Custom Software: What do you do when you can’t afford it?
Try as we may…we can’t help everybody. Recently, we worked closely with a Kansas City company in the healthcare field that needed a custom software solution. After running through several options in terms of commercial, pre-built options, we came to the realization that there was indeed nothing available that did precisely what our customer needed. Customized applications would need to be created in order to fulfill their dream of more efficient processing, tracking, and reporting.
Their’s is a unique niche…complete with convoluted state forms and processes, complicated billing mechanisms, redundant order entry and paper…lots of paper. Hundreds of hours of development time would be a certainty for the project and costs would run into the tens of thousands of dollars. Their budget was a fraction of what it would ultimately cost.
Do you say, “Sorry…you can’t afford us”, and wash your hands of the situation? Do you take it on and pray that you can resell the solution to other companies operating in the same unique niche? Do you bite off a piece of the project that fits their budget and use every penny of it for a partial solution?
We really wanted to help these folks…they provided a great service for some very disadvantaged people. They were good caring people, deserving of some help. In the end, we settled on a creative path that just might eventually get them where they want to be.
We called a local educational institution and explained the situation to them. Turns out—this sort of project was right up their alley. Any given semester, there are Computer Science graduate students who are assigned projects and internships. The requirements often include assisting a local, established business improve processes with custom software applications. The cost for their service? Zip. Nada. Nothing. Zilch. The university wins, the customer wins, and so does the student. Everybody’s happy…
