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Thread: Looking for opinions.......

  1. #1

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    Looking for opinions.......

    Not sure if this is the right place, but here goes. I've been working on a piece of engineering software for personal use for 18 months now on and off, I've reached a bit of an impasse, I've come to realise within the industry this would be a highly desirable piece of software and would probably achieve 20-30+ licences easily. I've took it as far as I can in terms of operation and saleability and I need professional help - Do I..........

    1. Hand a project brief to an Indian sweat shop and have them straighten out and finish the code on $12/hour
    2. Look for a domestic partner who has the appetite and the spare time to take this forward in a formal partnership

    Contacts are already in place etc, I'm just not sure where to go with this.......

    Thanks

  2. #2
    Super Moderator FunkyDexter's Avatar
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    Re: Looking for opinions.......

    I think I would suggest the latter but it really depends on how you want to position yourself for the next step.

    Indian Sweat Shops can actually be very good at turning functionality around but they tend to work very much to order. You tell them EXACTLY what you want and they deliver EXACTLY what you ask for. realistically they're not going to make your code "nice" unless you tell them exactly what "nice" is - and if you can do that then you can also do the work yourself. If you've got a couple of features you want added then they might be useful for that but you'd better make sure you specify the features very tightly. Project managing them can also be problematic.

    A domestic partner is going to be just that, a partner. That presumably means they'll want a cut which means less money for you and you lose some control over your baby. On the positive side they're likely to be much easier to work with than a foreign team. You'll be able to sit down with them, thrash through requirements etc. That can be a huge boon.

    There's also a few other options you could consider:-

    You could hire a local contractor to get you over the finish line. This would be more expensive than an Indian team but would allow you most of the benefits of having a partner without having to give up any control. If you think that a few discrete pieces of work are all that's needed to get your system to a deliverable state I think this would be my recommendation. It's likely to require a bit of finance but we're probably only talking a few thousand - easily covered by a business loan.

    If your software is in a deliverable, if imperfect, state you could take it to market as is. If it generates a decent revenue stream you could hire a full time programmer to work on improvements for you. This will be much cheaper than a contractor but is far less flexible so you better make sure there's enough work for them to do to going forward to justify their existence.

    Note that these options aren't mutually exclusive. You could hire a local contractor (or an Indian team) to get you over the finish line and then hire a permy to take you forward once the business is running.
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  3. #3
    Superbly Moderated NeedSomeAnswers's Avatar
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    Re: Looking for opinions.......

    I've took it as far as I can in terms of operation and saleability and I need professional help
    Well you could take one of those options but before you do.... a few of questions

    How do you know its desirable? and have you any idea as to what you could reasonably sell it for?

    Could you tell us what your software is for?

    What do you mean by taking it as far as you can?

    Do you have a working product, to which you would like a professional to add some major features that you don't know how to do?

    Or

    Do you have a product that is part finished, some bits work and some bits don't and you need someone to come in finish it off, and clean it up?


    Also if you are having issues, have you posted question on this forum or others and tried to get help for free??

    Or

    Have you just tried to plough through by yourself, hit a wall and decided you need help?

    Finally

    I've come to realise within the industry this would be a highly desirable piece of software and would probably achieve 20-30+ licences easily
    Not to burst your bubble but 20 / 30 licences is a very small amount and not really in keeping with your statement highly desirable unless you are selling each licence for ten's of thousands each!

    Are you sure you would make your money back in hiring somebody?

    Maybe you would be better in the first instance asking some questions in a forum (maybe even this one and see if anyone can help you for free! or at least if we (the great VBForums community) cant help then someone here can probably push you in the right direction!
    Please Mark your Thread "Resolved", if the query is solved & Rate those who have helped you



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