Price for a web application?

[Electroman]

I'm trying to find out a rough price of an online taxi booking system. I've been searching google but can't find anything, maybe I'm using the wrong words but I've tried almost everything I can think of .

[NoteMe]

Are you going to make one for your dad........I can make you one for £1000

[Electroman]

Posted by NoteMe
Are you going to make one for your dad........I can make you one for £1000

Shut up, no my Boss went to visit a company in leeds (or liverpool, I forget) cos they have one and when I was askign him about it he said he just went to get ideas cos he doesn't want to buy one but steal some ideas and get the person who runs the site now to do it. Thing is the guy who does the site I don't think can do it so i told him I might be able to. Just wondering what a reasonable price would be. If I can find out how much normal is then I'll reduce it a fair bit then offer him that price, so he'll still be saving and I get some extra cash. If he says somethign like £50 then I'd tell him it would be better just paying it cos thats hardly worth the hours I'd have to put in. On the other hand £1,000 I'd definitly do it .

[NoteMe]

I have no idea anymore, but here in Norway we where able to get about £1000 7-10 years ago from large companies, but later on, too many where battling for the jobs, and there was too many templates out there, so the pay droped quit a bit, so we stoped doing it. It wasn't worth it anymore....

[Electroman]

All the ones I've found so far seem to be in house apps because you'd expect a link at the bottom saying who developed it (like these forums have a link to vBulletin) but theres nothing .

You'd think if its cheap to buy them that they would just buy them rather than make what appears to be in house software.

Guess I'll have to ask my boss then get some links off him

[Robbo]

what i would do, is can the application be used just as a one off, or for any company?, if that company wants the software can you resell that software to anyone else, how many could you resell to, like with an antivirus, it probably cost 100 or thousands to create and develop however if you sell to 100,000 companies then you can afford to charge £1 each and your even,

supply and demand will tell you how much to charge, probably worth creating your apps first or a demo see if anyone is intereted in the development

other than that if a company want you to write something charge R&R, per hour

ok

[Ecniv]

No Agencies Please

You could post for a freelance developer there and gather quotes..?
If theres no great hurry for it - home develop slowly?

[Electroman]

I'll be developing this myself in whatever free time I get. I reckon I could resell it to other companies but I've thought of a few ways I could do this:

Rather than just me resell it I can sell it to the company its originally for on a licence where they can sell it there self but I get a portion of the sale.
Another way would be to just sell it to them and give them full right to sell it. I get a higher price for the sale but loose the right to sell it myself and potentailly get more.
The other option is I just sell it to them on the agreement they aren't allowed to resell it (I keep the install scripts), which would mean a lower cost I guess. (With this option anybody who followed the credits link on the bottom of the pages and bought the product from me wouldn't mean I'd have to pay company 1 anything).


Also what rate do you think I should be going on per hour. I can find a few places that are using a system similar but can't find any sites that are selling such a product so i can't get even a rough idea of a price.

[Robbo]

two questions, how good is the product?

how much is it worth to the other company

supply and demand

the product maybe brilliant but is demand for it is low you wont get much or if too high no one will buy?

on the other hand if demand is high and they are willing to pay for it, then may get a good payment for it, would suggest you just give them the exe, however they will expect you to install configure and get working for them, keep the other files and sell as your business,

i suggest you get writing, get a demo of you product up and working to show customers, what it can do etc, or going to do? see if there interested or any other interest, if there not then your not going to make much money on it?

[Electroman]

As to how good it is I'll be meeting with the owner hopefully today and if not sometime soon, and I plan to implement any functions he requires as long as they are reasonable.

As for selling to other companys I could make a demo but I was thinking if the original one is up and running I'd be able to use that (to a degree) to show all the features I'd need to have a demo I guess but for that i'll just run a copy on my server and then if I visit any companys to sell it I just simply connect to that one. (Companys knowing that the first company is able to run it well should be a good step for others to see interest in it too, I hope).

For demand I'm not all that sure, there are companys already using such software and the owner of this company actually travelled all the way to Leeds/Liverpool (from Newcastle) to visit a company using one, which I'd have thought there would be a company closer but then again there could still be. I think the having the app would be more of a perk, being able to advertise they take booking on-line too, which none of the other companys do yet.

[dglienna]

I found out that a client is using a system over a long distance phone connection to dial into a party rental system that they are RENTING! I am going to look to see what it does, but it sounds to me like I could easily do the same thing in VB and or Access. Just the savings in the phone line and rental will prolly get them to switch, not to mention the fact that they are complaining that 1) it is SLOW, and 2) they are using a dedicated terminal, and 3) the program hasn't been updated for a LONG time.
Could be my next project...

[nemaroller]

A web application for online taxi booking.

Yea... do your peers a favor and charge the normal $500- $1000 discovery fee (ask a few what do you think you need questions)..

Then ask for 1/4 down to start work, and of course your project quote should be around at least $5,000 - $8,000 .

Many professional firms that develop web apps for businesses won't even answer the phone for less then $15k.

[Electroman]

Humm, it would be great to be able to charge that much but I'd need to know that existing packages couldn't be bought for cheaper.

Also for something at that price wouldn't they expect it to interact with the current booking system too? I mean like all they are after is a simple booking system that will send an email when a booking is made.....I've expanded that slightly to a system where it sends a email as a notifications but they then use s few webscripts to access the booking and send any confirmation required or such. The person recieving the email still has to enter the booking into the current booking system when it arrives.

[dglienna]

Sell him one for less than he can get it elsewhere. You can always sell the rest for more money. Plus, there is bound to be things that have to be added. You can charge for them, as well as add them to the retail version. I lost out on a lot of sales quite a few years ago because I wanted to charge a lot of money, because 1) it was a lot of work, and 2) it had nothing to compete with.
Now, I'm re-writing it, and have to come up with a cost. It won't be anywhere what I wanted in the '80s.

[Electroman]

I spoke to my boss and found out that the system he had looked at costs £2,500 and then there is a monthly charge, this is because they host the system and booking go through there site in a way.
He also said that they'd called him up yestaday and said "Seen as though its christmas they could do it for £1,250". He said though he's not bothered by the setup cost its the monthly charge that bothers him, having it made himself he won't have that.

[Robbo]

cool, seems like a good payoff, just have to make sure your program is upto the job??

[Electroman]

yea I've told him I'll get a demo running so he can see it working but he's also asked another guy about making it, the person who does the site at the moment. He told me yestaday though that that guys just making some designs at the moment so he can show what it will look like so I've agreed that if he could design its appearance I'll do the underlying code and he seems happy with that. Not sure how much I'll have to split with him though. Nothing price wise has been discussed yet apart from like I said what the other company had been offering.

[Robbo]

seem very contractual??

would see what is required of the program?

how long its gonna take ya?

i prefer to write my own code with snippits of samples you can collect for free, connectind to DB, save to files etc etc

build it up and say is this kinda of what you want??, demo

what i would do is just sell them the exe, bit of version control and the product is yours to sell? of any changes release in next version, once up and running, other people maybe interested,

good way to start your own business, dont forget who gave you the advice?

bye

[Electroman]

Posted by Robbo
seem very contractual??

would see what is required of the program?

how long its gonna take ya?

i prefer to write my own code with snippits of samples you can collect for free, connectind to DB, save to files etc etc

build it up and say is this kinda of what you want??, demo

what i would do is just sell them the exe, bit of version control and the product is yours to sell? of any changes release in next version, once up and running, other people maybe interested,

good way to start your own business, dont forget who gave you the advice?

bye

Thing is its a web app and in php so source will be open for them to see....Mind for the demo I'm hosting it on my own site so they won't have a clue about the source till its sold. Once they buy it I'll set it up for them myself that way they won't be able to keep copies of the setup scripts and sell it on...also copyright should belong to me shouldn't it?
I've also thought of building into a function a little piece of code that will send a message to my website every few times its ran then I'll be able to see if another site starts using it. Ofcourse it would be easy for someone who knows php to take that kind of thing out but its all a case of if they know to look for it.

Anyone know the normal way people sell a web app like this where the source is there. I suppose even with exes theres the worry the company will just give another company the exe.

[Robbo]

i would do as an installable program, seem a good time to swap over to VB.net??

[Electroman]

Posted by Robbo
i would do as an installable program, seem a good time to swap over to VB.net??

How would that work? Would the program run on the server? I can't really see how your average user with just a web browser is going to be able to make booking that way?

It was also mentioned that this other system when a new booking came though the admin computer played a sound, I know you can do this in outlook but it also repeated every so often if it hadn't been dealt with, do you know if outlook has this option? if it doesn't then I might be making a slim email client to do this and then an exe comes into it, :unsure:. There is also the option of I just make the system keep sending emails if the booking hasn't been dealt with.

[Robbo]

yes you can with the use of asp, html and xml however dont really know too much on them, however there are on line booking programs already out there, like flight bokkings etc, parcel tracking

would that be the way you want to go, they have to be hosted on the net

[Electroman]

Think I'll stick with php cos I already know it, might be a bit dodgy trying to learn a new language at the same time as developing this to sell . I also don't have much left and I'll have that demo running .

[Robbo]

good luck with your program, if you need a tester, i write most of my programs in VB, but gladly test your program if you need any help, take it you will have to put on a server on-line, i dont know much about php though sorry

[Electroman]

Bit of an update here, I just showed my boss what i have so far: Basically just the booking section but all the validation and stuff is working.
He said for a "first draft/work in progress" it looks ideal and to give him a call and arrange a meeting to fine tune it .

[Arbiter]

Bear in mind that if you're creating it on company time using the company machines then the company legally owns it anyway - your boss wouldn't have to buy it off you.

If you're building it out of work hours on your own machine then it's yours to do with as you please.

As for how much it's worth - well, it's worth exactly what people are prepared to pay for it. Sure, there are high school kids out there who'd knock something like that up for pocket money but your boss doesn't know them. Contact a web design company and sound them out for a quote - explain what you want and see what figure they come back with. Then contact a company you already know has one and request to buy it off them. See what figure they come up with. Get these in writing/email. You can then take them to your boss and use that as a baseline for your negotiations.

As for negotiation technique, well, it's each to their own. Don't go easy on them because you like your boss or you think it will stand you in good stead in the company - get what you can, when you can. Don't be afraid to throw non-monetary, under the table, things into the arena - like a promotion or a company car. The worst they can say is no but such things can be justified (to other departments / the taxman etc) as being unrelated to the negotiations which make them viable methods of 'payment' to the canny manager.

I don't know who you are so I apologise if I'm teaching you to suck eggs here but I thought I'd give you the 'benefit' of my experience.

Ben

[Electroman]

Bear in mind that if you're creating it on company time using the company machines then the company legally owns it anyway - your boss wouldn't have to buy it off you.

If you're building it out of work hours on your own machine then it's yours to do with as you please.

As for how much it's worth - well, it's worth exactly what people are prepared to pay for it. Sure, there are high school kids out there who'd knock something like that up for pocket money but your boss doesn't know them. Contact a web design company and sound them out for a quote - explain what you want and see what figure they come back with. Then contact a company you already know has one and request to buy it off them. See what figure they come up with. Get these in writing/email. You can then take them to your boss and use that as a baseline for your negotiations.

As for negotiation technique, well, it's each to their own. Don't go easy on them because you like your boss or you think it will stand you in good stead in the company - get what you can, when you can. Don't be afraid to throw non-monetary, under the table, things into the arena - like a promotion or a company car. The worst they can say is no but such things can be justified (to other departments / the taxman etc) as being unrelated to the negotiations which make them viable methods of 'payment' to the canny manager.

I don't know who you are so I apologise if I'm teaching you to suck eggs here but I thought I'd give you the 'benefit' of my experience.

Ben

Thanx, your help is appreciated, I'm actually doing this in my own time, as I'm not employed as a programmer there. As for the price, I found out that one system they had been to look at buying was gonna cost £2,500 and then a monthly charge, can't remember what that charge was though. But they said they weren't fussed about the price of the system (the £2,500) but they didn't like the idea that they would have to pay them a monthly charge jkust to keep it on.
This monthly charge comes in because the way it worked was your website just has a link to their website which will do all the booking part just for your company. So its like your paying for renting part of their WebServer and Databases.

BTW he's already mentioned to me, mainly when I showed him the first draft, that I will probbaly be able to sell this to other companys in the UK as he does have contacts. I saw this at more of a pre-try to keep the price down for him, even though cost has never been mentioned yet, I'll be bringing it up when I have this meeting with him though.
At least at the stage I have now they can seent he quality of it and if the price is too low then i can say its not worth my while doing it for that price. Would find it more difficult if it was finished and tried to say that.

[szlamany]

It's a shame that the monthly fee part turns them off. We live on the maintenance and licensing fees we charge our customers. That pays the rent - keeps cash-flow-flowing - stuff like that.

For that annual or quarterly fee the customer is promised free phone support for bugs - free changes in regard to government rule changes - and free consideration for upgrades when things get enhanced.

User-errors that require our attention are billed in addition. Major modifications requested by the user/client are billed in addition.

Basically we have two streams of income - MAINTENANCE and DEVELOPMENT. In over two decades of experience - I can honestly say we more often loose our shirts on DEVELOPMENT and MAINTENANCE bails up out...

[Electroman]

I can agree with you there cos I can see how its good from the development company's point of view, and even the buyer if they will be requiring the support/upgrading. For example all the computer systems in the office and vehicles is all maintained in that way. However I think the thing is with this system he thinks it is rather simple to do, like his original plan was to get the person who made/manages the website to do it, yet the current website isn't interactive at all.
For this kind of system I don't expect to get much calls anyway with the supoport of it and as long as I'm in the area and got a good price for the system I'd be glad to pop in if/when any problems arise. But seen as though I wouldn't be getting anythign like this monthly charge I expect I'd charge them a call out if I move out the area, which i could be doing in a year or so.
I guess the problem comes in if this is sold to other companys around the country cos then it would be an issue if i had to visit them to sort things out. Atlest that would only be the case for stuff that couldn't be done over the net .