22 April 2019
Is Custom Software Worth the Investment?
So you want to know how much custom software costs? Here’s the thing … custom software is equally challenging, complex, and exciting. Like anything custom, it can be difficult to put a price on. At Gaslight, we typically incorporate the following in our sales process; curiosity, listening, collaboration, white board scribbling, practical thinking and coffee - to name a few. Software is daunting enough - we want the sales piece to have minimal stress and be educational for everyone that we interact with. Let’s break down some expectations in the sales process and explain why custom software is indeed, worth the investment.
Initially, we just want to get to know you - your motivations, the things that make your shoulders raise with a quick breath of excitement. We’ll ask how we can help you accomplish your professional and personal goals. We aim to make you comfortable to sit back and talk about things outside of the project. This allows us to grab a better understanding of the person you are, and envision the team that would align with your personality. If the feeling is mutual, we’ll move on to the three phases of scoping work.
Business scoping tells us about your organization. What makes you unique, what you identify as a challenge, who your competitors are, and areas for improvement. Brag about your vision, your 1, 5 and 10 year plan for the business. Flaunt your people, the culture, and the story of how you got to where you are today. We want to understand your roles & responsibilities, who supports who, the reporting structure, and how can we make you even more of a crowd favorite in your marketplace.
Technical scoping - now the ball is rolling and we’re all kinds of excited. This is where sales takes a step back and let the pros do the talking. We’ll bring in a technical resource from our team during this stage who embodies confidence and complexity in that space. Empathy & Story Mapping wraps up this phase. The goal with this exercise is to understand how to make your idea come to life through technology - and oftentimes, this is the most challenging step. We are never going to tell you that building custom software is easy, but we will assure you that it’s worth it.
And as you’ve been ramping up ideas and anxiously waiting at the same time, project scoping brings us home. But here is where we are different - we’ll build the scope of work with you in the room and that provides financial clarity. It may be a first draft, but we want you to tell us what we should be building. It’s important to be open about pricing and aligned on goals and timelines.
A traditional Gaslight project typically lasts for six to eight months and costs anywhere from 300,000 to 500,000 dollars. But we welcome non-traditional just as often. If we communicate effectively throughout the process the final step is more of a formality. This final step brings us to some signatures and we roll right into kick off meeting plans, we’re off to the races. Let’s build something amazing, and let’s build it together!
To learn more about what we’re capable of … visit our services page or set some time for coffee with us.
