Bespoke Intranet Software Development Budgets
It seems we are the victim of our own success sometimes when using our bespoke development teams to deliver very significant focussed applications on top of Claromentis.
We are working on Competitive Intelligence portals, and Environment Sustainability Portals at the moment – to name just two of the largest bespoke projects our Claromentis clients are asking to add to their systems.
This work is immensely enjoyable – concentrating on delivering very real business value on top of the information layer that is already well in place across the companies concerned.
The reason for this post – is how do you respond to the initial requests from the client for a budget? We draw up specifications, mock ups, we are good at this. But as soon as the client sees the results they get so involved and excited – how should we react as they add functionality and raise the bar ever higher?
Easy you would say – just put the specifications through change management and come up with revised budgets. Normal procedures. Now here is the complexity. These are shared intranet development projects which Claromentis undertakes because we think there is value in us being able to build a core product from this clients ideas and expertise. For example Quality Management Software – we are now adding an entirely new second application to sit alongside Quality Manager – and perfectly reasonably the client sponsoring this wants to know what it will cost them.
Looking at the work Michael has done this is a potentially outstanding addition to Quality Management Software we already have. It is an exciting space to be in, one where we have unique skills and great partnerships with our client.
But we are being taken into functional spaces where we actually have no previous experience – we simply do not know the potential business value of the applications we are creating on a shared development basis. And to add complexity – we will need to move those applications into core code, and of course market them before we even get a foothold in these new spaces and so realize some return on the shared development, probably with 3-6 months sales cycles as well.
So what seems to be a simple problem turns out to be far from that. How much money would we be prepared to lose in developing an application for a specific client as they want to improve on everything they have– in a part of their business we do not have any previous experience – in order to encourage the client to make our application as extraordinary as possible. Even if we have no idea if the way they do things is the way anybody else does?
General Intranet Posts, Intranet Development and API, intranet applications