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15% rule in Software Development

2010-02-24T11:55:00.000-08:00

Composing software on a referring basis can frequently be losing opportunities for developers or customers or both. There are too a lot of things that can fail, and that finally translates into waste of time and income. The 15% rule we have come up with is destined to build a win-win situation for both companies (or at the least make it fair for everybody). Customers broadly get what they need, and development shops make a fair benefit. It's not an advanced solution, but heretofore it appears to be working for us.

This could come as astonishment to some, but we make very little money distributing software permissions. The vast absolute majority of our revenue pulls round consulting services writing code for engage. Having presently done this for some years, we've learned a few hard lessons. On some projects the lessons were so knockout we really lost money.

Some calendar months ago I set up somewhat of a manifesto-type document destined to address the complications we've fronted in developing software for customers. I am delighted to report that it is made an obtrusive difference as yet for us. My desire is that this blog entry will be interpreted by others who develop software on a conferring basis, so that they can acquire these lessons the easy approach rather than the approach we learned them.

What accompanies in this article is a summary of one of the primary principles we presently follow in developing software the 15% rule.

Prior to undertaking an evolution project we build an affirmation of work (which plays a declaration and a spec) that delineates what we will do, how many hours it will demand, and how much it will cost the customer. As part of the declaration we commit to invest up to the portion of time drafted in the document plus fifteen %. That's, if the affirmation of work states that the project will take us a hundred hours to finish, we will spend up to one hundred fifteen hours (but no longer). As to whies and why-tos on how this acts, read on.

Those that have elaborated software for hire learn that the output almost never finishes precisely as the customer had pictured. There are invariably plucks that will require to be caused (that could or could not have been talked over up front) in order to get the matter to at lowest resemble what the customer means. And, yes, this could appear even if you spend days upon hours fine tuning the spec to reflect the customer's wishes. In addition, technical effects can pop up that were not foretold by the programming group. In principle, the better the programming group the less believable this should be, but it does not always finish up that approach (Microsoft's Vista OS is a greatest example). These 2 factors, among other ones, compare to the chance that is inborn in the project. Something is not going to go correct, and that will about always signify individual pays or loses more income than originally awaited. The issue is, who should be creditworthy to account for those extra bucks?

Up until comparatively lately, we'd shoulder nearly all of the chance in our projects. If the application did not do what the customer had in mind, or if unexpected technical issues popped up, it commonly came out of our sacs. For the most part it wasn't a huge problem, but always appeared to have at least some action (the extreme point cases apparently being once we lost income on a project).

This appears kind of unfair, does not it? The chance inherent to the project is not needfully the fault of either company. It is just there. We did not put it there, and neither did the customer.

Common Software Marketing Methods

2010-02-24T11:16:00.001-08:00

Do you acknowledge everything on software promotion? If you're a web developer that distributes software online, here are the common software commercializing formulas that will assist you hike up your sales. Learn on each one, and discover the winning intermixture that will bring you more consumers.

1. Uninterrupted Search Engine Optimization

Maintaining a high ranking in the most crucial search engines is a ceaseless struggle, as you demand to follow concrete rules AND endlessly update and optimize your internet site.

Center on:

Bettering your link popularity.
Creating unique content.
Supervising website outcomes.
Trying various keywords.
Spending time in bettering the design and the usability of your internet site.

Unless you turn to professional search engine optimization assistance, you should not establish your software commercializing strategy alone on this method. For more eminent outcomes, combine it with other techniques, such as those demonstrated below.

2. Submit your shareware to software package download internet sites and directories

Promote your software package by submitting it to as a lot of download internet sites and directories as potential. Produce a good PAD (Portable Application Description) file, as this will alleviate the full submission process and webmasters will value it, as well.

Pay attention to the hits you get from these internet sites and invest time in those who actually bring you clients. One of the main rewards of submitting your software package to download internet sites is obtaining more back-links and multiplied page rank, which heighten your internet site's page ranking and position in the primary SEs. It's one of the most crucial software commercializing processes, that also assists you multiply your traffic and from that your internet software package sales, so do not neglect it. If you discover it too time taking, ask for professional support.

3. Affiliates commercializing

There's a huge network of affiliates on the World Wide Web. Affiliates are men who will advertize and distribute your software goods from their internet sites, reciprocally of a small commission for each sale. Why should you attempt to commercialize software using this technique? For you pay your affiliates on outcome. The recompense may be made grounded on a concrete value for every visit (PPC), registrant (PPL), or a commission for every client or sale (PPS), or any combination.

There's a broad range of affiliates and techniques of advertizing your software goods. Pick out those who have internet sites that have been particularly projected to distribute software products.

4. PPC campaigns

Crucial SEs place advertisements near search outcomes in return of a small amount of money. It is addressed pay per click promoting. The estimate behind this commercializing method is to bid for crucial "keywords" that bring apposite effects associated to the good you are selling, and localize your ad on the top of the page. The most crucial actors on this marketplace are Google AdWords and Yahoo! Search. The formula has its lovers but also its fierce opposers, due to the opening of click dupery.

5. Compose newsletters and releases

A newsletter is a great way to stay in contact with your customers, aspects and affiliates. The success of an electronic mail newsletter dispersion system hinges on your database: you require to keep it cutting-edge and accurate.

You can direct your electronic mail programs to customers and panoramas or to affiliates. Focus on creating dissimilar campaigns for every segment that you aim.

Always enquire permission to stay in contact with your customers and your affiliates. Let them acknowledge what to wait from your newsletters concerning content and oftenness and honor the standards that you've established. Keep centered on the substance of the electronic mail - make it unique and attracting. Offer the opportunity to unsubscribe from the newsletter in a really obvious place.

You can as well take advantage of a lot of internet sites that offer public relation services containing free issuing of press releases. Naturally you can always pick out the classical approach and publish your stuffs regarding good launches or news associated with your corporation, in newspapers or software mags. Do not overdoit although, as people could get tired with too often data and loose concern in your software packages.

6. Get participating in online forums and web blogs

It is fundamentally free publicity. Invest time in signing to forums or discourses teams that deal with software associated themes. Be mindful though, some administrators could ban you for explicit promotion. So be originative.

A lot of people call on forums and blogs in search of data. A blog post that addresses the theme under discourse, contains crucial data and is introduced in a professional way could be of actual interest to the partakers.

Give your internet site's address, the product's brand and maybe your PAD file location. Apply a signature and not a nickname, and you are able to also add a motto associated with the software product you prefer to promote.

7. Compose and submit articles

There are a lot of e-zines and internet publications where you can publish software package associated articles. This is an easy approach to get free vulnerability and consolidate your picture as a professional in your URL.

A good report has to appear professional. The golden formula is to come up with a attention-getting news headline and pay extra attention to the content. Annul duplicating data found on the web. Your article must be mere, meaningful and original. Keep a master tone and annul self-promotion.

Submit your articles, add your contact info and a right of first publication note at the end of the newspaper column. Also include adjust with your website's URL for those who might be concerned in the subject that you demonstrated and would like to discover more about your work.

To commercialize software with success, you require to discover the most appropriate combination between these techniques. Check more about every one of them. Keep in bear in mind that every business is dissimilar, so you demand to be creative and sick person till you discover the most beneficial formula that brings you more eminent sales.

Tandberg Intros Its First NAS Appliance, Dedupe Software

2010-02-24T05:57:00.001-08:00

Tandberg Data on Tuesday unveiled its first data deduplication software and appliance, signaling the latest step in its move from being a tape storage vendor to a provider of a wide range of data protection solutions.

Tandberg unveiled the Tandberg Data AccuGuard backup and recovery software for automated SMB data protection in physical and virtual Windows server environments, said McClain Bugle, product director in charge of disk product for the Boulder, Colo.-based storage vendor.

The company also unveiled its new DPS2000 unified NAS and SAN appliance for SMBs which includes a full range of software features including dedupe, Bugle said.

The AccuGuard software was developed in conjunction with the Data Storage Group, a Longmont, Colo.-based developer of data protection software, Bugle said.

AccuGuard includes source-based dedupe, which removes redundant data before it is backed up in order to increase users' effective storage capacity by up to 20 times, Bugle said.

It is an integral part of the DPS2000 appliance family, which is Tandberg's first disk-based storage product.

The DPS2000 can be configured for NAS file sharing and/or as an iSCSI disk storage target for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux or Unix environments. When configured as an iSCSI target, it supports up to eight simultaneous connections.

The DPS2000 is available in a desktop configuration with 4 TB of capacity, or in a 1U rackmount configuration with 4 TB or 8 TB of capacity, and includes redundant power supplies and hot-swap hard drives and power supplies.

"On the surface, it's a NAS," Bugle said. "NAS is a crowded marketplace. But with our focus on off-site data protection, we want to provide a full data protection solution. We're not at the cloud yet, but we're getting there."

One unique feature is Tandberg's Surveillance Station, an integrated technology that connects to up to four high-quality IP video cameras, Bugle said.

"The cameras can be used to protect a company's employees, or to monitor facilities," he said. "The DPS2000 can manage all four video streams concurrently."

Tandberg is making the transition from tape to complete data protection solutions, Bugle said. However, its core strength remains offsite data protection, with products ranging from tape libraries to removable hard disk cartridges to a recently-introduced virtual tape library introduced last year which offers site-to-site replication as a first step to cloud storage, he said.

But that does not mean Tandberg will be saying good-bye to the tape automation business any time soon, Bugle said.

"We're not abandoning the traditional tape backup market," he said. "But we understand its reduced role."

The new Tandberg hardware and software are aimed specifically at the company's solution provider base, and are expected to be available by the end of the month. Pricing for the DPS2000 with AccuGuard software starts at $2,290, including 4 TBs of storage capacity.

http://www.crn.com/

Millennial Media buys mobile software firm

2010-02-24T05:36:00.000-08:00

Millennial Media, the largest independent mobile advertising network in the country, said Tuesday it acquired a small San Francisco-based company that makes analytical software to help developers better track their mobile phone applications' performance. Millennial paid cash for TapMetrics, but terms were not disclosed. Millennial is paying for the deal with some of the $16 million it raised from investors in November as part of its expansion plans, said Paul Palmieri, president and chief executive of the Baltimore-based company. Palmieri said the plan was to integrate TapMetrics into the products that Millennial offers to developers. Employees in TapMetrics' Washington office will work in Baltimore, while the company's San Francisco office will stay open, he said. He declined to say how many TapMetrics employs; Millennial has 75 workers.