Every day I hear of companies that want an ‘All in One’ solution, ie: Sales, CRM, PMS, Admin, Billing etc etc….
Unfortunately, the best you can hope for is that you can get at least some of the solutions ‘All in one’. But more importantly than this is that you get the ‘Right’ few solutions all in one, ie: SALES / CRM …or… QUOTES / PMS / INVOICING … or OUTLOOK / EXCHANGE / PDA access. The key is to have a good think about grouping the solutions that need to be together, and those that should be apart.
Sometimes, ‘Apart’ is a good thing…
Mailing List Software
We use ‘GroupMail’ for newsletter campaigns, and whilst we could integrate it with other internal systems, it’s better to be apart as it’s no hassle to simply try another solution depending on functionality we may need.
Accounting Software
‘BankLink’ is what we use. It’s simple, compatible with most accountants, and if we change to a new accountant with MYOB or QuickBooks, no prob. The files can be used. Lets face it, if we used an odd solution online or built a custom solution, we’d be on the back foot.
Email Software
Why re-invent the wheel? Outlook exchange and Entourage are fine, do the job and are compatible with all sorts of devices, PDAs, server software etc. Some people like to build email systems into an internal website or system, and that’s fine, but the time taken to do this could be better spent elsewhere…
“But I’m in Software, shouldn’t I just write everything myself?”
Of course not, that’s a crazy concept! Just focus on the application or services you are offering and buy/lease software to run your business (unless you really need something custom. Do you think a Bank makes the tills, desks, cheques.. No, they use other people. What about an Auto Mechanic/Engineer? Do you think they build all their tools, compressors, lathes, drills etc? Or a Wood Yard? Do they build all their front desks/counters, buildings etc? No, they employ other people and services to do it.
A good business should keep it’s focus on selling what it does best, and use other solutions to hold together the processes.
Fairly soon we’ll be launching a new solution – www.protasks.com! This will be a free web-based task manager based on the popular http://www.proworkflow.com/. Many people have asked for a very simple web based solution, so we’re answering the call!. In addition to the solution being a great task manager, we’ll make it fully upgadeable to the full version of ProWorkflow if extra functionality is needed.
This will be an awesome tool for freelancers, students, or anybod needing to just keep track of tasks. The interface will also be rebuilt simpler, cleaner and the app wil be easy to use with auto signup, access etc. This is in development now and should be launched within 1-2 months. Spread the word!
Also, if you can think of anything you’d like to see in a Task Manager, let me know and I’ll see what I can do…
I think there is a fine line between clients contributing to a products’ development and client designing the product. Definately, clients should be contributors of ideas, but often they are not in the business of product development, usability or databases, so shouldn’t be ‘designing’ the tools.
Another way to put it, is “Just because I can drive a car, doesn’t mean I can design a car, and if I did, it wouldn’t be as easy to use, or as comfortable as a car designed by a professional car designer.”
Every day we have customers asking for different functionality, and often it contradicts other users requests. What I’ve discovered is that many clients have flawed processes, and rather than using the software to streamline and fix their processes, they want to modify the solution to fit their problem (but the problems are still there)Â - whereas they should be modifying their problems to fit the solution. (If nothing is changed – nothing is fixed).
We listen to customer feedback, but wait til about 20+ users have similar issues before we address it, and attempt to improve the application in the most unobtrusive manner rather than complicating with feature creep.
Take a look at what Salesforce are doing: http://www.salesforce.com/appexchange/. They’re letting the customers design the software, which results in a large amount of unsupported, badly designed applications. Also due to the business model (Hosted and part of the Salesforce service) you are essentially hijacked to their system. You could be 6x months in, and need to try a different system. Your data is stuck and can’t be used elsewhere, so if their prices go up, you’re at their mercy. Also, a quick look at the apps and you can see their are badly designed and complex to use.
Sure, you can (as a client) use systems like this to design your own ‘personal solution’, but you end up at the mercy of their technology, and invariably will have a less usable, unsupported system. Sometimes it’s better to be with the masses in a solution, rather than standing alone. The developers will always support a core system better than custom solutions and especially when ‘designed by clients’.
And lets face it, in this day and age of rapid change, it’s better to ’stick with the masses’ where you have support and upgrades.
If you are a client, just be the ’squeaky wheel’ to the software co… Annoy them enough and they’ll modify their application in your favour. Or put differently, “It’s better to be loud and have your suggestions heard by the software co, than to attempt to design the product yourself”.
Based on my own experience and that of many participants in the www.SoftwareCEO.com forums it seems that the ‘Slow but steady’ is winning the race against the ‘Wham, bam, thank you M’aam’ software co’s springing up. It’s the classic age-old debate of ‘Experience vs skills/speed’.
What I am talking about is that in the ASP (Application Service Provider) and SAAS (Software As A Service) business model sector (Rented/hosted software), there is a strange reminiscent undertone vaguely familiar of the dot com boom/bust in the late 1990’s. It appears that in the rush to gain customers quickly, the software co’s have forgotten the basic principals of business. To make a profit! And to create a valuable product/service with a viable business model.
All too often these days I’m reading about companies that scaled to quickly, only to collapse under bad infrastructure, or worse, needed to expand infrastructure quickly, and did so, but had to give away most of the business to VC’s. How do I know this? I keep a ‘watch list’ of many players in the ASP market, and each year, I’m seeing new entrants come in and old co’s (who were new last year etc) dropping out. The new players look great, flashy, and have awesome functionality, but many don’t survive long. There is a core of about 15-20 major players in the ASP space (ie: Salesforce.com, Replicon.com, OpenAir.com, Us, ProWorkflow.com) who have been around for 4-10+years (some seem untouchable in size), but for most ASP’s, the lifespan seems to be 1-2 years (regardless of the quality of the website or product). I’ve also noticed some of these new co’s (1-3yo) now tacking on additional ‘quick money’ services such as web design, development, customizing etc, which seems like a sure sign that they’re not making money off the core solution.
Here’s a thought to ponder whilst MSN’ing a mate, yakking on the phone, chatting up the new blonde girl over the coffee machine… There is an actual cost to ‘mucking around’ and being inefficient. Not just the fact that you get more done with focussed effort, but that you are missing out on potential earnings and opportunities.
> Calculate the price of inefficiency
