I was talking to our bank manager yesterday and asked him how he was finding business in the current economic climate. He said that a lot had changed since the collapse of Lehman Brothers – in the autumn of 2008 – that resulted in the credit crunch. He went on to say that they now have to determine the affordability of any credit offered to new businesses and the banks now require detailed business plans, so that they can make an assessment. I said that when I first started Ayrmer Software ten years ago, I did not believe in business plans as I didn’t have a crystal ball to hand, but now realise running a business without planning is suicide!
Archive for the ‘General’ Category
Is business planning worth the time and effort or is it like gazing into a crystal ball?
Friday, May 11th, 2012The customer is not always right
Friday, April 27th, 2012In our modern service-orientated economy, businesses have an increasing dilemma of how to be effective in managing customers. Many take the approach that the customer is always right no matter what, for fear that they may lose custom. This isn’t always the right approach.
The importance of choosing the right path
Thursday, February 23rd, 2012The title for this article could have been “the importance of undertaking a proper requirements capture when developing a new system”, but we have covered this numerous time before.
We have just successfully launched a new system for a client whose journey to this event has highlighted to us and to them the importance of properly capturing the business requirements. It also highlighted the importance on providing a solution that fits the needs and not their wants. The client has allowed us to use them as a practical case study to highlight the advice in this article.
Intuitive design – not so intuitive.
Thursday, January 5th, 2012As a software and web developers we strive to create intuitive business solutions for our clients. However over the years we have discovered that what is intuitive for some is not for others.
Challenging your clients is good for them
Friday, November 18th, 2011In any project we undertake, whether it be a content managed website or a complex business system we like to challenge our clients as to what they want versus what they actually need. But does this approach actually benefit them? We certainly thinks it does.
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Web developers and designers dependancy on libraries
Friday, November 4th, 2011Web development seems to rely more and more on frameworks and the underlying source code seems to be getting heavier as a result. Having worked along side website designers for a number of years I have noticed how they use pre-built kits like jQuery more and more and regularly see this listed on their Curriculum Vitae. Is this a good thing or not?
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Should software companies charge for maintenance agreements?
Monday, October 10th, 2011I was listening to the Radio 4 – The Bottom Line – again, recently ( I’m getting quite into R4 – must be an age thing)! The Chief Executive of Sage was on saying that they could almost give the software away as they make their money through the service agreements; is this right?
