ayrmer software blog

Ed Roberts (September 13, 1941 – April 1, 2010) isn’t a house hold name, but it should be!  After all he is attributed as the father of the personal computer (PC) having designed the first commercially successful PC in 1975.  The likes of Bill Gates and Paul Allen (founders of Microsoft) are also linked to him as they both worked joined his company (MITS) to develop Altair BASIC and was Microsoft’s first product.

He left the industry to become a medical doctor, almost before the PC got off the ground, moving to Georgia in 1977.  So when you next see one of Microsoft’s adverts – “I’m a PC” – please remember Ed Roberts.   To find out more read the Wikipedia article.

Although in principle I would say you should not let your emotions get in the way of business, to ignore their existence is equally dangerous. The main focus of this article is to discuss the issue of emotional behaviour within business relationships before, during and after a project. We used a business coach (Jeremy Marchant) for a period of around 18 months during 2006 / 2007 and he undoubtedly helped us with the business. His main focus was “emotional intelligence” and he now offers a range of training courses on the subject. One of the most important points Jeremy gave us was to make the other person more important than you. It took me a long time to apply the concept, but the benefits have made a huge difference to the way I are able to work with clients and suppliers alike. The key to this is to strive for clarity, remove potential ambiguities and put yourself in the other persons shoes.

One of the most important issues is in general terms our clients just want their hardware and software to work. If it doesn’t, it becomes a barrier to them achieving their objectives and leads to frustration. One of the reasons for this is the feeling of helplessness that we all get when we can’t fix something ourselves and have to rely on a third party. I feel the same when something goes wrong with my car when yet another warning light pops up to tell me about the impending doom!

Relationships model

Jeremy introduced us to a “relationship model” that explained how people interact with each other and I found this particular model invaluable.

1. The “honeymoon” phase is when people first meet and both sides envisage a win / win scenario; they see the best in each other.
2. Inevitably principles will clash causing “conflict” and it is important to address these head on.
3. If you can put the other person first, you’ll be able to come up with a “resolution”.
4. The most important measure of any business isn’t how they behave when everything is going well, it’s during a crisis. They need to show “leadership” and guide you through to a successful conclusion.

I suspect business coaches reading this are now cringing as I have over simplified it, but hopefully for others it explains what can happen during a business relationship. I am sure we have all been there at one stage or another; salesman over-promise and the the business under-delivers. This is why it is so important to set expectations.

Setting expectations

We often experience as many issues during the pre-contract, development and implementation stages as post contract. I think one of the most important things is to set an expectation and this isn’t a cop out. I remember talking to Darryl Bates-Brownsword of Shirlaws and he gave me the following scenario: -

You arrive at a restaurant for a meal and the maître d’ says that there will be a delay as your table isn’t free yet. Generally most people will accept this and wait patiently. If after ten minutes he hasn’t come back and showed you to your table you are likely to start getting impatient and potentially angry. If however he returns to say (after five minutes) that there is still a delay and it looks like it is going to be another ten minutes and can he get you a drink in the meantime, you’ll be understanding.

What the maître d’ has done is set your expectations and given you the chance to make your own decision. It isn’t difficult but it is essential if you want to avoid people getting frustrated and angry. Project management is about setting expectations and keeping up good communications between everyone involved. We don’t always get it right, it is inevitable that things go wrong from time to time, but the most important thing is to speak to people, even when it is bad news. It is equally important to ensure the other person knows what you expect of them, so it is essential to explain what you’ll do and what you expect of in return and when.

More often than not running a business gets in the way of projects, especially for clients. There is always something more important to attend to and it is only at the end of the project that people start to realise the importance. This is why we aim to explain to everyone involved what and when things need doing. Get that right and you’ll avoid any awkward situations and nasty surprises!

I’ll return to this topic in a few weeks time, but for now I hope this helps anyone involved in a project.

The software industry has managed to create a wide variety of business models that inevitably create confusion when deciding on the most appropriate solution. These range from open source, cloud computing, boxed & turnkey solutions, sector specific and bespoke solutions to name but a few.

Software as a Service model

Start up businesses often select pay as you go solution, often referred to pre-seat licenses, that are attractive as they require minimal initial investment, however in the longer term these can become increasing expensive to maintain. A common issue with using these types of solutions is that the business becomes tied in to the software and migrating to another solution can seem daunting. This is often exacerbated as the business often needs to address the increased cost at the same time as they are growing and time becomes a critical element of the decision making process.

So what should one consider when selecting a solution that will become business critical? The first issue should be to understand the total cost of ownership and this is where many businesses don’t take into consideration all the costs (either direct or indirect). The above scenario is a prime example as businesses using Software as a Service (SaaS) might initially be attracted to the initial low costs whilst the number of users remains minimal.

Example of per seat / per month costs: -

2 x users @ £ 45.00 per month = £ 1,080 per annum
5 x users @ £ 45.00 per month = £ 2,700 per annum
10 x users @ £ 45.00 per month = £ 5,400 per annum

Furthermore businesses need to take into account other costs that include: -

Staff training
Connectivity costs (broadband, etc.,)
Hardware (computers, etc.,)
Business interruption (either as a result of downtime / loss of connectivity)
Cost of data backup / continuity
Cost of data migration

You see that even with a relatively simple example, making an informed decision becomes increasingly difficult and the costs associated with getting it wrong can be significant and not restricted to the license itself.

I recently met a client that started a business four years ago and has enjoyed a really successful period of growth. Although the majority of systems they had in place used a SaaS model they had served their purpose during the initial start up phase of the business, keeping costs under control, enabling them to focus on other areas of the business. The costs are now becoming inhibitive and they were looking for a more sophisticated approach to addressing a variety of issues that would help them improve efficiency and increase profit margins by enabling them to drive business towards the most profitable gateway. They had considered using another more mature SaaS but this introduced a slightly different business model in that they charged a minimal set-up fee, but then charged a percentage of turnover. Sounds attractive, but for a business running on competitive margins and turning over a not insignificant amount of money this represented a great reduction to the bottom line.

Cloud computing

Cloud computing is currently the hot topic with all sorts of businesses talking about it. Even business support organisations like The FD Centre are using it in their marketing and accountants like Bishop Fleming (in Exeter) are starting to provide on-line accounts solutions for SME clients. I remain skeptical about the term cloud computing as I think it lacks substance. Certainly Google have created a collective set of tools that seems to fit the definition of cloud computing (Google Products), but in most cases cloud computing is another name for services delivered via the web. Perhaps the games industry are the most likely to achieve something close to what I would call cloud computing, in terms of shared resources creating synergy through a number of collective hardware resources (see onlive).

Many of the same costs associated with SaaS need to be taken into account when considering cloud computer. It is interesting to note that corporates seem particularly interested in this concept and I know a number of senior IT Directors working within the FTSE 500 that are actively investigating it.

Open source

Open source solutions are becoming more attractive and the success of openoffice.org is a prime example of where it makes for a compelling solution. Openoffice has challenged Microsoft’s domination of the office based solutions that encompass word processing, spreadsheets and presentations and is enjoying an rapidly expanding market share. Open source projects like Openoffice and Mozilla – the people behind Firefox (web browser) and Thunderbird (email client) – are really good advocates for the open source movement. Any business investigating a potential solution should always investigate the open source options as there are some great projects out there like SugarCRM, Zen Cart and even WordPress.

Open source is extremely compelling as many of the solutions don’t charge for licenses and are marketing as free, but you need to take into consideration a number of issues: -

Set-up fees (usually requires a system administrator or technically able person to configure the software)
Staff training

Although there are other costs that should be considered the biggest single factor you need investigate is the level of support provided in terms of continued development and technical support available. Check out support forums, blogs and how often new versions are released. RedHat offers a free operating system (Fedora) but charge for their corporate version (RedHat); similarly Sun Microsystems initially provided Openoffice free of charge but charged for StarOffice (Sun Microsystems are now owned by Oracle).

Bespoke solutions

I know you are expecting me to extol the virtues of bespoke solutions – bearing in mind we are a bespoke software provider – but it isn’t right for everyone!

Traditionally corporates invest in bespoke solutions as it makea economic sense as buying 10,000 licenses for an international business would have a huge cost. Bespoke software enabled large businesses to develop systems that met their needs and represented real value for money. Certainly in the nineties I worked predominantly in the blue chip and corporate environments, developing intranet / extranet systems for the likes of ICI, NEC, East Indian Dock Company and The New Millennium Experience (The Greenwich Dome).

In the last 10 years however this has changed and more and more SMEs are investing in bespoke solutions that can make a real difference to their businesses. The cost of software development has fallen and the adoption of web based solutions has made bespoke solutions far more accessible to smaller businesses.

But, before you considering a bespoke solution make sure you understand what is available either as an off-the-shelf solution (see above options) and understand what each option provides in terms of meeting your businesses needs.

Understanding the total cost of ownership is a little more complex, but consider these at a bare minimum: -

Fees for the business analysis
Initial development fees
Maintenance fees
Additional fees (for development / alterations)
Staff training

Some companies charge maintenance fees of around 20% per annum, others charge on a pay as you go basis, but there are a wide variety of business models used throughout the industry so make sure you understand them before making a final decision.

Lastly, ask the provider what happens if they go out of business or you want to use a third party to maintain the system as this is the sort of question many forget to ask until it is too late!

Conclusion

In writing this article I have only covered some of the basics, but you can see there are a wide variety of options to consider and plenty of pitfalls to avoid. It is important for you to carry out due diligence before committing to a specific solution or provider and I would recommend you speak to your local Business Link as they will often be able to point you in the right direction, but otherwise make sure you consider not only the immediate, but the long term costs of using the software.

If you would like to have a chat about a project I would of course be delighted to discuss your business requirements and will often suggest looking at alternatives first if I feel they are appropriate.

During a recent conversation with a prospective client they said that they couldn’t understand why we charge for a specification.  Their business is squarely placed within marketing sector, where the supplier has to prepare their pitch and involves a significant amount of work on their behalf, before being considered for the contract.  In reality we don’t charge for an initial quotation; the proposal will include a fixed fee for a business analysis, preparation of a specification and estimated costs for development work.  A couple of times in recent months prospective clients have seen this as a barrier and expressed reservations about committing to the business analysis and preparation of a specification and perhaps this is a sign of the times.

So why is business analysis and preparation of a specification so important?

In our experience prospective clients are rarely in a position to clearly define what their business needs.  Conclusions reached are often restricted by their knowledge of what is and isn’t possible, resulting in their stated outcomes being compromised to varying degrees.

If a software / web developers undertakes the project on this basis the most likely outcome is that the solution will not meet the business needs, or changes will be introduced during the development, resulting in spiraling costs!  The result is often the client and / or supplier falling out after the initial honeymoon phase with the inevitable consequences.

An example of this is ensuring the analyst asks the right questions. An simple example would be to ask if the system will be be accessed by users speaking different languages? If this is picked up prior to the development there will be a minimum impact on costs and time scales; however if this was to be introduced at the latter stages of the development it would have a massive impact on both the project management and finances. Although this is a simple example, we have been able to avoid others by ensuring we understand the needs of the business.

As a result we adapted a process called well formed outcomes that is designed to challenge the client whilst enabling them to focus on their business and its needs.  The objective is to clearly define the outcomes the proposed system needs to achieve in order to be successful.  Once the outcomes have be defined we are able to provide one or more solutions.

This approach ensures that the project is clearly defined and reduces the number of potential changes during the project.  The advantage is that alterations made during the planning stages cost less and have little or no impact on the time scales (as previous described). This doesn’t restrict the project, in fact changes can still be introduced, but using a more controlled procedure that ensures any impacts on the project are understood before implementing the changes.

In conclusion the phrase “fail to plan, plan to fail” probably best sums up the need to invest in good business analysis and ensuring everyone knows what they have to do in the form of a well written specification.

As a foot note it is worth mentioning agile development methods that have been adapted since the phrase was first coined in 2001. Essentially this ensures an approach that aligns development with the clients needs and objectives and has a number of similarities with our approach at Ayrmer Software.

Welcome to our blog. We thought it was about time we practiced what we preach and add a blog our website!

We’ll be discussing the various issues that crop up during our day to day activities. The primarily focus will be on issues we and our clients face, explaining the various reservation and problems people encounter. These will not be restricted to software and web development, although each post will be related to situations we come across.

We’ll explain the main issues around implementing technical solutions including desktop database applications as well as web based solutions that enable businesses to work more efficiently across the internet. We’ll also have a crack at trying to explain some of the jargon like “cloud computing” and “web 2.0″ as well as explaining how you can measure “Return on Investment (RoI)” and provide advice on how to make informed decisions about using Information Technology (IT).

We’ll be posting topics written by the entire team and hopefully you will find it both informative and enjoyable. We would also welcome your comments and feedback on any of our posts.