This will be a Multi Phase Development that is designed to perform a mission critical role in GEA’s Processes

On the backend the system will aggregate all this data coming from Individual stores & assimilate it into an MIS dash board to help the management make real time decisions

This is an aggressive development & a pioneering initiative in the industry , which is expected to be live in 60 days !

As The Top Business Catalyst supplier we feel its our Duty to shed some light on this subject.

A CMS system is basically a piece of software or a web based application that allows a user to manage their web presence.

Business Catalyst :

This is a “SaaS” model application , which means Software As A Service. In simpler terms it means you are “leasing” the application or an instance of it for your clients site.

Under SaaS what you do is you “configure” the application for your clients use vs Customizing it.

By configuring we mean , create templates for their design preferences , setup forms , etc etc

Open Source CMS :

Examples of Open Source Content Management Systems are Joomla , Website Baker , DNN , OS Commerce , Zen Cart etc. they come in a variety of languages like PHP , ASP.net , Ruby on Rails etc

Open Source basically means that the Source code is open or freely available to absolutely anyone.

Open source is an absolutely great concept and we subscribe to it fully. Distribute what you know freely and openly so that everyone benefits & only good will come back to you , its almost spiritual !!

Typically these systems are distributed under the GNU General Public License, which is an Honor based software listening system (so there is no monetary basis).

What a GNU GPL License says is that you can use , distribute , modify , integrate & customize the software any which way you like , as long as you credit the original developer for it explicitly.

In other words we openly state that we have taken the base joomla , made some modifications and we use it as a development platform. with this approach we are in full compliance with the GPL license, but the moment we say that this has nothing to do with Joomla and we built it from the ground up we are in violation

1. Conceptual Apps
2. Process Augmentation Apps

Conceptual Apps are the “idea” apps ,  mostly very unique & fresh
Things like the Tiger woods app , to be able to recognize your golf swing plot it against Tigers & Show the differences
or the Taxi Meter which calculates the fare as you travel or a Guitar Tuner , or the Mirror

The best example of this category being SIRI

For most purposes we can discount this market because whereas the Financial upside of building these apps can be HUGE , unique concepts are hard to come by & equally hard is the level of engineering needed to deliver on these type of projects
Typical folks selling apps should try to spend thier energies away from this segment , but if you find something in this area that clicks , by all means , it could be a gold mine.

Your competition here is also serious , some of the pioneers of the app industry who are featured on Apple.com , rule this space along Silicon valley PE’s , VC’s & Angel Investors

A major percentage of these apps make their money by selling the application itself & another large segment leverage the viral nature of these apps

Example – Tiger Woods MySwing – $4.99 on iPhone $9.99 iPad – this has over 80K downloads in each version

Process Augmentation Apps - these can become the sweet spot selling wise , here you are taking functionality or processes that already exist , either offline or as a web application & you are building an application to further enhance it or simple add mobility.

Examples are in the 1000′s , Todo list trackers like “Remember the milk” , Google Maps Application etc etc

The ideal stratergy here would be to look for companies who engage with their customers or employees that are mobile, try & pickup on processes that can be enhanced by adding mobility & then build an app around it

this needs a decent amount of ingenuity but to deliver such apps is not hard for the most part

These apps are normally free to sub $5 downloads & the monetization happens outside the app , essentially through the value enhancement that the app brings to the interaction between the business & the customer / employee

Example – Tripadvisor , they probably spend upwards of $200k to build this , but they give it away for free , for them the added value that this app brings to their users is what monetizes the app.

The App Development Sales & Delivery Process

IN terms of the actual app development there are almost always 3 components

Planning & Documentation
Server Side Application
Mobile Client

1. Planning & Documentation – Absolute Key , explain to your customers that they should never fall for any App developer who will not give them complete specifications documentation before the first line of code hits the ground

this is very critical as things will become messy without a proper & detailed plan. Documentation should cover the following

• Business Requirements – CLIENT TO CONFIRM & SIGN OFF
• Solution Architecture – CONTINGENT ON REQUIREMENT SIGN OFF
  • Communication Methods & Protocols
  • Mobile Client
  • Web Services Layer
  • Server Side Application
  • Database(s)
• Scope
• Data Model
• User Interface – Workflow
• Mobile Client User Interface
• Server Side Application – Workflow
• User Interface – Wire Frames
  • Mobile Client
  • Server Application
• Test Cases
  • Mobile Client
  • Server Application

This documentation is & should be a chargebale effort & it will take a minimum of 10-15 hrs to put together something that is comprehensive enough to be chargeable.
Sell this document & its level of detail as an Insurance policy for the client , If your developer was to get hit by a bus the document will be strong enough that you take your half done code & get it built out anywhere

As a real world example from an actual project , here is a document that we used to build an application for a Tequila Distributor. Tequila Company iOS Application Specifications Document
The app is to help thier sales people view sales data for thier own product whenever they are in a store & then on to record the prices of competitor product that is selling in that store.
All the competitor data will be stored on the server & the corporate office will be able to view it real time

This document took 14.45 billable hours to build , across 4 people , The Client , Solution Architect , Database designer , Lead developer & UI Designer we did a 45 minute meeting with the client & 4 days later came back with this first draft , there were some minor clarifications largely due to the fact that the client thought the wire frames was what the app was going to look like & flipped out ! they also wanted to add certain email notifications to be sent out

The sign off meeting was another 45 minutes & we had signed & sealed requirements , let the coding begin !

2. Server Side Development – This is where the app will get all the data it needs that sits in some offline / online system , or if users are creating data this is the exchange that will be used to transmit it , the app will always depend on a server side component , simply because of constraints like processing power , storage & reliability of connection on the mobile device makes it tough to use it as the central controller

This part of the development is commonly under rated & mis understood by clients.

Any programming language that can incorporate a web service layer can be used here , we use PHP for all Server side work

Even for a basic application it will take at least 50-70 hrs of work to deploy a minimalistic Server side infrastructure including a basic data model / web services , testing etc

Im basing this on something like a task / todo application  , fairly basic yet very scalable

This development is also 85-95% re-useable across platforms (iOS / Android)

3. Mobile Client - This is the actual app that will be downloaded form the Apple Store or Android Market & will run on your phone , this application will normally utilize all the facilities provided by the OS (a facility being the camera / key pad etc) as you need it & deliver the workflow you want

Again there is a 20-30 hrs basic setup that goes in consistently across any development , upon which the developer can start to build your functionality. Beyond this the complexity of the functionality will define the effort

Also you have to be careful in design stages as iPhone apps will not necessarily  run on iPads automatically & vice versa , so make sure you add in the extra effort to optimize for both devices.
The device issue gets worse on Android but only if your are trying to build some very specific functionality using the Motion sensing Gyros / GPS etc

This area should be documented down to the last detail before you start building

Pricing

However if we look at our methodology described above we can establish a floor price , this will at least help you qualify the customer

Managing App the Development Process

It is critical to know how to manage the project well when it is in Development , we use base-camp & where we have TODO templates for each step just as an example here is how 2 of our templates would look

[Server Side App] – QA

• Staging Environment Setup
• Bug Tracking Tool Setup
• Test Case Execution
• Regression Testing
• QA Signoff

[Mobile App] – Deployment

• Application Store Ready
• Bundling
• Final iPA files / Droid Files Tested
• Billing

for a typical mobile application project there are 12 such lists that we have , from start to finish & our largest number of items is in the Requirements & Specifications Documentation list

We assign each of such task to individuals & they enter their time against it , Clients are able to see these time entries , we also maintain some threshold hours at the time of project initiation so that if in any area we are going overboard we get automatic alerts

Since most projects will be sold at a fixed price but that pricing will be derived from an effort estimate in hours , tracking time & holding people accountable to small work units being delivered becomes critical in keeping scope in check & delivery on track.

Try to break down tasks into small managable units vs large deliverables with many moving peices. As an example look at our list for Mobile App Deployement , in this list there are 4 tasks , One for the Finance person (to Bill the client) , 2 for the Developers & 1 for the QA person.
If we were to assign “Deployment” as a task we would end up not knowing who to give it to & it would get lost in coordination , but since its broken down , things are simple & people know what is to be delivered

IT is equally important to note that BI is not some Ubercool term that only companies with a turnover of X or more are allowed to use
BI is Business Intelligence  , using your data to make intelligent Business Decisions , SIMPLE !

Excel is & for times to come will remain a primary storage & analysis method for data in companies of all Scales & Sizes , hence we must look at Excel as a BI tool

Is it Practical to use Excel for your BI Needs long term ? Not Really

Although a powerful tool with the ability to analyze data while maintaining analytic autonomy, there exist downsides to using Excel as the main source of business intelligence.
Portability , Scalability  & Security being the main issues , So If a company realizes that there is value in Data , they must consolidate their positions on all the various Excel Data bases & start to look around for a BI solution that meets their needs.

BI Tools dont automatically mean 6 Figure bills ! there are many options available , essentially anything that will allow you to develop a flexible Schema , Import your data & run reports is a sufficient start.

The “Sizzle” features like Trend analysis & predictive modeling are not for the faint hearted & there is a degree of commitment & input that needs to go in for these to work well.

It is important to note that a BI tool needs to be able to recursively & actively work with your Excel data , because switching your data entry may not be the flip of a switch