. A great bunch of very smart people doing good work. Noah at 37 Signals ate crow. He used to think Big Data was a bunch of bull for companies that don’t have the massive sets of data like Facebook, Google et al. He changed his perspective on Big […]
Wouldn’t it be cool to have your great Microsoft Access database application have some reports displaying data from your QuickBooks file? It is possible without much work and, in some cases, even less money. I’ll briefly discuss a couple products you can use to work with QuickBooks data in an Access database. But keep in […]
Yes, large, extremely diverse projects can succeed. Assuming this post is true, this project sounds amazing. I’d love to know more about it. Check it out: http://blog.appfog.com/what-the-obama-it-team-teaches-us-about-polyglot-programming/ Regardless of who you would prefer to have in the Oval Office, this project sounds like it was an amazing success. This sentence sums it up for me: […]
