Tag Archive for ‘project management’ at diversity.net.nz

This morning I spoke with Hawaii based company PHASE 2 International. PHASE 2 is an interesting business that has several strings to their bow that span horizontal platforms as well as discrete vertical industry groups. They have a diverse customer base, from Fortune 500 companies through to SMEs, but have been pleasantly surprised at the uptake of their offerings by larger organisations they feel that this might be as a result of their history as IT consultants in the enterprise space.

The Phase two platform play

PHASE 2 have set themselves the task of becoming a platform aggregator bringing together disparate applications and providing them to SMEs. They rightly recognise that a “one stop shop” approach is attractive to SMEs and to this end have put together a broad range of offerings to fill out the functionality requirement. Their current offerings include;

Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS) - the workflow automation, collaboration process and content management that PHASE 2 believes is most a palatable to the marketplace
Microsoft CRM - Like the fact or not, Enterprise and larger SMEs live within the constraints of Microsoft products. To this end PHASE 2 chose the MS CRM offering, especially due to its integration capabilities with the other MS offerings (especially Outlook)
Microsoft Exchange - Again, PHASE 2 chose the email solution that integrates most seamlessly with the MS suite of products
Microsoft project - In an interesting implementation, PHASE 2 offers MS Project via SaaS. Project managers will still need an installed copy of the app, but once the project is planned, it can be uploaded to the Phase2 SaaS platform from where it can be viewed by the project participants

I was a little sceptical about MS Project as a SaaS application, it still requires the lead PM to have an installed copy of the app and due to this can’t really be called pure-play SaaS. That said however, for customers who use project as a resource allocation and time management tool, the functionality that PHASE 2 offers should suffice.

The Phase2 vertical plays

In a solutions that has some similarities to those of Widen.com who I reviewed a few weeks ago, PHASE 2 offers ShareCAD a tool to allow collaboration for AutoCAD files. PHASE 2 explained to me the problems architects and other building and design professionals have when attempting to collaborate on CAD files. This difficulty is exacerbated by the way AutoCAD works, linking multiple referenced files within one file. ShareCAD takes care of this by performing the following actions,

The ShareCAD offering sounds like a valuable tool for those in the industry, I also couldn’t help but thing that the functionality would be equally applicable to a graphic design/publishing environment where referenced files, version control and ability to control access, are all valuable tools.

What’s in the Pipeline?

PHASE 2 shared with me a couple of offerings that are come in the next few months.

The first is a vertical medical billing product, PHASE 2 told me that up to 30% of the total of a medical invoice is accrued in the logistics of raising the invoice. To this end Phase2 are creating a solution that tracks items from multiple provider, allows for externally referenced filed (see a theme here?) and outputs an invoice that complies with regulatory requirements.

Second up is a IP based Biometric timeclock. PHASE 2 is developing both the hardware and software that will allow them to deploy a physical item within a workplace that employees then use with a biometric signature (thumbprint) and pass code. The data is then transferred to PHASE 2’s SaaS solution where it is posted to a SaaS payroll solution.

PHASE 2 are also investigating options with regards a SaaS accounting solution. It’ll be a third party product as they recognise that building an accounting application from scratch is a tough job.

Pricing

CRM runs to USD55/month for one user, USD440 for 10
Project is USD55/month for one user, USD500 for 10

This seems within the ballpark of the competition, I’d assume that PHASE 2 would show some efficiencies (and price drops) for customers investing in multiple solutions from them.

Summary

It looks good! PHASE 2 are rapidly building out a end-to end ecosystem for SMEs and larger organisations, meanwhile they’ve developed some nice solutions for verticals and should capture a good market share within those verticals.

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Our SaaS business focuses on a project management solution we rent to a global userbase (servers in the USA, the business is remotely run from NZ). No matter how hard we drive home the ‘Value & ROI’ message, there’s always a large number of ‘Price driven’ customers as we all know. The way to a price driven customers’ heart is education, not price cutting!

Price driven SaaS customers these days need to understand that SaaS software pricing does have real overheads behind it. The Simplicity of a SaaS business to a customer is a facade that actually hides the complexity of systems, material and resources needed to create a simple front end user experience… To explain further…

The shift to SaaS: Interestingly enough, in the old days (5-10yrs+ ago) the customer side (web and application development) of business would be a complex procedure for a one-off project, with sites often built by a business with a simple resource/skill base (designer+developer) and they’d charge heaps.

ie: Customer (Complexity) + Web Business (Simplicity)
= Revenue (High, one-off fees)
= Fast income, non scalable/sustainable model

Nowadays, we offer the clients a simpler tool and user/sales experience. However, as we have to charge less through market pricing shifts, the real money is made on margin and scale. Automation and infrastructure solves these, however comes with a cost of behind the scenes complexity and technology costs.

So the equation now looks like this:

ie: Customer (Simplicity) + Web Business (Complexity behind)
= Revenue (Slow, recurring fees)
= Slow income, scalable/sustainable model

To show this in a real world example, find out below what goes into our SaaS based project management software company’s latest V6 ProWorkflow software release!

Disclaimer: Firstly, I should just point out that when not blogging for diversity.net.nz, I’m also CEO of ProWorkflow.com (ProActive Software ) and do understand that all software companies manage software releases differently. This is simply an example of how ProActive Software handles releases.

We’ve been working away on a new version 6.0 release of our flagship product www.proworkflow.com. This isn’t just a few updates, it’s a fairly solid new release with over 100 updates and pieces of functionality added. The main focus is on improving usability, speed and customer ROI. One of the mistakes we made was telling the user base there was a new release on the way! Now every day we get “When’s it coming? Is it late? Can you include this and that? or another common comment… “Why is it taking so long? It’s only an update?”

It was these type of comments that prompted me to write this post so I could show people the amount of work that goes into a release The following is a glimpse into ’some’ of the thinking and effort needing consideration just to “Roll out V6″.

Customer Feedback

Throughout the year, customer feedback relating to functionality and usability is collected through various means. Emails, forms, calls, testimonials, sales calls etc. We file away the comments of interest in a document, categorised by the sections in the ProWorkflow application. When we do a minor release, we pick a few items of the list.

For a major release we pick the top 50-100 requests that are frequently requested. There are many hundreds of requests that either get dismissed or scheduled to a later release. We make sure no requests are contradictory and that they make sense to add to the core application. We aim to add generic features where possible.

Planning the Functionality

What goes in V6.0, 6.1, 6.1 etc? We always prioritise urgent needs of the masses first, then other needs, throw in a few ‘nice to haves’ and try to hold back on minor functionality for smaller updates later. Major releases (ie: V3, V4, V5 etc) are ‘database releases’ so we add any new tables to the database needed in this release rather than the smaller regular updates.

When we have the desired list, developers give us estimated times per task and these are entered into our personal version of www.proworkflow.com to manage the project. Our core product ProWorkflow is web based project management software, so we may as well use it for ourselves! Also, this way we’re testing the solution at the same time as we’re working in it! Cunning way to test usability too…

Planning Development Timeframes

We take a development list, which has been itemised and times assigned. When this has been put into ProWorkflow, the developers start working through it all. The most important aspect of keeping to the development timeframe is keeping tight communication with the developers. Every day or two we talk with the developers, see what’s been completed and look forward to the deadline to make sure there’s enough resource and hours to meet it.

In this industry, it’s always difficult to meet deadlines as unexpected complexities can arise when working on a complex application, however, through tight communication with developers and daily checking of the development plan we’re able to keep on track. The direct and real time visibility of progress through ProWorkflow makes this easy.

Development

When working on the ProWorkflow application, we prefer to use small tight teams. We do not want large teams of developers working over the top of each other causing errors or programming with different methodologies. Our lead developer and CTO Alan Barlow is the guru behind the ProWorkflow code base. Alan determines what he’ll work on personally and what others do (staff or contractors).

Testing

As we use the ProWorkflow solution for our own internal projects, the team are always testing in a live environment. In addition we have a small group of heavy usage customers that enjoy being early adopter test monkeys. Between the select group of 10 customers there are approximately 100+ users. These users create a combined few hundred projects and few thousand tasks and time records a week. So if there are any issues or bugs, we’ll know about them pretty fast. One of the great perks and opportunities with SAAS (Software as a Service) is that issues spotted can be easily and quickly fixed, applied to a live account, and then rolled over other accounts in a maintenance update. No need to notify the user, just apply the patch. Often we apply a patch live that fixes an issue a customer has never seen or improves a feature’s usability. It’s seamless ongoing development!

Pricing

With every major release (typically annually), the solutions’ pricing is reviewed For the past 3 years we’ve kept pricing as is - we’re currently reviewing pricing again pre V6. As much as we want to keep the pricing affordable, we also have to keep in mind that businesses don’t run on good intentions. In addition the tool provides great ROI to the companies using it so should have a relative value. So… the factors we consider when pricing ProWorkflow are:

Value/ROI to the customer
Technical Infrastructure (Servers, networks, comms etc)
Support Infrastructure
Research, development and ongoing development
Scalability/Sustainability
Competitor pricing and feature sets

Support

When the V6 upgrade is released, there will be some new functionality. Even though this will be documented in the Knowledgebase, we’ll still receive calls and emails about the upgrade at a higher rate than normal. This puts extra pressure on support staff so we need to be prepared with quick answers and help docs.

Website Content Changes

The ProWorkflow website has a fair number of pages needing updating when the V6 product is launched. The following will need to be updated: Features, benefits, FAQ’s, packages, overview, all screenshots, version numbers, upgrade pages etc…

Update Knowledgebase (Online help guide)

A huge job, but an important one. There are 100+ tweaks to the ProWorkflow product. When you consider that 1 tweak may be referenced in 5-10 places in the knowledgebase, you start to understand that it’s a sizeable task. The knowledgebase is a strategic asset as the better it’s written, the less email and phone support we’ll receive. Self help means quicker support for the customer and less support infrastructure required at our end.

Whitepapers

We have a couple of whitepapers that give a brief overview of the solution. These will need to be read through and modified as needed.

Trial Account Master Code

When companies sign up for a Free trial account, the system sets this up from a master code package. This code package needs updating with the latest V6 code. The demo system then needs re-testing.

Subscription Account Master Code

When companies sign up for a Subscription account, the system sets this up from a master code package. This code package needs updating with the latest V6 code also. We have quite a few servers so the master code will need to be updated across all the servers.

Upgrade Packages & Downloads

In addition to Subscription accounts, the ProWorkflow software is also available as a code download to install on a local server. The master packages will need to be updated and the upgrade packages will need to include a new script to add the new V6 tables to the database when installed.

Update All Billing Systems

Depending on pricing or product options, the billing system may need to be tweaked. This would affect the Signup form, payment pages and account and billing pages in the Client Area.

Upgrade Current Subscription Accounts

When a new major upgrade is ready to deploy, we do this in a phased rollout over the customer base. The reason is simple - if there are any bugs we’ve missed, we’ll pick them up early, fix them and roll out further. In addition, we do the phased rollout to stop any new release from having a heavy support load over the initial week. The beauty of a SAAS model is that we can update customer accounts quickly. The downside is that if you rollout an error quickly you can easily affect a large number of customers. So planning a phased upgrade rollout is definitely the safe way to go.

Marketing

Newsletters
A few newsletters will be emailed out to the mailing list talking about the V6 release and new functionality.
Press Releases
We’ll write a handful of releases about the new product. These will be sent or syndicated to both local and global news sources.

Project Management

Someone has to manage all this! Easy, We use our own http://www.proworkflow.com/ solution for our project management of new releases. See a screen shot (below) showing the huge project task list and timeline. There’s about 100+ tasks on the V6 development alone, and keep in mind this can increase if any of the new update code affects other parts of the application. So effective project management is a key part of getting a release out…

Here’s the ProWorkflow Project screenshot for the V6 release

ProWorkflow - Project Management Software screenshot

Author: Julian Stone - http://www.julian101.com/