Software Startups, the gorilla guide
I recently had a very short, yet interesting meeting with someone that wanted to break into the small/medium business market. He is already very successful in the large/enterprise business market. One thing I gleamed from this meeting is that, it seemed he felt that the process they put into place to deal with the larger companies is too big and clumsy for the smaller guys. He called me to the meeting to get some insight as to how I tackle the smaller guys, since that is the market I currently move in.
It was a short meeting, and we could’ve expanded a lot more on the topic, but when I got home I was intrigued by this. Just how do you get into the smaller market? Is it necessarily easier than the larger companies that require all the measures and check safes? So, it got me thinking, if you want to start a small IT business intent on taking the small/medium enterprises market by storm, what do you need to keep in mind? Well, here are some ideas.
I’ll explain my ideas at the hand of an example. Let’s say Joe from Uncle Joe’s Good Time Cookie Co. is one of your newly acquired customers. Joe has been making, marketing and selling cookies for more than 30 years and has decided it’s time to upgrade his existing system. Now this isn’t just any system, it was custom designed for Joe in 1985. It runs on a Unix system with a db2 database…he thinks. This juggernaut of 80’s engineering is called Cookie Monster 1.0.
Thing is, the system works, it does what it was designed to do, which is to store cookie recipes, design and plan the cookie making process, as well as some very basic accounting interfacing e.g. customers, orders etc. So why would Joe throw out a perfectly good system that is working just fine? Well, Joe’s son Joe Jnr., who has been working for the family business since he finished his degree in computer science 10 years ago, is starting to grow a bit tired of the huge amount of maintenance required to keep the current system running. That’s one reason and of course the biggest reason is YOU! Yes YOU! You first convinced Joe Jnr. that moving to SQL Server and .Net is the way of the future and you can help them get there. Yip, move Uncle Joe’s Good Time Cookie Co. into the 21st century!
Ok, so you’ve got the customer, you’ve got what it takes, what else?
Stay Lean, cocktail napkin specs…
Forget about writing huge, 500 page specs. Joe Jnr. Is too busy keeping the systems running and Uncle Joe is way too busy making and designing award winning cookies to plough through your 500 page spec, to see what you think the system should be like. Instead, go visit Joe Jnr. at the cookie plant and see what his day-to-day activities involve, feel the pain…keep in mind the process they use might be a painful one but it’s been working since 1985. Also take a look at the system and see what they really use it for. Do they use all the features? Do they really need all the features?
Do not think you can re-write an exact copy of the existing system, in my experience that never works. Since the system was written, the business changed, the processes changed, even the people that work on the system changed.
It’s important to make notes as you go along, I call these cocktail napkin specs, hastily scribbled notes, which are there to remind you of what the user said. Now, don’t panic and start running out the door because there is no formal spec document. Keep in mind the people that are using the system, they are your specs. If you forgot how something worked, go back to that user and ask or even pick up the phone and give them a call. In my experience I found that 99.9% of the people are just too glad to share their knowledge of the process, and in this way you also let them feel that they have some ownership of the new system. Also with this process you start building what Alan Cooper, in his book About Face, calls Personas, or in Extreme Programming what is known as User Stories.
I know not having formal specs is always a risk. But the key thing here is to make your customer understand that what you agreed upon is only flexible to an extent. Always giving your customer the option to change something is a must, you do not always have to make the change they want, the key is communication and mutual understanding.
Market potential?
Ok, so you’re happy with the info you’ve got and you can start development (we’ll get to the development/design considerations shortly). But wait! You realized that what Uncle Joe’s Good Time Cookie Co. want can also works for other cookie/confectionary companies. Ah hah! Suddenly you see the market potential of a, dare I say it, a packaged Confectionary Production Management System or CPMS for short. Ok, ok, I hear what you’re saying, why would Uncle Joe agree to have you sell his system? Easy…by agreeing to let you sell your Confectionary Production Management System as a commercial product, Uncle Joe can save a ton of money on the development costs. Thus Uncle Joe can indirectly split the development costs with other companies that use the same system.
So you want to be a development house?
You’ve got the client, you’ve got the product, but you don’t have the tools to get the job done. What’s a small development company to do? It’s going to cost hundreds of thousands to buy the development tools. Not to worry! Microsoft to the rescue. Enter the Microsoft Empower for ISV’s program. Yes, this program is specifically designed to help small Independent Software Vendors get their project(s) off the ground. For a small yearly fee, you receive all the Microsoft tools to get you started and beyond.
You can also after a year, submit your product and have it certified by Microsoft, and that in turn will make you a Certified Microsoft Partner, and I can tell you now, that badge carries a lot of weight, believe it or not!
A must have for any ISV that has a product that will change the world, the benefits is awesome. So go check it out!
