The Business End of Alpha Software for independent developers

[glenschild]

Re: The Business End of Alpha Software for independent developers

I am in that classification of "Independent Developer" and my clients are SME's 2 -150 staff various sizes and various markets. The vast majority of my clients have contracted me not because I use Alpha Five as a RAD for front end development, or because I use MS SQL or MySQL for the back end. They have contracted me because I invest time and effort into getting to understand exactly what it is they require by way of business processes and then delivering a solution that is right for them.

As well as being a member of IADN which certainly adds credibility I am also a member of a local chapter of Business Networking International (BNI) and that alone provides a steady trickle of qualified referrals BUT more importantly provides third party testimonials of the quality of the work I can deliver. Having another individual or organisation publicy saying how good you are is far more powerful than saying it yourself!

Alpha Five although massively important to me for the rapid development capability has yet to a deal breaker for me but that could be because of the business size range I work with. Alpha Five is just a part of the overall package. I have no doubt that if I was in the market for larger businesses it then comes more into play but then I would have a whole other bunch of factors to take into consideration. 75% of my work is with browser based applications but there is still some desktop work. It boils down to what is right for the client.

Happy to get involved in an online meeting to discuss sales development for independent developers.

[DaveM]

Re: The Business End of Alpha Software for independent developers

I may be opening a can of worms here, but I see others coming up with these steps in a little different fashion:

1 . Meet and Greet
First Contact with your potential client
This may not even be a face to face or even a phone conversation
Client's first impression could be a web page, an ad, etc
2 . Qualify - May be the biggest part of this
Find out what they NEED
What they want
What they can afford
If this is done correctly - they have told you their whole life and business is short order.
3 . Present your product
Do Not Lie - big deal( I have a true story at the end of this)
Show all your best features with emphasis on the parts that will greatly benefit them as the user
4 . Demonstrate the product
Know the operation of your product inside and out and make sure they do too.
5 . Discuss with the client/board of directors/etc the best solution for them even if it not yours
6 . Ask for the sale - If you did steps 1 - 5 correctly, there is at least a 50/50 chance you win. Even if another application may have been just as good.
7 . Close it down

I always sold cars from the age of ten on my own. In 1971(as a master mechanic) I found I was allergic to grease and could no longer do mechanical repairs. I went and applied as a car salesman. I was hired immediately and sent to GM training school. I spent 2 weeks in Charlotte, NC. Upon returning to work, I spent another week learning all the paper work. They put me on "the sales floor" to showcase my skills at misleading, lying, and turning things in all kinds of ways. Problem was, I spent 1 day selling a car with 2 days covering and getting out of all the problems. I sat down and analyzed it. On returning on Monday, I went back to my original self. I showed the customer the vehicle completely, with all the good stuff, the dents and explained to the client how to take care of the car and what he might want to look for in the future. NO LIES, just salesmanship!
It worked, I doubled my sales immediately.

I do put my software on the shelves as prepackaged to some degree.
The car racing program is on a web site and who would know? I went to all the auto racing forums across the country that I could find and posted a message with a picture/url and it has worked. Yes, if you search it on google, you may find it(still working on that one)

The carlot apps I made were for my on use and I wound up selling them to other sales people(cheap) I knew and it kinda expanded. Dealerships started seeing them and liked them, so I got into a part time business.

I made 6 figures in the car business and a little less in software for the car business.

One point can be drawn from this(to me). Do apps in what you know best.

In about 1990, I was approached by a friend to write an app for an oil company. He asked if I could and it was all yes. He said I needed to send in a proposal with an amount . I suggested around 500.00, whereupon he suggested 10,000 and that less would never get it. He also suggested a 30 days to mock up demo and 90 day completion(it was no a large app). I did as he said and got the contract. The job too a total of 3 weeks part time. Another oil company came after me for the same app and it was the same price. When the third came want a few changes, They paid 12,000.

Nobody New about alpha then, anywhere.

I will be in there to help as best as I can.

[Steve Wood]

Re: The Business End of Alpha Software for independent developers

It will still be a couple days before I have the survey. I am complimenting it with some new MyAccount fields on IADN so we can keep track of individuals as well as the survey answer.

Although Sellling is certainly part of the solution, my first thought is how we take advantage of the fact that there are 10,000+ of us (so they say) interested in earning revenue using Alpha Five. How can we coordinate our actions to help the clients come to us, rather than having it be a hard sell.

[mronck]

Re: The Business End of Alpha Software for independent developers

I guess Alpha Software has manoeuvred themselves into the position it is in now, market-wise:

They have always promoted Alpha to be the tool that offered you the ability to create database solutions "without coding". Easy and Fast. Anybody could do it.
And without now starting a discussion about whether that is true or not: that attracts a specific type of customers.

When you look at the typical Alpha Five customer now (the result of that marketing approach) you will see that most of the customers are users that build applications for their own (mostly small) companies. For internal use, to solve some kind of business problem or to take care of some kind of business process. That customer is not typically even going to market this solution anywhere. He builds, he uses. Most of these type of customers will fit in the category "small business offices". This type of customer will normally only visit this forum when they get into any kind of problem and are looking for solutions. They will hardly ever post solutions for problems from other users. The are loyal to Alpha, since the already have a solution written in Alpha and do not know of any other tool that would provide for them what Alpha does. I guess, this description reflects the bulk of Alpha's customers.

Next, you have the developer who uses Alpha to build not for himself, but for others. He either produces "off shelve" software that he sells, or he uses Alpha to work on projects on customer specs. Typically, these are what you call "the specialists". They are often to be found on this forum, and often offer solutions to problems of others. Their knowledge of Alpha is on average outstanding. In most cases they build desktop applications, and a considerable percentage of those developers have also migrated to the web application, or they do them both. Whatever the customer wants them to do. The developer customer comes in many colors: they vary from developers who started out as "small business office customer" but found that they had a hack of a solution that could be sold to others and started to do so, to highly professional developers that are focused on software development as their main business. In the last versions of Alpha we again met "a new type" of customers: those who don't and did not ever build Alpha desktop applications but started with Alpha to develop web apps. Most of those are professionals as well. Most of the independent developers work for small to medium businesses. Only a handful works for medium to large companies, say starting with 200 fte. These high end developers suffer the most from the image that Alpha has build up for themselves.

The type of customer that Alpha always have promoted their product for has made it possible for Alpha to survive. It was a good marketing concept for Alpha that set them apart from the rest of the competition, and it helped Alpha trough the past decades up to the point that it is what it is today. It did not only "survive", but it did also "evolve". It grew over the past years and we saw more and more specialists introduced in Alpha's staff, as I recall it starting with Lenny Forziati. So, I do not say the market positioning of Alpha has been "a bad thing". It has not. But it did have its consequences.

One of those consequences is, that the professional market in the past kept away from it. "Without coding", "Easy" all pointed in the "hobby" direction. The marketing was never pointed against how suitable it was for professional use. It rather pointed towards how "anybody" could build amazing things with it.

So as said, not bad for Alpha at all. But the professional developer now has to live with its consequences: nobody offers jobs for Alpha Developers on the labor-market. Would you be a .NET developer, you could get to work right today and earn a decent living doing so. There are hardly any Alpha developers on someone else's payroll at this point in time.

I do believe however, this is about to change. As Alpha Software presses forward (which they do!) they will gain up with the "professional software" but maintaining their "low end accessibility". In future I predict that Alpha Five will cover the complete business column from low-end to high-end.
This started several years ago I believe with v6 or somewhere when Alpha started to attach to SQL databases. The introduction of Ajax in Alpha was a major breakthrough on the Boston Conference back then. Developers were thrilled, unanimously. This development has set trough. Nowadays, we will find a lot of current high-tech features embedded in Alpha offering customers almost whatever they need, being able to connect to professional databases. In future, this will include mobile devices and tablets which again stretches Alpha's presence further upward in the development column.

This will all reflect to the professional business branch in time. You already see NOW that professional developers start to work with the web application section without being hindered by the "Do It Yourself" image that Alpha once has brought over themselves. My guess is, that this will expand in the future, and that Alpha's market position towards the traditional professional tooling will improve drastically. As long as Alpha is able to maintain a good balance in developing new sections and maintaining and improving "older sections", this will further stretch the usability of Alpha Five. The "good balance" however is crucial in this. Should it be the case that the desktop section is left behind, that will bring not a "stretch" of usability but a "shift" instead. I do not think that would be wise, but that is only my idea.

In between, we need to think what we can do to increase our professional options in the market for now, and how we can create a structure that will take in any new developers from the professional corner in the near future since those WILL come on board. Their skill set and demands however are very different from that of the SOHO-user, or independent Alpha developer. So the "structure" we choose to create should be offering things for both.

As far as Alpha Software Inc. is concerned, it would be a good thing if they would emphasize their marketing efforts more on the professional functions of Alpha Five, how it connects to or uses the professional market standards and a little bit less on the fact that "you need no coding". Maybe it is time for Alpha to set the next step in the evolution of not only their product, but also in the marketing concept behind it. Since if professional development companies and departments are going to use it, this will bring a market of its own: jobs for developers will start to be generated, business solutions for larger companies will be built with it rather natively instead of alternatively.

In between, this planned conference gives us, as Alpha developers, an option to discuss what WE can do to improve our own future with Alpha. We also have a responsibility, you can't always solely point to Alpha's management and say: "take care of it for us". We need to step up and discuss what we can do today, that may serve us tomorrow. We are in it together, we all use the same boat. So this is the moment where we bundle forces and ideas to see what is the best way to improve our chances on the market.

[TPeterson]

Re: The Business End of Alpha Software for independent developers

Marcel, an interesting and well thought out post. Personally, I am the first customer/user type you mentioned...I build applications for my own use within our company, although I am in the corporate finance department, not IT (we're a $2.4B, publicly traded real estate investment trust...but with only 25 FTEs). Over the years I would go back and forth trying to develop solutions in Access, Filemaker and Alpha Five, but then always ended up back using Excel! It wasn't until I started using the web components in v11 that the benefits of Alpha really stood out for me and I started developing some very useful apps. As a result, our real IT guy (who always seems caught up in server maintenance rather than development) is aware of Alpha Five, and we're soon going to become a subscriber. How this relates to your post is that users such as myself become allies and advocates of Alpha within organizations should the need for larger and more complex development be required. Although, given Alpha's new subscription pricing going forward, they will be forced to market to the professional developers and IT departments, because users like me won't commit that large a sum to play around with something out of curiosity and hoping it may work.

[Clipper87]

Re: The Business End of Alpha Software for independent developers

Marcel,

I could not have said that any better and I do agree with your view! Now watch even more pro developers flocking to alpha as v12 or Alpha Anwhere as it will be called comes available with all the mobile stuff!

[preston2]

Re: The Business End of Alpha Software for independent developers

Marcel, an interesting and well thought out post. Personally, I am the first customer/user type you mentioned...I build applications for my own use within our company, although I am in the corporate finance department, not IT (we're a $2.4B, publicly traded real estate investment trust...but with only 25 FTEs). Over the years I would go back and forth trying to develop solutions in Access, Filemaker and Alpha Five, but then always ended up back using Excel! It wasn't until I started using the web components in v11 that the benefits of Alpha really stood out for me and I started developing some very useful apps. As a result, our real IT guy (who always seems caught up in server maintenance rather than development) is aware of Alpha Five, and we're soon going to become a subscriber. How this relates to your post is that users such as myself become allies and advocates of Alpha within organizations should the need for larger and more complex development be required. Although, given Alpha's new subscription pricing going forward, they will be forced to market to the professional developers and IT departments, because users like me won't commit that large a sum to play around with something out of curiosity and hoping it may work.

I am also a small developer but I develop niche apps for small industry and sell the same app to a lot of companies. I will say that if Alpha's subscription only option does become a reality I will be forced to move to something else. My customers could care less what the app was developed with. They only care that it works.

I have scanned through the post in this thread and the one thing I do not grasp is the comments about "nobody has heard of Alpha" when if you can believe Alpha's main page a lot of world wide massive corporations are using Alpha developed solutions. These corporations are in virtually every free nation in the world so I cannot see how some of these countries claim that no one has heard of Alpha or does not have the ability to say that "X corporation uses it here and they are world wide". I know this means nothing to governments as most of them have there heads stuck in the past but does mean that the business world should listen and allow you to develop with Alpha.

[TPeterson]

Re: The Business End of Alpha Software for independent developers

As a non-professional developer/user, one area where I can see definite demand for professional developers is in mentoring, and "cleaning-up" the messes us non-professionals make. I know there are developers on the board who do charge for mentoring, and maybe they are cleaning up messes at the same time. In my case, which is probably not atypical, I have a nice tabbed-ui, web based app that works great for me. However, as I think about expanding my app to others within the company, I'm not confident that my back-end database (MS SQL Server) is properly configured/optimized/backing up, secured, etc., I would seek help in making sure my Alpha web security framework is properly configured and taking into account scenarios that non-professionals may not consider. In essence, I would probably like a professional "audit" of my application to make sure that as it grows it's on a firm foundation. This may not be the desired $5k-$50k development engagement many would like, but it may be a way to enhance a business and get a foot in the door.

[Ted Giles]

Re: The Business End of Alpha Software for independent developers

As usual, I am sobbing in my beer.

Fanfare.
A lot of this thread is about sales, well, when my target was �1 million a year, (true – I was MD and even my developers had targets), I beat it 7 years running. Thing was that I had a decent advertising budget and provided solutions – not getting hung up on platforms. Everybody sells was the motto,

Opportunity.
Fortunately I’m on fee earning work at the moment and a condition of the contract is that I get an instance of Alpha to use. “Why not use this” said someone and sent me an Access database which had taken 5 days to construct. I did more in one day and with more functionality so no, Access is too long winded – but it’s FREE! (Well it’s “all included in the price”).

Prototyping and the customer.
My site, kindly hosted by Custom Report Writers makes a statement that Prototyping is free to the point of agreement. I stand by that statement and have never had a client back out of a development that they were involved in.

Visibility.
Alpha is invisible as far as IT techies outside of the immediate community are concerned.

IADN.
Steve and the other members do sterling work, but the question I asked as to how much work was actually generated by being a member didn’t really get answered. Look at the Alpha demographics to see where the developers are.

I hate tea and biscuits meetings, so I’d be pleased to see an agenda which includes Alpha management presentation on how we are all going to make a fortune, and how they will be assisting us to do just that.
(Paying for referrals, Commission per sale, Marketing Support, Regular REAL advertising not just web stuff. etc.) We seem to be on their side, not sure they are so obviously on ours.

You are on your own.
The UK sales thing doesn’t seem to have worked too well and no response to my mail to Richard on this subject but it might be sub-judicial.

[DaveM]

Re: The Business End of Alpha Software for independent developers

Hi Ted,

Now that I am not the one breaking the ice, but one that is making the hole much larger. Thank you Ted.

I will as stated earlier, help anybody here with sales ability, etc.

Steve's idea is for US(including steve) push the alpha brand. That is not my thoughts at all. Period! It is Alpha's business to promote alpha. It should be their ideas in advertising, their money in advertising, their rewards for advertising. I see no reason to spend time and maybe money furthering a brand that I use, but do not own.

As stated above, The it guys do not see alpha branding on the data files residing on a server. The runtime is on a different computer(generally) used by an employee /or.

IADN(no disrespect meant here) derives much of it's business from alpha in a few ways. This is great for IADN and Alpha.

As a salesperson in a Dealership, I made 25% of the profit generated off my sales. They supplied customers, tools, merchandise and everything needed for my success. Last I checked, alpha wanted a much higher percentage when you threw in all the costs. yeah, they kept about 40% after you paid a yearly fee to be considered for the work. You still had to do the work, sell the job, buy the tools to get it done, pay for a place to work. Rented desk space, with a desk, phone, computer, services, licenses, insurance, etc costs a minimum of 56,000 a year.

I will listen to the bric-a-brac before saying the rest.

[mronck]

Re: The Business End of Alpha Software for independent developers

As usual, I am sobbing in my beer.

I hope you enjoy it!

IADN.
Steve and the other members do sterling work, but the question I asked as to how much work was actually generated by being a member didn’t really get answered. Look at the Alpha demographics to see where the developers are.

The thing is, that you can safely assume that the advertising budget of IADN is a lot less then that of Alpha Software, and even they can't get their product accepted by the professional industry (yet) or make your typical customer interested in Alpha.
IADN will probably not spend money on straight-to-the-customer advertising. Hence, they rely on people typing in "Alpha Five" in Google. The typical customer however does not even know what that is to begin with. So you do not have to expect that a membership of IADN will deliver a huge stream of customers or orders at your doorstep.

I am considering membership myself at the moment, and have asked Steve to get me some figures on the turnover that for the membership in general was generated through the membership of IADN. But personally, I do not think you should do it for THAT reason, because I strongly suspect you will be disappointed then.

However, I believe that there is much to be gained in working together as professional developers and see whether you can improve the situation in general. For instance by facilitating members in some kind of objective certification which could be done through the notary. There are other options.

My problem with these type of "organisations" typically is, that it all starts of enthusiastically but very soon suffers from lack of results and then dies. The "Alpha Guild" comes to mind. A similar organisation which went out like a nightcandle. In the beginning many enthusiastic members, but soon it was all over and I never heard of it anymore.
These things can only work if you organize them professionally and with all due respect: that requires a bit more then just a gathering of people on the internet having a site and a forum together and be jolly.

Doing nothing is no solution, doing it "not quite right" isn't either, and is probably doing more harm then good (by which I do not specifically mean IADN !).

Alpha is invisible to "the IT world's techies" because they never invested in that, and maybe never intended to be visible there at all. It might just be a matter of choosing the market.

[DaveM]

Re: The Business End of Alpha Software for independent developers

If I gave a wrong impression of IADN, I think it is a wonderful organization that is much needed.

I agree that people do not know to type in "Alpha Five" in google. I definitely would not show up there anyhow. What developer is going to be found by typing in access/filemaker/etc into google?? If you type in Freev veteran diabetes, I will show up on the first page. If you type in Ups logs, I will be in the first few pages(usually the 2nd page).

It is my belief that: IADN, gets some of their leads directly from alpha where people, corporations have asked for a programmer. Alpha does not have the manpower to do those apps and keep making alpha. Some have come from the board(forum). Some of the business is gotten by other means. I have no problem with any of that. It is all good business for all.

IT Techies will become aware of alpha when it is taught in the schools of our nation. I have beat on that for as long as I have been around alpha. It has been listened to on a very small percent of the time. If the techies use it in the schools, it becomes embedded in their minds and softens the path for the developer when he tries to introduce it to a business. After all, what smart business man/corporation would sign up for an alpha program before talking it through with their IT department? The school system is where the promotions need to start!

Where would Apple have been without the schools systems? They gave at cost to get their systems into the schools and it paid off with both teachers and students having a strong preference for apple. IBM/micosoft followed in almost too late.

Marcel is right about doing nothing or doing the wrong thing is a waste of time. Ok, so which way is better? I do not think it is wise to try and promote alpha ourselves. I do not get paid in any way for that. If I put them on my website as a link, I get nothing when someone goes to alpha and buys the product, not even a thank you.

Would it be a better idea if alpha software placed themselves out there on places like commission junction? I have other advertisers on my pages by way of commission junction and they pay money.

3 levels of advertising:
1 direct sales
2 indirect sales
3 name recognition
All of these need to lead to sales.

[DaveM]

Re: The Business End of Alpha Software for independent developers

OOps

[Ted Giles]

Re: The Business End of Alpha Software for independent developers

Sorry Dave, I load 'em - I know you fire 'em
Given that there are 10,000 users (?) and some have a website, what about a fee for a pass though ?
I'll dip out now before Lenny gets me.

[DaveM]

Re: The Business End of Alpha Software for independent developers

Lenny?? He has gotten me before, but I never intentionally made souring comments unless warranted.

I am not intentionally making them now. I just want people think and clarify the goals and make sure they are "firing their guns" where it is needed. It is hard to go bird hunting with a slingshot, but it can be done. If bird hunting, one should not fire at the reflection in the water, but at the bird in flight.

what about a fee for a pass though

I think you are referring to pay per click. I get paid for actual sales at the web store.
See, alpha has nothing to lose. If someone comes from my site to theirs and buys within 90 days, I get a little commission. If they wait 6 months, I get nothing. Simple.

More importantly, you get name recognition and some indirect sales.