Business owners / Managers of Digital Agencies help needed

Izi · 12 Sep 2012 at 09:51

We have developed a Project/Task/Client management system designed specifically for the digital industry. Here is an overview of some of the features:

Client / Company management
Project management
On going / Maintenance management
Password safe for services (ftp/email/etc encrypted)
Task management (link to projects)
Website lists
A few others i'll not mention for now

We are using the system internally and the idea is eventually we offer it away for free for less than 2 users and then a standard monthly charge for bigger companies similar to basecamp.

The system tracks time spent against projects. In our system there are two types of projects:
1) Build
2) Maintenance

The build project would just be a standard project as you have in basecamp. You create tasks and tick them off.

The maintenance project is different. For maintenance projects you assign an amount of time that a client has purchased that can be used over the month. I.E projects which have on going work which need doing and clients have a set budget. This works by adding time to tasks (time tracking) and then it coming off the overall allocated time:

At the end of each month you are able to roll over time or choose what you would like to do with it. You can also purchase extra minutes and add them to that month.

So here are the questions we have:

1) Would it be better to allocate budget rather than time and then have the ability to add services. I.E you have a budget of £500 for client A and offer services A at £20/hour B at £50/hour and C at £60/hour. Therefore depending on the service offered will depend on how much budget is used, or should it just be plain old time based? Being time based is simpler but I assume that not everyone works the same
2) Are there any features you would really like out a system like this? I.E sales module, ticketing, website monitoring etc?
3) We will eventually need beta testers. If you are interested let me know.

Thanks for taking time to read.

Xelene · 12 Sep 2012 at 18:20

Better to integrate with existing apps rather than reinvent the wheel. Sales force would be a prime example.

Izi · 13 Sep 2012 at 10:42

Their pricing is expensive. £45+/user?!

Also, we are not reinventing the wheel. Well we are for the basic functionality but this system is aimed solely at digital agencies. We are not targeting other markets.

gord · 13 Sep 2012 at 11:52

I think he meant that digital agencies will be using SF for their pipelines etc and managing their projects in some form, in which case if your application integrated with that it would be of more value to agencies.

While I don't agree with the detail. I do think that he has a point in that agencies will surely have some form of CRM system and processes. How does your system fit in with those? Does it overlap? Can it replace another system?

From what you've told us, that system looks more appealing to freelancers who haven't got an established client management process.

Xelene · 13 Sep 2012 at 12:23

Was posting on the phone, so was a bit terse. Gord has what I was hinting at.

If you are selling your service to agencies and such, they are likely to have established systems either self hosted or cloud hosted that they use.

A big chunk of your userbase that's larger than a 1 man shop is likely to have settled on Salesforce or perhaps Sugar to do their CRM.

They may be using something like Harvest internally to track billable hours against a project.

You should be able to at least stub your application onto those sorts of things so you aren't duplicating functionality and data for people. (Frankly, i'd say focus on your core functionality and use those external services as ready made parts for your application.

If someone doesn't have a CRM then offer Sugar to them and integrate against that.

Something like Zendesk is a good example of what i'm driving at - they have a whole set of integrations for their product, and focus on doing what they do really well.

See: http://www.zendesk.com/apps

Dj_Jestar · 13 Sep 2012 at 12:50

I think it's unfair to say the OP has reinvented the wheel here.. more like he has developed his own car.

On the Q of budget vs time - perhaps offer both? User can set either/both and then both charts are available.

Have a look at the many burn-up charts examples that can be found to see what I mean.

Izi · 13 Sep 2012 at 13:31

Thanks for everyone's input, its nice to get an outside view on everything.

The reason why we developed this is because there was nothing on the market which suited our needs. We are a digital agency doing web / app / some print and so forth.

We need to track client requests, projects, tasks and importantly employee time against each project.

We also want to be able to track client services such as hosting, e-Marketing etc.

Whilst there are loads of project management / sales management / ticket management etc style systems out there, there isn't a one solution fits all for our market as far as I am aware.

I also know how important API access and integration with third party systems is to get people to switch / use multiple systems. It is our full intention to do this once we are happy with the base product.

We have designed the system so it runs like other SaaS systems so each account gets a therecompanyname.ourdomain.com and in future we will also allow them to just run their own domain fully.

@DJ Jester I think you are right, offering both methods is probably a good idea.

I think we should basically just release this as a free product and start getting people to give us feedback, thats the only true way to know if its going to work and what functionality everyone wants.

Xelene · 13 Sep 2012 at 18:57

I think you have the right idea. Put something out there and iterate it. I have no idea what the uptake is of people using SalesForce is or whatever. From my experience in Media it's low. Maybe drop a line to the Zendesk guys - they might have some insights.

Keep your options open, make it possible to hook in data stores later if you need to - but avoid making your stuff too generic so that it could theoretically support anything and everything.

If an important customer wants to hook into X then do it; from my understanding of your business model they'll be a core customer and it is more of a deal sweetener than anything else.