Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with business and software

Pros & Cons of bringing web development in-house?

MeatLightning — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:33:22 -0800

Pros & Cons of bringing web development in-house? Hi all -
I manage a mid-size e-commerce website. We currently work with an agency to build and maintain our site. We are considering hiring a dev (C# / .NET, SQL) and taking over development... or at least much of it (still may go out of house for UX, front-end dev).

Anyone have any advice, experiences, warnings, etc they can share?

Have you gone down this road? How did it go? What should we watch out for?

thanks in advance!

Where to find business advice for open source software

Anonymous — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 07:52:38 -0800

Where can I find professional advice on the business possibilities for an open source software project? Is there a good location to ask a very specific question and get an experts advice. Its for a large project, of which 75% is already completed. I've already asked for advice on it from a couple of forums I frequent with no response besides the usual "make it and find out". I need to get a better idea before I dedicate too much more time to it. I just recently discovered a site had developed a hosted version, which might negate my efforts so far.

I need to find somebody who knows the business aspect of these things as i only know software.

So, what do the big boys play with?

converge — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:48:33 -0800

I'm looking for some really good helpdesk software. It does not have to be free. Any suggestions? We're a small IT company with a lot of clients. Ideally, this software would do the standard ticketing/tracking, but I would also like to do time management and billing with it. Also, some of our users will be remote, so it needs to feed the same database over the internet, either in realtime or at the end of the day. Offline use would be nice to have. Windows based. Ideally, it would have ACT integration, but that isn't a must. The ones I've tested so far do not work as described. Is there an industry standard? Thanks, in advance.

Is this the new corporate vanity web site?

ignignokt — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 12:55:03 -0800

How would I figure out how big the market is for iPhone apps that are basically collections of videos? I've noticed a few iPhone apps that are basically bundles of videos (locally stored with the app on the iPhone) with menus for navigation. They tend to be instructional in nature. Here's a few examples.

I'm speculating about a side gig making this kind of app, but I really have no idea how many other companies would want an app like this made for them. How can I find out?

painting company organization software

jellywerker — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 00:37:20 -0800

business management software for a painter My boss would like some form of software that organizes his clients. Something where he can create a file and put in a name and contact info, paint color used, etc...

Sort of like a beefed up contacts organizer I guess.

He'd also like to be able to link a picture of the job the the client's file, as well as have some sort of way to input the bid, preferably in a format that he can print out as an invoice.

The ability to organize by date input would be very helpful.

Anyone know of any software that can do this? Or most of this?

Need some tips on how to be a freelance developer

captainawesome — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:11:17 -0800

Now that I'm starting to do more part-time freelance software development, what kinds of things should I be considering? A few months ago, a friend of mine was approached to do some custom software development, but at the time he was unable to take on any more projects. He referred the guy to me instead and I did the job, which was well received. That led to another job, which in turn has led to a few more in the pipeline and a few other clients showing interest in hiring me. This is all good: I'm a full-time grad student, with piles of student loans, so any spare cash I can make on the side is great.

So far I've made relatively little money doing this, but if I'm going to be making any supplemental income from freelancing, I'd like to figure out what hoops I have to jump through (legalities, taxes, etc) to be legit. Googling has found me advice that all seems geared towards people trying to do small business as a career, but that's NOT what I'm shooting for right now - just doing the occasional bit on the side. Before I go spending tons of cash (which is in short supply right now) talking to a lawyer and/or CPA for an income stream that might be pretty small, I'd like to be sure that it's worth it.

Specifically,
1. Am I supposed to be starting a company for this, or can I just do business under my own name?
2. What am I supposed to be doing about taxes and the like?
3. Anybody have any idea what custom software development is worth these days? I'm a few years shy of a PhD in computer science, with 15+ years of independent and corporate software development experience, and the work I've been doing (iPhone app development) is still fairly niche, so it's got to be worth something - but I'm having a very hard time finding information on what I'm supposed to be charging people.
4. Are there things I haven't even thought of yet?

Some vague questions, I know, but if anybody's got any pointers I'd love to hear them.

How to stop torrents at work?

numlok — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 19:13:20 -0800

I'm sure this question will not make me the most popular student at the dance, but is there a way to identify (via IP) machines running BitTorrent clients within an internal network (ie. work)? My company has around 50 employees, and the old, "Please don't torrent at work" doesn't seem to be doing much good anymore. It brings our email and web browsing to a near standstill, and dropping by the "usual suspects" is not only tiresome, but doesn't seem to find all the sources of traffic any longer. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

3 guys, fresh out of college, looking for some financial advice on obtaining a developer for our startup

drkrdglo — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:25:54 -0800

Two college friends and myself are looking to put together a mobile application start-up. We have the business end of the startup covered, but we need to find a developer to help us out. We need some financial guidance on what to do and what not to do. Should we pay a freelance developer, or bring someone on board with us as a partner? My friends and I have finished college, have great full-time jobs, but we are still looking for something more. We share a passion for technology and innovation. In the current climate, mobile technology seems to be a huge growth area, and a huge area of opportunity for a new startup.

At the current time, we're looking at this startup as more of a serious project than anything. We're keeping our day jobs (in advertising and ecommerce) not only to continue being able to pay our student loans, but to continue learning how the industry works. Business wise -- we're set. Financially -- we can get by. We have a few thousand dollars to invest at the time being. We want to make sure we're making the right investment.

Our current dilemma is that we need a developer. We need to find out whether it's better to hire a freelance developer (which I've seen ads on Craigslist ranging from ~$60-$75/hr), or garner the interest of a fourth partner to join our team. Under the assumption of gaining a fourth partner, he/she would receive compensation, as the rest of us would --- after the applications are launched and sold.

Since this is more of a very serious project as opposed to a full blown business -- I would be more comfortable with a fourth partner, but hey, I could be totally off base about this whole thing.

In the end, we're doing this because 1) we love the industry/would love to be a part of a technological revolution 2) there's huge potential for future opportunities. In order to make our dreams a reality, we need to find a developer -- our missing link. Hopefully you guys have some insight how we can go about doing so in a financially responsible way.

(Side note: if there's a developer out there interested in this sort of endeavor -- send me a message!)

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 09:58:40 -0800

What's the best approach to take with the a lead software developer after being left holding the ball? About a month into a new full-time development gig (after almost a decade of contracting/freelance for me) the lead developer left for a two week vacation with assurances that we were more or less feature complete and the only thing left to do before launch would be cleaning up a few bugs.

Lies. (duh)

While on vacation we've found huge areas of functionality that were unimplemented, and others that were implemented so fragilely that they were bound to break. It's been a week of hell scrambling to get everything finished while at the same time not throwing lead-developer under the bus with the higher ups.

Lead developer has a huge amount of seniority. I'm the only other member of the team with any experience in the software industry (other developers have less than a year of professional experience). There's no formal project management at the company.

I'd like this job to work out. What approach do I take with the lead when he gets back? Do I point blank (in private) confront/talk-to him about the the lack of organization/management and what I view as a lackadaisical attitude towards developing code that actually works? Do I accept this is just his MO and work around it while covering my ass at the same time?

Any advice on ways to deal with this situation in a positive way would be appreciated. I'm used to being brought into situations like this as a contractor where I can drop in, hurt feelings, get something done, then move on to the next gig. I don't think that works in a situation you'd like to work out long term.

Software services gone good

pallen123 — Thu, 01 May 2008 18:36:29 -0800

Can you please help us think of niche software/IT services that positively impact people or the world... and can turn a reasonable profit? I'm a partner in a small software strategy and development company. We've got steady client work and we want to take this opportunity to refocus our business on markets for hosted software solutions that we can feel good about. For example, we want to build fewer Web sites for manufacturing companies, and instead sell some kind of IT/software services to nursing homes, or family members with aging loved ones far away, or specialist doctors and their patients, or a hosted service that helps manufacturing businesses reduce the negative impact they have on the environment.

In short, we'd like to either develop a software solution that fits a real need in the social/healthcare arena, or we'd like to offer hosted open source or third party solutions that will make a positive impact.

Any suggestions, ideas, input are *greatly* appreciated!

I want to be passionate about my work... while working in my pjs

brandnew — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 09:42:22 -0800

Can I make a living coding from home, and where can I find such a job? First, I'm a veteran coder. I've been working in the software industry for 10 years. I'm experienced in all aspects of the software life cycle. I'm an expert in C#, and very experienced in Java. Over the last few years I've been trading time between roles as solution architect and lead programmer. That means I do more requirements analysis and development and system design now, but I still do a lot of coding.

A couple of years ago my spouse started a business, and it has become far more successful than we had expected. However, the problem is that she had started her business in a small city, and that city doesn't have a large software development market. In fact there are only four or five companies that develop software within 50 miles. And, for various reasons, she is unable to relocate her business or us.

So, I currently work for a defense contractor, and I'm making great money for a small city (>$100K). However, I'm yearning to get back to the "real" software market - developing consumer, enterprise, or business-to-business software applications. And, I want to get back to working at a start-up-type environment, and being passionate about the products I'm developing.

So, how do I find such a job that will allow me to telecommute 75% of the time? Is there a job board that exists specifically for telecommuting jobs? Or, do I just scour the web sites of potentially interesting software company and email them my sales pitch? Plus, would I expect to take a big pay cut if I switch to telecommuting? I may not care, but just curious.

What cheap software or webapps can I recommend to help my friend manage her small business?

abkadefgee — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 02:04:09 -0800

What free or cheap software, or webapps, can I recommend to help my friend manage and build her small business, a salon? Although there is software out there specifically made for this purpose, it seems out of her price range and shares a lot in common with more general software. I've recommended using Google Calendar to manage her appointments and suggested that her basic inventory needs can be tracked with Excel. However, it would also be helpful for her to be able to track the contact information for her clients and what type of services they receive at each appointment, and perhaps including pictures would be helpful as well.

I would think that someone who has experience in managing a business might have some suggestions for software without having specific knowledge about the salon world. Any advice would be helpful.

Can you recommend some business card scanning software?

mr_silver — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 04:21:34 -0800

Can you recommend any Windows software which will OCR photographed business cards, store them in a searchable database and work with Outlook? I'm sinking under a tonne of business cards and would like to scan them in. I know I could just go and purchase Cardscan which would do the job, but I don't really see the point in buying hardware when I have a perfectly good digital camera.

Plus, work won't reimburse me for the £130 that I'd need to pay for the solution (or the £50 if I got it from eBay) - and lets be fair about this - i'll be coughing up my own money just for something work related so I want to be prudent.

Can anyone make any recommendations on good business card scanning software? My requirements would be:

- Ability to batch load a large volume of card images
- High accuracy rate
- Keep original copy (or low res version) of the card image

I'm in two minds about where the information is held. I don't mind it being in the softwares database as long as it's good, does everything I need, is easily sortable and searchable and can export to Outlook.

On the other hand, I don't mind it just being Outlook, as long as I don't have to import everything into my default contacts folder. I have several hundred numbers and no need for them all to be synchronised to my phone and PDA.

I run Windows XP. I don't mind paying for the software.

Help? I need software to manage my budget!

idlm — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 04:46:01 -0800

I need software to manage my personal & business budget. I need to find a piece of software that can manage my income and track all of my expenses. The thing is that I have the income from my job, the income my wife's job, plus I also do some side jobs that I need to keep track of the money that comes in from that. Then I have all of my expenses and I don't know where the money goes. I also need to keep track for my taxes at the end of the year so that I can write certain things off.

Can you recommend any software that can do that?

Business fulfillment software

zek — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 07:44:47 -0800

I run a small mail-order shipping business and for years have been using an Excel spreadsheet to process and fulfill orders. Is there a database-based application that will do this instead? My main problem is keeping track of who ordered what, when, seeing what's on backorder, identifying open purchase orders, printing invoices where necessary, and seeing graphs of various product sales. Right now I'm doing all this manually.

I've seen a few programs but they cost a hefty sum and alternatives are difficult to search for.

No server-based solutions, please, as I want a self-contained solution and don't want all my data locked up with one company.

How do I fast track my way into consulting?

gttommy — Sun, 27 May 2007 04:49:21 -0800

How do I fast track my way into consulting? I'm 24 year old male doing a combined Software Engineering/Int'l studies in Chinese degree. I'm interested in getting into Business consulting within 1-2 years, and believe I have the transferable skills to do so, just not the experience & qualifications.

Things I have considered:
-apply for graduate positions within a large company to work towards software/IT consulting then find a way into business consulting (seems a little tedious)
-go for business analyst roles and wait for an opportunity
-find a managerial job, if possible, and put into resume then apply

Please suggest ways to get into business consulting asap!

-------------
My only work experience is pretty much only around 17 months experience as a paid intern programmer at 2 different software companies (no longer employed by either).

Yes I have tried the search but all I found were questions related to career dilemmas.

What software is used in the phone sex business ?

lc037 — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 22:41:28 -0800

I have one question which has three related parts: Q1. What companies are out there which provide the technology to operate a phone sex business where I can concentrate on marketing and they take care of all the backend processing allowing the individual phone sex operators to dial in from their own home and talk with their clients who are charged per minute ? I do not want to personally keep or maintain the software myself. I want to outsource this. So the sex operators would "clock in" at will and recieve calls at any phone they like. This software should also use some sort of accounting to keep track of time spent for each operator. Q2. Also, how are the phone sex operators paid ? by cashiers checks mailed out to them by Fedex ? This may not be practical especially if there are many operators. Q3. Finally since this business does not involve any pornographic images are there any laws I need to abide by like having to keep records and making sure everyone is over 18 years of age ?

How can I run my one-man software business from abroad?

csugden — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 13:45:04 -0800

How can I continue to operate my one-man software business while out of the country for 3 months? I've been preparing a piece of software which I'm almost ready to start selling. But I'm planning on going away on a long study trip abroad this summer, from late May to early September. This has been planned for a long time, and it's fixed. So how can I keep an eye on my business and make necessary changes?

I don't want to wait until I get back to launch. But I also don't want to be unable to update my website or do customer service or patch my code. I think I have a few options:
1. Internet cafes. Not fond of this idea because of security concerns, as I would want to be able to check on my sales and so on.
2. Home connection. I'll be staying with a host family (I'm going to France), and I have no idea whether they'll have the net and I don't want to be an annoying guest by hogging their net!
3. Public wifi. I would have to take my own laptop, but all my files are on it so I may have to do this anyway. Plus, I don't know whether there will be any hotspots where I'm going.
4. Get someone else to look after it while I'm away.

What do you think? If it was just email there wouldn't be a problem. I just don't want to find out there's a bug that really needs to be fixed and I can't do it for three months!

Opinions gratefully received. Thanks, Chris.

Private label LinkedIn-type service?

pallen123 — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 21:15:25 -0800

Alternatives to http://www.xing.com/ and http://www.collectivex.com -- business networking services/software for groups? I'm looking for an easy to use, rich-featured service for enabling members of my business group to network with each other. Linkedin now offers services to groups, but I'm not thrilled with the way their service works.

Any suggestions?

The wisest way to do ERP?

rongorongo — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 09:12:07 -0800

What is the wise way for a medium or large businesses to implement ERP software? By 'wise' I mean most likely to boost business performance and avoid pitfalls. What organisations have done this really well?

I ask this as somebody who has recently ventured a little way into the world of Oracle and SAP development having previously worked on less exalted (and often open-source) web technologies. At first site the ERP solutions seem to be a good way of dealing with the complexity and need for reliability. On closer inspection, however, they seem awfully prescriptive, inflexible, brittle and costly. Also some of the common management processes surrounding implementation (such as throwing many consultants onto a project to try to deliver it to a given deadline) seem a little dubious. This may well just be my inexperience - is it better to have a monolithic solution or something more customised and flexible?

Hiring at a bootstrapping startup company?

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 20:53:03 -0800

StartupFilter: A two-person software startup wants to bring on two developers, what can we offer them? A little background... We are two mid-20s software guys who long ago decided we wanted our own business. We met frequently earlier in the year, talking ideas, until we finally hit on one that seems perfect for us. Since then, we've researched the market, the competition, business models. We've done a lot of catching up on the technology we'll need to produce a tool for this market. We've begun to make functional specs for the software, and will soon start prototyping and designing. We think we're capable of doing it all, but it seems apparent that with some help, things would go a lot better.

The market is vertical, not exactly niche but not huge either. The software is targeted at businesses. We are not interested in going public or selling the business, we're simply interested in the freedom of running our own venture and the possibility of making a nice amount of money, too.

As such, we're not looking for VC, we don't have a CEO or other management personnel. We're hoping to bootstrap, although we may look for some seed money from an angel or other similar investor.

The crux of the question is this: If we have no money today, what is reasonable to offer people who want to join the team and help us get this thing out? We believe with 4 or 5 people total (including us), we can deliver this thing successfully, in the late 2007 time frame. Since we don't plan on going public, it seems that stock options are not an option, so to speak. Do we offer them a nice bonus when we start bringing in cash? A slice of future profits? To complicate matters (or maybe make them better), the people we want to approach initially will be friends or acquaintances (we already have people in mind who would be perfect). These people will either continue to work day jobs, or have enough savings to take some time off and work on this idea with us.

Obviously, when we start selling, we'll start paying everyone a nice salary. But for someone to work at a startup, they're assuming a certain amount of risk. (It helps that they'll probably be mid-20's single guys with no dependents.) To compensate for this risk, there should be a certain amount of payoff if we succeed.

A lot of the reading I've done about startup companies is targeted toward companies looking to raise $20m VC and eventually go public or sell the entire business. Unfortunately, I haven't found much advice for our particular situation.

Yes, we have formed an LLC already. Myself and the other owner are 50/50 owners and decision makers. We will be investing our own cash ($25k or so) to buy the software and hardware needed to make this all happen. That's going to be all we can afford to invest, though. We both still have day jobs.

Sorry this is so long. I wanted to put as much here now, because I can't reply in thread.

Is Onbase the right base?

keep it tight — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 05:37:33 -0800

HAs anyone out there had any good or bad experiences with the OnBase Imaging software from Hyland? Our company is looking at becoming a reseller and I am just looking for different perspectives.... Thanks Gang!

Best small-business accounting software?

YoungAmerican — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 17:27:07 -0800

Number-crunchingFilter: What's the best small-business accounting software for a non-accountant? I recently started accepting donations for my podcast, and they're amounting to enough money that it seems like I should be accounting for them, both for tax purposes and... well... accounting purposes.

I also have some income from the sale of show t-shirts, and I've been tracking my expenses related to the show (capital investments, marketing costs, etc), and saving receipts.

All the income comes in through PayPal, and I use one bank account, set aside for this purpose, for everything.

What software should I be using to track all of this? I use a PC, and have strong "computer skills" and a decent head for numbers, but no accounting background. I'm looking for something that costs no more than a couple hundred bucks, and is easy to use.

Help a small business with CRM-y goodness

discokitty — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 15:20:00 -0800

Small Business Filter: I'm looking for an good out-of-the-box CRM solution for a small business. We're a very small company (3 people) and we're looking for a simple, cheap and easy to deploy CRM solution that would be appropriate for us. We'd like this system to do only the very basic CRM type of activities:

Track and log points of contact and activities
Integrate sales data
Simple reporting and slice and dice type of analytics
Marketing list generation

We have not a single programmer between the three of us, so ease of implementation is going to be a big deal. We're definitely not looking for a Siebel-type system. Bonus points for being cheap and having some kind of tech support.

Upgrading to ACT! ver. 7 or 8?

mojohand — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 09:09:42 -0800

Is it worth moving to either version 7.0 or 8.0 of the contact/sales management software ACT!? I quit upgrading ACT! at version 5.03 (aka ACT! 2000) as by all reports version 6 was lousy. And while ACT! 5 meets my needs, I'm running into the typical issues common to all obsolescent software. Has anyone any experience and counsel on the newer (7.x) or newest (8.0) versions of ACT!? Thanks.