Question: SaaS Platform Development Costs / TAT

[Resolution10]

Hey all,

In short, a partner of mine had their idea approved at a conceptual level and has the opportunity to access some venture capital. He however is more of a sales guy, and I'd be helping in another aspect but I'm far from being "code-savvy" myself.

So question is how to feed ideas into an actual execution when the project is assigned to a development company? And even before you can select a company, the software dev guys should be aware of what you want precisely in order to quote you first.

I understand prices may vary significantly, but as a very rough estimate how much would platforms like rioseo, conductor, analyticsseo, seoclarity etc. cost? 100k, 200k? Just for the initial deployment / development of course.

Any thoughts would be highly appreciated, and if anyone is more familiar with all this hit me up and let's have a chat.

Thanks

 

[loedown]

This can vary wildly.

One thing you absolutely have to do is hire someone that is experienced in product management and adapt a work flow such as agile. It is crucial to keep devs on track.

 

[9to5destroyer]

It would be difficult to give you a rough cost without a scope of what your trying to do, there's also a lot of other variables such as number of users to support, if you will support in-house once project completed etc.

First stage is to create a user requirement specification detailing specifically what you need and how it will function. This should be completed in-house and the final version should be used for quotation. Don't forget to include key performance indicators such as uptime etc.

I would also stick to the user requirement specification so it needs to include everything. Project delays and additional costs are often down to something that wasn't considered at the start and often cost 2 or 3 times the cost trying to implement at a late stage.

Don't go with the temptation to go cheap of course aim to get the best price but if the price seems to good to be true it often is and the dev company might not have the experience or full understand what there getting themselfs into.
Also it sounds like your looking to drop six figures plus so make sure your contract is water tight, additional costs can mount up also staged payments based on milestones shouldn't be a issue for most reputable dev company.

If no one has experience on your team to manage a large software project I would recommend bringing someone in on a temp basis when you get into six figures unforeseen problems can cost a lot.

You will also need to consider how you will support in the long run if your operating a SaaS and factor these costs in, if your not managing in-house.

thanks
9to5

 

[IamNRE]

$30k+.

Time frame 30-60 days+.

 

[archon10]

Nobody can help with the info you've just given.

The best thing to do before you start programming is hire someone to work with you to create some technical and business requirements. This document should be well thought out and it will define exactly what you want.

You then show this to developers to get an idea of costs.

If you have no idea how to manage a development project, I highly suggest you get a project manager who knows what he's doing. I've seen so many failed projects because people have no idea how software is built. They hand off their idea to the cheapest overseas developer and when it comes back a mess and can't be used, they basically lose their asses. Be smart. Good enterprise development costs money, and it will cost you less in the end to hire a good team rather than go cheap with some guy in India or Pakistan.

The initial documentation investment is well worth it.

 

[Resolution10]

Thanks all.

I never even thought any of us would lead the actual development process, of course we would hire an experienced project manager and would get people in-house to manage the platform after initial completion.

I imagine the amount of potential implications and the contracts' milestones / clauses that need to be taken into consideration. In general, I was just looking for a very, very basic and rough estimate of what a basic SaaS product development would cost and what I'm getting myself into.

$30k+.

Time frame 30-60 days+.

Nice one Pretty sure 30k and 60 days alone would only cover the comms processes.

 

[Deleted member 364366]

I'm a few steps a head of you - currently mid-development.

Feel free to drop me a PM if you'd like to bounce ideas around.

 

[lancis]

You get the initial front end from here:
http://themeforest.net/category/site-templates/admin-templates
Thats 25$ and ~4 hours of your time.

Now the only thing left is the back end. You'll understand better what you need after you'll write an https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_requirements_specification. Skip the GUI (as you already have the front end template) and concentrate on functionality.

Thats 0$ and 1-2 weeks of your time.

Once the SRS is ready you can send it all over the world to get price quotes. which depending on the functionality can range from $500 to a couple of millions (just for the case you plan to create the next Google).

 

[archon10]

Thanks all.

I never even thought any of us would lead the actual development process, of course we would hire an experienced project manager and would get people in-house to manage the platform after initial completion.

I imagine the amount of potential implications and the contracts' milestones / clauses that need to be taken into consideration. In general, I was just looking for a very, very basic and rough estimate of what a basic SaaS product development would cost and what I'm getting myself into.



Nice one Pretty sure 30k and 60 days alone would only cover the comms processes.

lol looks like you can already smell bullshit. Good job and sounds like you're much better educated than the common schmoe on here. No one can give you a time frame and cost from what you posted. However, with your PM and laid out requirements documentation, you can pretty much nail time and costs.

Just watch out for the common overseas cheap developers who will lowball you at something like $20-$30/hour but double the time frame. This is pretty common. For the most part, you only get about 4 hours of hardcore development out of a developer in a day. Nobody codes 8 hours a day without slopping something together. Good coders need time to design, ask questions, meetings, breaks, etc. You don't want a developer who works in some sweat shop slopping code together for 10 hours a day. You want the guy who will kill it in 4 hours and needs a break.

Of course, he still needs to give you a time frame, but you want good code that might take a bit longer than sloppy code done in a few weeks.

 

[IamNRE]

No need for name calling.

Its hard to say what it would cost, but you can have an idea based on what others have spent on creating software.

In any case, good luck to you... I suggest you hire your coders from East Europe or South America.

You'll be able to find good talent in both those regions for decent price.

Ideally you'd want to create a small MVP version, prove the concept, prove the demand (and you want to keep that as low as possible).... then once that is proven you can go to investors and present your team and your proof of demand and raise the tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands you need to really create a 1st class product.

All the best to you.

 

[archon10]

No need for name calling.

Its hard to say what it would cost, but you can have an idea based on what others have spent on creating software.

In any case, good luck to you... I suggest you hire your coders from East Europe or South America.

You'll be able to find good talent in both those regions for decent price.

Ideally you'd want to create a small MVP version, prove the concept, prove the demand (and you want to keep that as low as possible).... then once that is proven you can go to investors and present your team and your proof of demand and raise the tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands you need to really create a 1st class product.

All the best to you.

lol you quoted the guy a price and time frame on a project you knew nothing about. You're a monument to the type of coder that he should never hire.

 

[Resolution10]

I'm a few steps a head of you - currently mid-development.

Feel free to drop me a PM if you'd like to bounce ideas around.

Just PMd you

You get the initial front end from here:
http://themeforest.net/category/site-templates/admin-templates
Thats 25$ and ~4 hours of your time.

Now the only thing left is the back end. You'll understand better what you need after you'll write an https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_requirements_specification. Skip the GUI (as you already have the front end template) and concentrate on functionality.

Thats 0$ and 1-2 weeks of your time.

Once the SRS is ready you can send it all over the world to get price quotes. which depending on the functionality can range from $500 to a couple of millions (just for the case you plan to create the next Google).

Thanks mate, some brilliant guidelines here and I appreciate that. I wouldn't be able to get into that personally, but worth looking at as an option in general. (And I was hoping a low six figure would help us stir up Google but now I know it won't )

lol looks like you can already smell bullshit. Good job and sounds like you're much better educated than the common schmoe on here. No one can give you a time frame and cost from what you posted. However, with your PM and laid out requirements documentation, you can pretty much nail time and costs.

Just watch out for the common overseas cheap developers who will lowball you at something like $20-$30/hour but double the time frame. This is pretty common. For the most part, you only get about 4 hours of hardcore development out of a developer in a day. Nobody codes 8 hours a day without slopping something together. Good coders need time to design, ask questions, meetings, breaks, etc. You don't want a developer who works in some sweat shop slopping code together for 10 hours a day. You want the guy who will kill it in 4 hours and needs a break.

Of course, he still needs to give you a time frame, but you want good code that might take a bit longer than sloppy code done in a few weeks.

Appreciate that, some great tips here. That's a very valid point and I'm pretty sure we'd choose the established quality rather than the cheap route. Completely aware of what you had in mind

 

[Ambitious12]

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