Pricing an Access Add-In

[David W. Fenton]

I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions on how to price an
Access add-in.

I'm in the position now of being asked to provide components for
replicated applications and don't really know what's fair for
pricing. Right now I have a single-form add-in that can be called to
do all of your direct/indirect replication (along with conflict
resolution). I'm providing it as an MDE tied to your replica set so
that it allows unlimited use with a single replica set. But I don't
know how to price it.

In terms of creating the same functionality by hand, this component
represents well over 100 hours of programming and troubleshooting
and revision. Part of that has been compensated by the two clients I
worked with in developing it, who willingly acted as my beta testers
(in return for paying for much less than half my time).

Now the component is mature and I'm trying to figure out the best
pricing.

What should I take into account for this?

I have a price in mind that seems very reasonable for a single
application/replica set, but the current client who wants to license
it has two separate apps, and paying twice as much seems a little
high.

On the other hand, I do have to create a new MDE specific to each
replica set and then support that over the long run (e.g., should
the replica set's Design Master get replaced, the add-in has to be
recompiled, or it will eventually stop working).

Rather than suggesting a price, could anyone outline some principles
that I can follow for determining a fair price? I really want the
price to be the same for everyone, and once I've priced it, I don't
want to be changing it for each client.

Thoughts?

 

[James A. Fortune]

I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions on how to price an
Access add-in.

I'm in the position now of being asked to provide components for
replicated applications and don't really know what's fair for
pricing. Right now I have a single-form add-in that can be called to
do all of your direct/indirect replication (along with conflict
resolution). I'm providing it as an MDE tied to your replica set so
that it allows unlimited use with a single replica set. But I don't
know how to price it.

In terms of creating the same functionality by hand, this component
represents well over 100 hours of programming and troubleshooting
and revision. Part of that has been compensated by the two clients I
worked with in developing it, who willingly acted as my beta testers
(in return for paying for much less than half my time).

Now the component is mature and I'm trying to figure out the best
pricing.

What should I take into account for this?

I have a price in mind that seems very reasonable for a single
application/replica set, but the current client who wants to license
it has two separate apps, and paying twice as much seems a little
high.

On the other hand, I do have to create a new MDE specific to each
replica set and then support that over the long run (e.g., should
the replica set's Design Master get replaced, the add-in has to be
recompiled, or it will eventually stop working).

Rather than suggesting a price, could anyone outline some principles
that I can follow for determining a fair price? I really want the
price to be the same for everyone, and once I've priced it, I don't
want to be changing it for each client.

Thoughts?

Personally, when I have code that I've used for multiple customers I
usually give the latter customers a better deal because I have to do
much less research and testing. But I suggest that the fair price not
be based on how much work you need to do now or in the future . For
a given bit of functionality there seems to be a market price. That
price usually goes down over time as more and more developers become
familiar with common techniques for getting that functionality, unless
you're talking about JET replication, of course. Price the first one
high knowing that it will come down, and knowing that it's fair because
that first customer will likely benefit from the first time experiences
of your other customers. Each customer deserves special consideration
and the opportunity to convince you that your prices are too high.
Another school of thought is that clever pricing allows the customers
who are able to pay more to do so, allowing you to give a break in the
future to less fortunate customers.

I can't claim lots of first hand experience with these theories lately
because my main customer has been growing so fast that they've got a
near monopoly on my time. They've doubled production within the past
year. It's a good thing most of the database programs were already in
place. Still, I usually seek projects that offer win-win technological
benefits for most of my customers. Pricing is an art in which most
developers have little skill, including myself, to the customer's
advantage. You don't have to worry about charging too much -- the
customer won't let you. They usually have a good idea of what the
market price should be, even if we don't. Use the fact that you are
unsure of what to charge to your benefit. It gives you a way to save
face if your quote is embarrassingly high. BTW, I think that most
advice on etiquette can be summed up as "saving face."

James A. Fortune
(e-mail address removed)

Find something you're good at and figure a way to do it in cookie cutter
fashion. That's a good way to get rich. -- Dave Smith

 

[Tony Toews [MVP]]

Now the component is mature and I'm trying to figure out the best
pricing.

What should I take into account for this?

One tip I've heard is to make it less than the imaginary authorized spending amount.
That is an IT manager can spend up to, for example $500, without requiring corporate
approval. Of course that amount will vary from $0 to $1000 or more.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/

 

[Tom van Stiphout]

On 15 Jan 2009 20:51:09 GMT, "David W. Fenton"

I'm sure there is an economic theory on maximizing your sales in this
situation, but I would have no idea what it was :-(
So I would keep in mind:
* Replication is a dying art, with accdb not supporting it.
* How many times can I realistically expect to sell this utility.
* How much do I want to invest in marketing it.

In our company we have a few utilities we price according to these
rules (with the answers being n/a, less than a handful, near-zero),
and we sell them for 50% of the development cost.

-Tom.
Microsoft Access MVP

I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions on how to price an
Access add-in.

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[David W. Fenton]

One tip I've heard is to make it less than the imaginary
authorized spending amount. That is an IT manager can spend up to,
for example $500, without requiring corporate approval. Of course
that amount will vary from $0 to $1000 or more.

Yes, I can see that for direct sales, but this is a component for
developers to use, so I won't know what the actual budget realities
are.

I look at the amount of time it takes to write and test the same
code and then figure how many copies I can sell, and then think how
soon I'd like to turn a profit based on how much uncompensated time
I've already put in on it.

But I don't know how that relates to the buyer's perception of the
value.

Joel Spolsky recently wrote about the pricing for his jobs listing
site. The competitors were charging $250 for a listing so he priced
his at $350 to make it look like a premium product. Later, his
competitor raised the price, too.

But I don't have any competition on this one, and I don't want to
price myself out of sales.

*sigh*

 

[David W. Fenton]

On 15 Jan 2009 20:51:09 GMT, "David W. Fenton"

I'm sure there is an economic theory on maximizing your sales in
this situation, but I would have no idea what it was :-(
So I would keep in mind:
* Replication is a dying art, with accdb not supporting it.

I actually disagree with that. I'm getting more and more requests
for consulting on this, as people realize how useful it is.

* How many times can I realistically expect to sell this utility.

This I don't know.

* How much do I want to invest in marketing it.

I'm investing nothing in marketing, unless you count my posts in
community forums on replication topics as marketing, You shouldn't,
as I'd be doing that even if I weren't licensing a component.

In our company we have a few utilities we price according to these
rules (with the answers being n/a, less than a handful,
near-zero), and we sell them for 50% of the development cost.

Well, as I said in my response to Tony, I consider how much time
I've invested in it uncompensated, how much it would cost to
redevelop and test the same functionality, then look at how many
copies I could reasonably expect to license. Then I consider how
much I might want to make in the long run and price accordingly.

That leaves me with one number that seems OK, but since each
instance of the add-in is tied to a single replica set, it makes it
a little high for a shop that wants to use it in multiple apps
(i.e., different replica sets). So, I'm torn.

Should I consider a volume discount?

If so, what should I consider "volume?" Two? Five? Ten?

 

[Tom van Stiphout]

On 16 Jan 2009 03:05:58 GMT, "David W. Fenton"

I meant to say that over the next few years you will see clients
upgrading to A2007 or better, and thus forget about replication. Or at
least entertain other options (SQL Server Replication?) that are not
addressed by your add-in. Make your sales while you can.

Yes, I would consider a "volume license" for those companies with more
than one replica set. They don't necessarily understand the technical
reasons for for this. A 50% discount is what I might recommend (it
being easy to spend your money )

-Tom.
Microsoft Access MVP

 

[David W. Fenton]

I meant to say that over the next few years you will see clients
upgrading to A2007 or better, and thus forget about replication.
Or at least entertain other options (SQL Server Replication?) that
are not addressed by your add-in. Make your sales while you can.

Problematic as Jet replication may be, SQL replication makes it look
like a cakewalk, so I don't see that as a reasonable alternative.

Yes, I would consider a "volume license" for those companies with
more than one replica set. They don't necessarily understand the
technical reasons for for this. A 50% discount is what I might
recommend (it being easy to spend your money )

For how many?

 

[Tony Toews [MVP]]

Should I consider a volume discount?

Absolutely yes.

If so, what should I consider "volume?" Two? Five? Ten?

50% off 2nd and subsequent. If more than 10 then email for
details/haggling.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/

 

[Tony Toews [MVP]]

I'm investing nothing in marketing, unless you count my posts in
community forums on replication topics as marketing, You shouldn't,
as I'd be doing that even if I weren't licensing a component.

FWIW I'd blog about it once you created a page and maybe the Access
Product Group would also create a blog entry. So you'd get some hits
there for free.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/

 

[Tom van Stiphout]

On 16 Jan 2009 04:38:20 GMT, "David W. Fenton"

For all subsequent ones. So the first one is full-price (50% of
development cost), the others add 25% to that. If you have one
customer with 3 replica sets you are home free.

I saw your blog. Scary day today.

-Tom.
Microsoft Access MVP

 

[Tony Toews [MVP]]

I saw your blog. Scary day today.

Very interesting reading that story. FWIW the airline industry is now getting a
very good handle on how to deal with passengers in emergency situations.

"How did all the 309 passengers on Air France flight 358 which crashed in Toronto get
off the aircraft in under 90 seconds? With fire blocking some exits? The flight
attendants were trained to yell at the passengers to break their mental paralysis and
hysteria. "

That was the crash with the spectacular videos of the burning airplane in the trees.

But there are some simple things you can do too. Like reading the book mentioned at
the below blog entry.

http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/arch...o-survives-when-disaster-strikes-and-why.aspx

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/

 

[David W. Fenton]

For all subsequent ones. So the first one is full-price (50% of
development cost), the others add 25% to that. If you have one
customer with 3 replica sets you are home free.

No one would be able to afford it if I was pricing 50% of
development cost.

Indeed, one thing I didn't say is that this component is not
something I developed for my own clients, but for others. I knew it
was something I'd likely be able to sell multiple times (at least
versions of it), so I didn't charge the first two clients for the
full development cost. They also were beta testers, so they went
through a helluva lot of non-working versions, so they put in a lot
of time helping me make it better.

Now, it's basically a finished, working component, fully debugged
and having lots of error checking and recovery routines for things
that can go wrong.

So, it really wouldn't work to base the cost on uncompensated
development time -- I wouldn't sell any copies at all.

I saw your blog. Scary day today.

I am very grateful I didn't look up from my desk at c. 3:30pm.

 

[David W. Fenton]

Very interesting reading that story. FWIW the airline industry
is now getting a very good handle on how to deal with passengers
in emergency situations.

I'm afraid that an airplane that ditched successfully in a river
that didn't have significant ferry service would likely have
resulted in many casualties from hypothermia. I'm sure it's nothing
to you up there in the subarctic, Tony, but it was about 20 degrees
out with 42 degree water temperature (and dropping quickly, as a
major Arctic front was moving in right at the time of the crash).
That gives you about 30 minutes before you start to lose
consciousness, according to what the experts reported on the TV
machine (as Rachel Maddow calls it).

This plane crashed right in the middle of the river, about halfway
between the 34th Street Terminal of the NY Waterways Ferry and the
Port Imperial Terminal in Weehawken (i.e., where I live). According
to reports I heard last night, the first ferry that got to the plane
was already in transit across the river from Manhattan to Port
Imperial, and diverted right towards the plane as soon as the ferry
captain realized what had happened. It was apparently there within
substantially less than 5 minutes, and within a few minutes after
that, all the ferries and tour boats in the Hudson scrambled and
arrived on the scene. Apparently there were as many as 14 on the
scene within 15 or 20 minutes.

The police boats and the Coast Guard arrived in the same time frame,
but not before passengers had already started to be offloaded onto
the first ferries.

In fact, it isn't an accident that the ferries reacted so quickly.
They were a very important transportation resource on 9/11, getting
a whole lot of people away from the destruction very quickly and
across the river into New Jersey (they have a terminal at the foot
of Wall Street on the East River, but also that day were taking on
passengers at the marina at Battery Park City). The ferry personnel
train for water rescues on a regular basis -- one of the ferry
personnel said every couple of weeks, another once a month.

So, it's not just a matter of the traditional first responders being
there, but a host of other people who aren't officially the people
we depend on for this kind of thing.

Of course, nobody deserves more credit than the pilot for making a
picture-perfect landing and handling his crew and passengers so
successfully. Nor can we underrate the role of the plane's crew in
making sure the passengers got out safely.

But I can't help but think that ditching in cold water in just about
any other American city (other than, say, Seattle) would have
resulted in significant loss of life.

Everyone was a hero yesterday.

And those people were heroes before yesterday -- we just didn't know
it yet.

 

[David W. Fenton]

Absolutely yes.


50% off 2nd and subsequent. If more than 10 then email for
details/haggling.

If the price were $50, would you still use that pricing?

If it were $100?

$200?

$250?

$500?

 

[David W. Fenton]

FWIW I'd blog about it once you created a page and maybe the
Access Product Group would also create a blog entry. So you'd get
some hits there for free.

Given the attitude towards MS exhibited on the Jet Replication Wiki,
I doubt MS would ever promote anything that I'm offering.

 

[Tony Toews [MVP]]

I'm afraid that an airplane that ditched successfully in a river
that didn't have significant ferry service would likely have
resulted in many casualties from hypothermia. I'm sure it's nothing
to you up there in the subarctic, Tony, but it was about 20 degrees
out with 42 degree water temperature (and dropping quickly, as a
major Arctic front was moving in right at the time of the crash).

Well up here the rivers are frozen. But you are correct there
would've been many casualties from hypothermia without the ferries.

We've had that major Arctic front up here for the last three weeks or
month or so. -25 to -35 during the day and such. So now it's gone
your way.

The ferry personnel
train for water rescues on a regular basis -- one of the ferry
personnel said every couple of weeks, another once a month.
Excellent.

But I can't help but think that ditching in cold water in just about
any other American city (other than, say, Seattle) would have
resulted in significant loss of life.

I don't know that Seattle has many ferries but I sure could be wrong.
I suspect they might have longer distance ferries running to the
various islands but you might only have a few departures per hour.
Not like NY with them being there every few minutes.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/

 

[Tony Toews [MVP]]

Given the attitude towards MS exhibited on the Jet Replication Wiki,
I doubt MS would ever promote anything that I'm offering.

What happened there?

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/

 

[Tony Toews [MVP]]

If the price were $50, would you still use that pricing?
No.

If it were $100?

Maybe but I'd go 75% then.

$200?

$250?

$500?

Definitely.

However I've never really bought that much software and never for a
corp.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/

 

[Tony Toews [MVP]]

Maybe but I'd go 75% then.

Whoops. Make that 25% off.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/