Cost Effectiveness

Some look at the up-front cost; we beg to differ.  For serious implementations, the real cost of software goes far beyond the license itself, and includes:

• Developer time for evaluation, testing, implementation and integration.  This is itself heavily influenced by:
  
  • The quality of the documentation
  • The responsiveness of support staff
  • The availability of code examples and other learning aides
• Resources consumed by the use of the software.
• Reliability of the software across all possible use-cases (often the most "expensive" aspect of cheaper software).
• Flexibility and adaptability of the software relative to the competition.

To achieve real cost-effectiveness we recommend you look for the following qualities in server software for high-demand workflows:

• Memory-allocation independent (application terminates after execution).
• Fully separable from other functions.
• Proven track-record of reliability in high-volume production environments.

When it comes to professional services, you know you're fundamentally paying by the hour, so real cost-effectiveness should be relatively easy to determine.

3rd party professional services compete against your own in-house resources, so the first questions in determining whether a service is cost-effective are actually about your organization:

• Can you readily frame the project and determine its components, or is that part of why you need a service provider?
• Do you have or can you acquire the required skill-sets in-house?
• Does your timeframe preclude using existing overburdened in-house resources?
• Are work-volumes exceeding in-house capacity?

The real cost of professional services includes:

• The time required to frame the project requirements at a useful level of detail.
• The time required to educate the candidate service providers (including in-house resources) on the project requirements.
• The time to evaluate competing proposals.