NextLogic's story

I am not a programmer. I am "just" in charge of sales and marketing in NextLogic but I know what I must know about our trade and I am more than happy to share it. If only somebody would listen.
We have been around at the market for about 3 years now and we keep repeating small simple tricks that we use in our business to all IT companies, especially software development companies. It is not because we are so damn proud believing that nobody can copy us anyway but because we hope they will improve their service, prices, etc. and thus the whole image of software development industry would improve too. But its not happening. Maybe they think we are lying to them to confuse them :o).
What are the simple tricks or magic tricks that we use that not many software developers yet want to implement:

1. give away your source code (at least if you develop customized software applications) - do not lock your customer to you just by holding back the heart of the application, give it away, its a great motivation to provide an outstanding service so your clients will be motivated to continue working with you and they will trust you more
   
2. use Ruby on Rails - move on from old outdated programming languages like Foxpro, C sharp, PHP or even from Java - use the best that you can at the time, upgrade your skills set regurarly, do not sell solutions developed in languages that are already outdated, its like selling food after its expiry period. Do not think that because something is simple, it can't be powerful (Ruby). We have built over 40 customized applications in 21 different industries in past 3 years in Ruby and Ruby on Rails and they all work well and saved us lots of time and money and thus we could provide much more affordable solutions to our SME clients. Btw. if by now you do not know what Ruby on Rails is, better go and study fast or join our trainings :o) www.nextlogic.biz/ruby_training, www.rubyonrails.org
3. utilize Open Source & contribute to Open Source - save time and cost to your clients by utiling tools/libraries, etc. that Open Source offers, there is no need anymore to reinvent the wheel BUT there is a need to contribute back so we all can learn and get better (by all I mean Geeks called IT people including anybody who provides software development services, hosting services, web design, etc.)
4. use agile development practices - the waterfall approach it outdated and not suitable anymore, upgrade the way you approach development and deployment of your applications and the way how you deal and interact with your customers, use test driven development, object oriented programming , etc.
   
5. do not sell BMW if the client is looking for Toyota - meaning its our responsibility as IT experts to provide to our clients or prospective clients solutions that match what their needs are (as in any other industry). Do not think that because people are not IT savvy you can sell them anything, do not assume they are stupid. I have seen many cases in which my clients paid lots of money for something they didnt need at the first place. Unfortunately, its still a very common feature of IT vendors to recommend inappropriate solutions just to increase sales. I am not sure why they do it but I would love to encourage all to stop doing that. Its proven (from our experience too) that if you start with small simple application that your client actually needs and will see the benefits faster, he would definitely ask for more evantually, just be patient and do an outstanding job.
6. take responsibility - we are all human and we make mistakes, that's OK and our clients understand that. So, lets try not to bulshit them, if we make a mistake, we should admit it, apologize and fix it, not start fingerpointing game with fighting over contract whose fault is what, it makes no sense. Customer IS always right. If you make a mistake and customer wants his money back, give him money back with the smile and apologize, do not charge for something you had not delivered, no matter how much time you spent on it already.
   
7. use SDM (www.scoredigitalmedia.com) to save cost for your clients and to be socially responsible company - SDM is something like a small IT company within Singapore Changi prison. It consist of very talented people (inmates) who could develop simple designs, videos, CMS websites for very little money and in much better quality than many IT vendors or freelancers at the market. How do I know it ? Because we trained some of them for the past one year :o) and we work very closely with SDM and support Yellow Ribbon Project. Many times I am suprised how little Singaporeans know about some of the government initiatives that are very powerful and mainly related to their business. Put SDM on your list of partners or competitors as its for sure one of those depending on how you see them. We proudly outsource lots of design jobs to them and we are happy about it.

There are many more things you could do to make life of your clients easier, lets share, explore and get better so we all can be proud of what our industry is like.

Labels: NextLogic, SDM, trade secret