Prices for database design/development ?

cableguy2003

cableguy2003

cableguy2003

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29 Jan 2003
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Oddball this one , i do this for my job but have never charged anyone externally to the company for doing it.

Ive had out quality bloke on asking me a rough price to design and implement a database that can run a backend and front end , based on 3 - 5 computers. Its going to be a sales order processing, production , depsatch system. SOP will be workstation based with a customer database inplace and listing the items they buy, then using vba a system put in place to work prices etc. etc.. out.

Production will be a pc and an external plasma screen , main computer there to work from and / or print the job sheets. Plasma will be for prodiction monitoring , times , capacity etc. etc..

Despatch quite simply will have a pc and printer with access to orders due and delivery addresses ,capability to print address labels based on the orders there and then a booking out section to record items that have left and how many , including a customer copy etc. etc.

Eventually a report system will be built to show orders frequency , values etc. but this will be an afterwards consultancy thing.


Im not necesarily going to do this as im quite busy as it is , but if my work were going to charge for my time/knowledge on this , roughly what would it be , per hour or day , or for the full system.

I know a few of you do similair things , possibly freelance so would be interested to see roughly what a company should charge for it.

Datbase will be access based and coded using vba, dont think sql at this level.

Cheers :)
 
I have no idea on pricing, but isn't this really sticky legal ground.

If you have been employed by your company to do something then the Intellectual Property is theirs, and if you re-use even 1% of it, either code or solution, then you are wide open to being sued by your employer.
 
Royal Fleet said:
I have no idea on pricing, but isn't this really sticky legal ground.

If you have been employed by your company to do something then the Intellectual Property is theirs, and if you re-use even 1% of it, either code or solution, then you are wide open to being sued by your employer.
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From the sounds of things he'd be still working for his company, but they would be charging an external company for the work.

If this is the case the surely your company would know the rates to charge rather than leaving it to you to decide though?
 
Haircut said:
From the sounds of things he'd be still working for his company, but they would be charging an external company for the work.

If this is the case the surely your company would know the rates to charge rather than leaving it to you to decide though?
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LOL , well no , we are a manufacturing company , not a software company so they never have paid or would normally charge someone for this sort of work :)
 
cableguy2003 said:
LOL , well no , we are a manufacturing company , not a software company so they never have paid or would normally charge someone for this sort of work :)
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I don't know how your company works, but usually you still have a daily rate for your IT services.

e.g.

Business wants particular project
IT estimates project effort
IT costs the project based on the time of required resources.
Business pays IT the amount required for the project.

It may be that your company doesn't use this model, but where you have an internal IT department separate from the business functions this is the way things usually work, so that the appropriate business unit pays for the IT resources that they use.

FWIW, the standard rate that my previous company charged me out at was £880 per day, that was as a senior technical consultant.

If you are going to be doing this for another company you need to think of the project management, testing, infrastructure, licencing costs etc. when doing your estimates.
I can't believe that your company doesn't do anything like this at present though.
 
Appreciate the help , but i dont understand whats hard to get across ?

The company isnt massive, we turn over 10 million a year, im the only IT guy here and get paid a sallary for what i do. What dont do intercompany charges for different departments :)

We all p**s in the same pot , so no idea why we would follow the above model , we would effectively be charging ourselves to do stuff.
 
in answer to your question, the price you put on the development should be based on time (development costs for this kind of thing is usually in the region of £25 - £45 per hour depending on the size of the project and expertise of the developers) - if a lot of the work has already been done, then factor that in.
 
It will be a new build with new code , prob just a couple of lookups and things copied over as subroutines things like that. Basically its the knowledge ive gained doing our current system they will be paying for, all the trial and error and seeing what works etc..
 
The most important figure you need is an estimate of how long it will take. You are probably best placed to come up with this figure having already 'prototyped' the system at your company. You also know your own skills and work rate.

A project like this will probably take a lot more time than you initially think. Time you may not have if you are the entirety of IT and busy as it is!

It may be an idea to sell the project in two phases.

1) Analysis/Design
Here you can leverage your domain knowledge to £££, ermm, I mean specify the system and hammer out exactly what they are looking for. This step is very important as it sets expectations and acts as a concrete record of what will and wont be delivered.

Without it you can bet scope creep will appear. "Can you just add this?", "What do you mean we don't get that? It's obvious we needed it!", "It will only take you five mins.."

2) Build/Test/UAT/Release
With step 1 complete you should be able to plug some realistic numbers into your estimate.

There is also a third step to think about
3) Support/Enhancements
Will they be able to look after the system once deployed?

How much to charge when they phone up saying something is behaving oddly and what priority will you give it compared to your normal responsibilities?


This may sound more formal than you were planning and to an extent it needs to be. In house projects are quite easy to extend, tweak, and fix on a piecemeal basis as the need arises.

Once deployed this application will have to stand by itself. A bug fix could easily take a day or more of your time if you have to travel to their site.

I always see the problems in everything so don't let me put you off too much :)

Just remember you are doing this on a commercial basis. The important figures are not what your hourly rate is but will that figure make an acceptable profit taking into account the various risks involved.
 
At work we're charging just shy of £15,000 for a system which deals with a warehouse and various customer "types", invoicing them accordingly, managing stock, finances, customer accounts and customer leads.

There's a workstation in the warehouse with the "pick sheet end" of the software and workstations upstairs with the "management end" for the accountants / managers - the system will basically manage their business along with Sage.

For a custom developed system that will completely automate what is currently heaps of paperwork, it's quite cheap, but it just so happens we have software already which will mould quite nicely into this shape. For that price we keep the rights to the code so can develop it as a generic resaleable piece of software. It's win-win that way - they get free updates for whatever term we agree on, and we win with a new product to sell.

ANYWAY as far as quoting goes, it might be best to sit down and spend some time getting some basic diagrams drawn so you can see the flow of things - then base your time around that at a certain hourly rate, asking yourself how long each section will take to complete. That'll also give you something to show the client, if they're interested. Edit: and just so I don't sound like a boon, that's only going to give you a very rough figure.
 
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