Coming out of the software workshop (12)

12. WhyDIYQuotation

Some time ago, I wrote a three-story series about development, implementation, and service fee calculation.

No fish in water clear--Getting out of the software Workshop: three or five people with dozens of guns How to become a regular army developer (8)

Implementation cost is also acceptableDIY --Getting out of the software Workshop: three or five people with dozens of guns How to become a regular army developer (9)

Change service chargesDIYTo the end----Getting out of the software Workshop: three or five people with dozens of guns How to become a regular army developer (10)

This caused a big discussion among netizens.

A netizen gave me a comment, which is worth pondering and discussing with you:

At the beginning, I wrote well. The more I wrote, the more I thought, the more I did, the closer I was to teaching materials. Is the price of the current project affordable?80Ten thousand, people's bidding price60Packets reported by others30You can't do anything. No one is doing this. It is true that you have to eat kickbacks and do well. I would like to ask how many software projects are required in China. I think you're counting your account. However, customers do not recognize accounts. China is not just your company.

I often say: we are developed by commercial software companies. Our CompilationCodeWork is for less work, but can make more money. Therefore, we do not need tools, methods, technologies, or management systems that reduce our work or make more money.

Therefore, our computing tables of development cost, implementation cost, and service cost are not for good looking or regularity, and we are trying to solve our own problems. We are very realistic. We set up pre-sales to promise customers in case of sales chaos. At last, the project implementation cycle is long and difficult, requiring many changes. We made this form to make a bid in case of sales sprees, and finally signed the ticket. The Development Department's Implementation Department met with the customer and found that the money was not enough for the project cost. Finally, the boss scolded the Implementation Department of the Development Department. However, since the sales department has a good relationship with the boss, it cannot be used.

As we all know, the tag contracts for bidding such schemes are all working on the surface. If you know that the project has signed a contract, the talents who actually develop and implement the software know that there is such a customer list, which is always sold in the early stage. However, sales personnel do not know the detailed processes and costs of development, implementation, and service. The person who sells the document is often the decision maker of the company, and does not look at the software function details. Moreover, there are very few attempts to launch industry management software. It's all about the relationship. It's about understanding the relationship. So there are no detailed questions about the solution and no detailed research on the solution. The contract amount signed with such a result is unknown as to how much demand will change and how long the project cycle will actually take.

If you have already signed a ticket, it is the boss's business to lose money. It is only known when the project ends. Besides, project execution is conducted by both the Development Department and Implementation Department. They have consumed project funds and will suffer losses in the future, which is also a problem for them. I signed the list back. I took the money from the customer's pocket and took it back to the company.ProgramThey don't use it at all, so they know that they can only work after I get the project out of pay every day. This is the idea of sales.

Therefore, in the software company, the sales position is very high, developers are very low. The boss scolded us for not finishing the work yet, and the customer scolded us for our demands.

The boss cannot understand the code. The boss can see that the functions are not completed (and the functions are not completed, but they just take a look at the developer's operation demonstration, and then ask the project manager about the actual progress, the functions required by the real customer are not completed, and only the project manager and the programmer know it ). Especially for software, the simpler the surface, the more complicated the interior. Unless this function is simple. Generally, in order to block complicated things and enable computers to automatically process them, it is necessary to write complicated code and present simple operations to users, in order to improve the efficiency of users, this is the benefit of software. But the boss cannot see or understand the internal code. The boss saw this simple operation function. Why didn't you finish it in two weeks?

Therefore, we have worked a lot in the past, not only for our own work needs, but also for the boss to see our labor results. Therefore, we have compiled design documents, test cases, test reports, help documents, demonstration versions, demand management libraries,BugManage databases and archive each versionSource codeAnd documentation, and also use a dedicated Development Department server, it shows that the installation is the company's most important fortune: software source code. When the boss sees that the most important product source code of the company is on top, the documents are on top, and various versions are on top, there is a lot of peace of mind. (The more suspicious the boss is, the more cautious he will send his own confidant to supervise and constrain the resources, for fear that programmers who don't know what they are doing all day have used their money. Therefore, the development department must actively present what the boss can understand to the boss, so that the boss can reduce his doubts. This is something that many development department directors do not do. Therefore, the Development Director often has a stiff relationship with the boss. In the end, fewer employees are blocked, and the boss does not look at him properly, he also failed to look at his boss, and then he managed to part with him ).

The original intention of this development cost, implementation cost, and service cost calculation table is to let the boss understand that we have worked very hard, let him understand that a management software is not often used for drawing document forms and report statistics.Excel. This software really requires so many steps, so many people, so many days of cooperation to complete.

However, we can't say this to the boss. The boss is not interested in the employees. The boss is interested in how much it makes. Therefore, to speak to the boss, we need to talk about it from the perspective of making more money.

We just talked about selling chicken wings and legs separately, which is more cost-effective than selling whole chicken. In addition, the quotation is well-founded, and the customer will not be able to block it. He thought every account was real and he could not bargain.

We can go into another question: how can customers decide their own bidding price?60Ten thousand? The customer is an enterprise, and it is not a software company. It certainly does not understand the cost structure and project staffing of the software company. How does it know the information software that solves his problems,60You can do that.

There may be two reasons:

1. My boss has always attached importance to Informatization because his company has not made any money over the past few years. This project is important and does not matter how much investment a company can make.

2. Ask your friends about the software of the same type. Based on your past informatization expense experience, the price on the market is roughly the same.

ThereforeCIO,60Ten thousand beats decided. The boss of the company can look at it. That's it.

In this way,60Ten thousand will be settled.

However60The decision-making process is flawed:

1. It is true that enterprises can do as much as they have money. But how much does it cost to solve the problems that require informatization? Who knows how to calculate the cost? IfCIOI don't know how to calculate it, so the final software company he chooses can only be the lowest price, the most brilliant speech, or an acquaintance who is sure that this acquaintance benefits him, in addition, he will not even be implicated in the project.

2. informatization in China has been continuously standardized, mature, and professional. Therefore, enterprisesCIOIf you ask your friends, can your past informatization expense experience be suitable for today's price changes? (My mother said2000The annual food price and house price are too outrageous for the current prices)

Software companies do not want to investigate the status quo of customers' problems, do not think about how to solve the problems, or calculate the cost of solving these problems. Just like the customer, he decided to make a quotation.

Why should software companies do the same?

If you do formal work, the problem may be solved and calculated100Tens of thousands. What do you do? Can you leave a list empty? You can either cut down the function to make some customer problems unable to be solved or satisfied. Either, you can convince the customer that the offer is very real. It really requires so much money to solve your problem.

What do customers say?

One result: the customer's60The price of Yuan was originally determined by the brain.60I am not sure that the solution is omnipotent. So he listens to why the software company reports100Tens of thousands. Is the software company's understanding of the problem and solution a big talk, or is it telling the truth?

One result: Sorry, we have to dig60Tens of thousands.

For the first result, the trend is good. It is because he is willing to listen to the analysis, rather than making a brain shot. He will adjust his reserve price if you have a well-founded report. If he does have so much budget60He will balance and reduce the scope of the project. As we have mentioned earlier, developers, implementations, and services all have three levels of personnel: Senior, intermediate, and standard. The cost is different. In addition, many projects are selectable. You can do it on your own, without the need to force purchase. The customer will adjust their selection of projects and development implementation service personnel at the selected level.

If the competitor reports30Tens of thousands. How does it do it?30Ten thousand? Is his development and implementation service method advanced, so the cost is low? Is his development and implementation service staff at a low salary, low travel costs, and low costs? If your competitors are more advanced than you, and your staff costs are lower than you, report30Ten thousand is definitely a loss. You cannot succeed on this list. If none of them are, then this competitor may have two possible results:

Result 1: The quotation is lower than the actual required cost, and the loss is closed.

Result 2: in order not to lose money, the quality of the project can be reduced and the project can be fooled.

For these two results, the first result is less likely, because no one wants to close the door. There is only the second result: Confused. As a result, management software prices in China are getting lower and lower, and there are not a few software companies that close their doors. Projects that are confusing are everywhere, and enterprises that do not dare to use software do not believe that the software can solve the problem.

Where is the root cause?

The root cause is that enterprises do not know the composition of software costs, and the reserve price is messy. In order to get a list, software companies offer lower prices than customers' reserve prices. In this way, the price is getting lower and lower in a round of loop, and software companies keep fooling themselves to save money to survive. Finally, until the confused customers know that the software company is a liar.

Either by making a fool of the final shutdown, or by innovating to solve the problem and breaking through the vicious circle of prices.

This is the current pricing. You can also try. However, the premise is that you must have the presales personnel and sales personnel work together to open a ticket, the presales personnel investigate and analyze the customer's current situation and problems, and propose a solution, then, complete the sales quotation with the sales team. Sales staff will make a good balance between rational prices and emotional prices, taking care of the company's project profit and customer price psychological line.