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Some companies we discuss WebTimeTMS projects with say
that they don’t feel the need to buy WebTimeTMS™
because it would be easier and simpler to create it
themselves. This is a perfectly understandable opinion,
however a number of observations come to mind, continued
development, report writing in particular, maintenance
and support.
WebTimeTMS™
is becoming an ever more complex corporate timesheet
solution based on over 6 years of experience creating
and deploying enterprise time recording and project
control systems and over 20 man-years of experience
enhancing our basic project-oriented timekeeping model.
The satisfaction of a company's demand to manage probably
its most costly resource is no longer a trivial task
and neither are the mechanisms to do so.
We have prepared
the following financial comparison for organisations
considering writing their own timekeeping system based
on our own experience of custom designing and writing
such systems since 1996.
Purchasing WebTimeTMS™
(100 users)
| |
Year
1 |
Year
2 |
Year
3 |
| Cost of WebTimeTMS™
(100 Licences) |
£9,200 |
£0 |
£0 |
| Annual Maintenance |
£0 |
£0 |
£0 |
| Support/Upgrades |
£0 |
£1,840 |
£1,840 |
| Total |
£9,200 |
£1,840 |
£1,840 |
| Cost Per User |
£92 |
£18.40 |
£18.40 |
Purchasing
WebTimeTMS™ (1000 users)
| |
Year
1 |
Year
2 |
Year
3 |
| Cost of WebTimeTMS™
(1000 Licences) |
£50,000 |
£0 |
£0 |
| Annual Maintenance |
£0 |
£0 |
£0 |
| Support/Upgrades |
£0 |
£10,000 |
£10,000 |
| Total |
£50,000 |
£10,000 |
£10,000 |
| Cost Per User |
£50 |
£10 |
£10 |
Writing
your own Enterprise Timesheet System
To write your
own Enterprise Timesheet System with functionality comparable
to WebTimeTMS using the same language, databases and
other tools would require the following investment.
| |
Year
1 |
Year
2 |
Year
3 |
| Development
Cost*1 |
£67,500 |
£0 |
£0 |
| Programming
Tools |
£6,250 |
£0 |
£0 |
| Tools Upgrades |
£0 |
£1,650 |
£1,650 |
| Ongoing Development |
£0 |
£10,125 |
£10,125 |
| Ongoing internal
support |
£0 |
£22,500 |
£22,500 |
| Support/Upgrades |
£0 |
£0 |
£0 |
| Total |
£73,750 |
£34,275 |
£34,275 |
| Cost Per User
per year |
£737.50 |
£34.28 |
£34.28 |
Conclusion
|
|
Purchase 100 WebTimeTMS™
Licences
|
Purchase 1000 WebTimeTMS™
Licences
|
Develop an In-House System for
1000 users
|
| Total Cost
Over 3 Years |
£12,880
|
£70,000
|
£142,300
|
Assumptions
A departmental
timekeeping system would conservatively take approximately
18 man months, so a team of three could have a system
up and running in a 6 month elapsed period. The amount
of Based on two years full time of two programmer salaried
at £45,000 each. Development includes system design,
programming, testing, minimal on-line help and minimal
documentation.
Programming tools will include the creation of a development/test
environment and the tools/software associated with this.
It is assumed that if a custom system, only the minimal
functionality for that organisation would be created
not the full functionality of WebTimeTMS™.The estimate
is for a completely web enabled interface, with reporting.It
is assumed that 3 qualified programmer/system analyst
staff are available who already have some understanding
of design requirements for a period of 6 months.
A custom application would typically require minimal
documentation and on-line help. It is assumed that only
the minimal work required would be done in this area,
not the help/documentation effort done for a commercial
application such as WebTimeTMS™.
An allowance of 15% of the initial development costs
has been included from year 2 since, in our experience,
requests for improvements and additional functionality
will be required.There is no allowance for major new
enhancements to the system. Ongoing technical support
(bug fixes, minor feature enhancements etc.) would require
approximately 50% of one programmer. We have allotted
this at 50% of a £45,000/year salary.
Notes
If you decide to move forward with a custom implementation
there are a few implications to consider:
| Customised
Development |
WebTimeTMS™ |
| Delivery of
your customised system and the start of your implementation
process will be at least 6 months from the start
of the project. |
Delivery of
WebTimeTMS™ could be within 48 hours. |
| Programmers
and Systems Analysts must be available to do the
project. In addition, during the design and testing
phase, many other personnel will need to devote
time to determining the system requirements, approving
the specifications, testing the system through various
quality phases etc. There is no allowance in our
model for these costs. In addition, there is no
allowance for the project management costs of the
project. With many companies devoting their I/S
resources to other projects, the commitment of full
time resources to this project may be hard to achieve. |
WebTimeTMS™
is already written. It is deliverable instantly
with no programmer/systems analysts required. |
| Features in
a customised system will often not include market
driven enhancements found in commercial systems.
This places the customised system in perpetual competition
with commercial systems which advertise regularly.
So an allowance has been put in for this ongoing
cost. The reality ith this is that any new development
of other systems will push the timesheet system
development back still further. |
As a market-driven
system, WebTimeTMS™ will be continually upgraded
and enhanced. |
If you have any comments on this article please feel
free to email us at sales@webtimetms.com
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