Digital transformation helps businesses change in quality and quantity. It’s like switching from riding a motorbike to driving a car. Driving a car is expensive but helps you become more luxurious, safer, go further and have more opportunities to interact and do business. Buying a car costs 1 billion but can help you earn 5-10 billion, riding a motorbike only costs 50 million but you still have no improvement in your income decreasing day by day due to the inertia of age.

To reiterate, there are 3 stages from traditional businesses transforming to the digital transformation step:

• Data digitization
• Effective application of digital technology – Digitalization
• Digital Transformation

If you want to save money, you should stop thinking about effectively applying digital technology

If you think that applying digital technology to save costs, you should stop at the step of effectively applying digital technology. Digital transformation is a challenging step that requires businesses to change both in quality and quantity.

Digital transformation is changing the nature and strategy of a business

When you have been in the field for too long, you need a breakthrough, a revolution called digital transformation. You will have to risk rebuilding your business strategy based on the old platform or completely innovate. Digital transformation requires businesses to have a new strategy based on digital technology. If you do not have a specific strategy, start with digitalization and then apply digital technology.

When you have an understanding of digital technology, have a new business strategy on a digital platform. Then you will be confident to invest in successful digital transformation. Most businesses that fail in digital transformation do not have a strategy before implementation, or have the wrong strategy.

Many businesses misunderstand the concept of digital transformation, sometimes just buying management software and declaring that my company has successfully transformed digitally.

Digital change is creating new weapons for businesses to attack the market.

It is not necessary to convert to digital when the business has not reached the threshold.

Some examples of successful digital transformation

Tax department: convert all paper invoices to electronic invoices, it changes the entire process of issuing invoices, printing invoices, paying taxes…etc. Businesses are very comfortable when paying taxes, saving costs on printing invoices for businesses, the tax department is quiet and modern.

Timo Bank

The only bank without transaction offices, no branches. Only simple Kiod integrated in convenience stores. All Timo transactions are through the App, 100% of the costs of maintaining human resources and renting headquarters are eliminated.

Open University

Distance training is expanding and accounts for the majority of students at Open University.

What about you?

If you have money (or a lot of money), have dreams, have ambitions. Contact Maytech Software for advice.

Custom software writing service is a programming service that turns customers’ management requirements into software, including the following steps:

• Meeting to discuss the business’s requirements.
• Outlining the implementation plan.
• Preliminary quotation.
• Discussion, detailed quotation, detailed design.
• Signing the implementation steps.
• Programming implementation.
• Transfer and training.
• Operational support.

1. Meeting to discuss the business’s requirements.

This step is very important, it helps the business and the software writing partner understand each other, understand the business’s needs. The goal of this meeting step must be determined:

• The business’s difficulties in operation give rise to the need to use software for management.
• Why do businesses have to hire custom software writing instead of using available software.
• The software the business is using does not meet all the requirements.
• Desired completion time.
• Estimated budget for custom software development.
• Specific requirements for equipment and working environment. For example, the equipment must operate in a hot/humid environment without Wifi.
• Participants in the software system operation.

2. Outline the implementation plan.

After the meeting, Maytech will create a preliminary plan with the following contents:

• Required functions of the software.
• Functional requirements.
• Participants in the system.
• Overall software architecture.
• Estimated completion time.

This plan is reviewed, edited and sent back to Maytech by the partner. The completed document helps the business have an overview and visualize the entire project.

3. Preliminary quote for custom software development service.

Based on the plan, Maytech will send a preliminary quote. This quote is made in a short time with many assumptions so it may not be completely accurate, but it helps Maytech and the business have a number for both parties to discuss. The assumptions include:

• The quote assumes that the business requires a high-quality, fast, convenient, easy-to-use and fully functional completed software.
• High security, detailed authorization system.
• User manual and training.
• 1 year of support.
• 100% project success guarantee.
• 1 year warranty.
• One year of free infrastructure.

4. Discuss, quote in detail, design in detail.

Based on the quote and preliminary design, the two sides discuss in detail the project items, budget and implementation time.

If the investment cost exceeds the budget, you can work with Maytech to adjust some unnecessary advanced features to optimize the investment cost. Functions that can be adjusted:

• Moderate speed.
• Moderate security, data retrieval without going through an intermediate protection layer to prevent data destruction or theft.
• The authorization system does not need to be too detailed.
• Cut some unnecessary functions in the software system but still ensure good operation.
• Transfer some functions to be implemented later, for example, after one year of operation to extend the investment cost.

After the discussion and determination of cost and implementation time. Maytech will send a detailed design as a technical basis for software implementation.

5. Signing the implementation steps.

After the two parties agree on the cost and estimated time, they will go to the contract signing step. Usually, the software project will go through 2-3 stages, each stage will include a set of related functions.

Implementation and disbursement will be according to each stage. (phase)

6. Programming implementation.

Programming will be done at Maytech, every 2 weeks – we will put the new functions that have been implemented into the testing system (test).

Maytech and the partner company will test and give quick, immediate feedback to avoid misunderstandings, misunderstandings leading to building the wrong function.

Any function that is built not as required by the partner is quickly corrected. And the project ship is continuously steered towards the goal of completing the project to meet the customer’s requirements.

7. Transfer and training

Software training is conducted by Maytech in conjunction with the partner company during the initial period of using the software.

During the operation, Maytech works closely with the partner team to edit the system, answer questions and take notes directly on each working screen and each function of the software.

8. Operational support service when writing software on demand.

Maytech’s software system always integrates an intuitive instruction system right on the working screens. All notes and instructions are recorded and inherited.

Any new employee when using a new function can refer to all the instructions and notes of previous employees.

This is truly the most interesting function that users vote for when using software designed by Maytech.

When there is a request for operational support at a certain function, the employee only needs to send a support request right on the working screen.

The support staff will guide or respond right on that screen. The next time someone else uses this function, they can refer to previously processed support requests when deciding to send a new request.

Why is it necessary to write custom software?

The software available on the market usually only meets a maximum of 30%-80% of the requirements of companies. Therefore, it is necessary to survey and evaluate the specific actual needs of each business that these software do not have.

With the management and business models of each company being different, the software must closely follow the requirements set forth by the company. Help the business operate smoothly and tightly.
Meet the needs of information and data security of the business. Besides, it also ensures the construction of a data security system for customers easy to maintain or upgrade, update new features to ensure the software operates smoothly and safely.

When is custom software writing service not needed

There are many suppliers on the market and the business has been standardized for decades, if it does not meet the requirements, then maybe you should review your business, or your business is very very special.

You should not outsource software when there are many software on the market that can meet 80-90% of your requirements. For example, never request outsourcing of accounting software, human resource management software or timekeeping software….

Misconceptions about writing custom software

If you buy a software license for 10 million, then writing similar custom software will probably cost only 15 million.

When you buy a software license, you only pay for the license to use that software, but you do not own the software, you do not have the source code for the design.

The software owner has sold thousands of software licenses for 10 million. So the price of being a software owner must be from 1 billion to 10 billion.

For example, the cost of making a website in Vietnam is very competitive, there are units that accept to make websites for only 3-5 million. With the mindset of software as well as websites, you think that making custom software will only cost about 20-30 million or less.
In essence, you completely control the content of the website, but the software running underneath to manage the content for you (CMS) is not your right to own. You only have the right to use the software (currently most websites use open source code such as WordPress).

Consulting: The software writing company advises the partner company that hires the software writing company on how to do better business with the software. We often encounter this request during the consulting process with customers. For example: “Those who have experience in software development must advise us on how to apply it to make it better for business”.

If the software company can advise on how to apply the software well for the business, that company is a business consulting company.

Tell us your dream, Maytech will make it come true. You cannot pay to have a dream, and if you have one, it is not your dream.

Is the cost of writing custom software high?

This is the top concern when partners contact Maytech. It is also the biggest obstacle for both parties to sign a contract.

As mentioned above, becoming a software owner is like being a book author, it requires much higher costs than renting or buying software copyright.

Generally, software projects will require a budget of at least 200 million. Below this number, the possibility of project failure is very high. Or your software has few functions.

For more information, please refer to https://software.maytech.ca/how-much-does-it-cost-to-write-software/

We often get questions about the cost of writing software within 10 minutes of consultation when customers call Maytech software company to find a software outsourcing partner.

It is difficult to answer this question, because it is similar to the following scenario.

You call a car dealer and describe the car “I need a 4-wheel car, with a steering wheel to change direction, a brake to stop, an accelerator to increase speed, 5 seats and air conditioning. How much does it cost?”, I guarantee that the consultant will be stunned because he does not know what to say. If you meet a smart guy, he will say “Yes, only 350 million.”

When you receive the car, it is a Kia Morning. You are surprised because in your mind is a Mercedes S600. You ask the car salesman, why is it so short, why is it so small, why is it so ugly, there will be 1000 reasons why. Because you only have 10 minutes to describe the car, and only describe the functions, not the detailed operating parameters. Obviously, the Kia Morning has all the functions you require.

But it is not the car you need, so you drive it a few times and let it collect dust.

So to have a figure for the cost of writing software that is close to your needs. You have to be the one to prepare the software requirements carefully. Or you have some software to refer to, it is even better, like I want to buy a car like the BMW 750.

1. The basic parameters required when requesting software writing include:

• How many branches, how many companies use it.
• How many employees use it.
• How many concurrent users are maximum. Software with 1 million concurrent users will have a different design than software with 100 concurrent users.
• Requirement to run on computers or run on all devices.
• Are there any special data entry speed requirements? For example, if an order is required to be entered in 3 seconds, the order entry section will have to be specially designed.
• Is there a lot of data to be processed in the system: for example, software that processes 100 orders a day will be different from software that processes 100 million orders a day.
• List of objects participating in the system: users, orders, products, receipts, payment vouchers, etc.

We list here some quick methods to calculate the cost of writing software for your reference

2. Calculate by the number of data fields

A data field is an attribute that describes an object participating in the system. For example, the User object has the fields: Full name, date of birth, gender, email, phone number, password. There are 7 data fields in total.

The estimated cost per data field is $30. So the cost of making the above user management software will be: 7*$30=$210 equivalent to 5 million.

However, depending on the complexity of data processing in the system, the cost may be higher. For example, when entering data, if someone is young, send an iPhone advertising email, if someone is old, send an email advertising medicine.

3. Calculate according to the expected implementation time

This calculation is not as accurate as the above method. However, you can roughly calculate the relative cost in your head when you have a relative estimate of the project implementation time.

For example, the project is implemented in 4 months with 4 programmers and 1 project manager. 1 tester cost will be:

• Cost for LTV: 4*3,000*4=$48,000
• Project manager cost: 4000*4=$16,000
• Tester cost: 2000*4=$8,000
  Other costs such as:
• Management, sales, after-sales maintenance, training: $5,000
• Total: $77,000= 1 billion 800 million VND.

You will be surprised, why is the programmer’s salary up to 69,000,000VND/month. We list here the cost in 1 month for 1 programmer:

Programmer’s cost in software quotation

With each programmer, the company has a surplus of 14 million a month but has to pay taxes and fees, and take care of employees when there are no projects, it’s really not easy, right?

4. Calculate by average

Some software has a specific function, it does not have many objects participating in the system, the data processing is not much but it is very complicated.

For example, image recognition software, it will count the number of cars and motorbikes passing through an intersection and automatically coordinate traffic lights to match the traffic flow to ensure optimal traffic through the intersection. With this software, pricing is extremely difficult, because it requires deep expert knowledge, and the difficulty of the traffic measurement function and requires 24/24 stability and high reliability.

This way of pricing software is often like you are traveling and are in a souvenir shop. You do not know the real price of the item you want to buy and you will go to each shop and ask for the price. Just ask the 5th shop and you can get the relative price of the item you want to buy.

You do the same for software, you ask 10 companies for their prices, then take the average, you will have a relative price of the software. However, you must ask clearly if a company quotes too high or too low to eliminate companies that do not understand the requirements or are not capable of giving a rough quote.

The difficulty of this method is that you have to get the prices of at least 5 companies. Not every company will seriously sit down and analyze and give you a quote for that very difficult and specific software. And you also cannot know if that company has the capacity to implement the software you require.

This method is also a cross-reference for the 2 cost calculation methods above to help you have a more accurate figure for the software cost.

5. Calculate by detailed function

This method requires the software to have gone through the design analysis step. Calculating the construction cost will be much easier and more accurate than the 3 methods above.

Requirements:

• Analysis of the function requirements.
• Software interface design table with full description of functions, data fields and data processing methods.

This method is applied to software that is analyzed and designed by another partner, you need a construction partner. The software writing process will follow the waterfall method. This method of writing software is no longer popular because it takes a lot of time to analyze the design, and this design analysis is only on paper, so when put into operation, many problems will be exposed that need to be edited.

Instead of sitting down to analyze, both sides will set out the goals of the software and build it to meet the goals, both sides will build, edit and improve together to quickly get the software that meets the needs of the business. This is a popular software writing method, the Agile method

Why do you want to hire a company to design software according to your own requirements? While almost all the software you need is available and easy to buy at a cost of several million to several hundred million. We provide some information to help you decide when to hire custom software design.

1. What is custom software design?

Custom software design is when company A hires software company B to write software to solve the problem that company A poses. Usually in the profession it is called software outsourcing. The business model and business processes are all defined by party A. Party B will design the software, interface design and the entire software architecture to ensure that it meets the requirements of company A

Whether or not Party A owns the source code will depend on the contract and the cost, usually about 20% more cost, Party A will own the entire source code and Party B will transfer the technology.

To make it easier to understand, it is like hiring a construction company to build a hotel building. The construction company builds this house completely according to the homeowner’s wishes and the construction company does not participate in the hotel’s business operations.

2. Software design company and software business company

These are two types of companies that are easily confused because they are called by the same name, software company. Fast Company is a software business company, they build and sell FAST accounting software, they do not accept to write software for any party.

Maytech Company is a software outsourcing company, they do not have their own software to sell, they have a team of programmers who design software on demand for other companies. You cannot buy Maytech’s accounting software unless you hire Maytech to write your own accounting software.

3. When you need to hire custom software design.

When the software for your business is not available on the market, or if it is available, it only meets a maximum of 50% of your requirements.

You should not hire custom software design when there are many software on the market that meet 80-90% of your requirements. For example, never ask to write accounting software, human resource management software or timekeeping software… There are many suppliers on the market and their services have been standardized for decades. If they do not meet your business’s needs, then you should probably review your business, or your business is very, very special.

4. Hire custom software design or write your own software

Advantages of hiring custom software design:

• Quickly get a team of experienced software engineers.
• The cost is many times cheaper than building it yourself.
• No need to manage a team of software engineers when your expertise is not information technology.

Advantages of writing your own software:

• Maximum control of the software system.
• Have a team of engineers who continuously develop and upgrade the software according to the changes of the business.
• Suitable for businesses where software and technology are the backbone of the business, for example, online sales companies, freight forwarding companies, etc.

5. Misunderstandings when deciding to hire custom software design

• Buying software for 10 million, then designing a similar software will probably cost only 15 million.
• When you buy software, you only buy the copyright to use that software, you are not the owner of the software. Therefore, software owners have sold hundreds or even thousands of software licenses for 10 million. So the price of owning the software must be from 1 billion to 10 billion.
• A website with only 5 million must write software on demand for only about 10 million. With a website, you are the sole owner of the website’s content, but the software running underneath that manages the content for you (CMS) is not yours to own. You only have the right to use it or pay for it or for free (if it is an open source CMS like WordPress for example).
• Consulting: The software writing company advises on how to do better business with the software. We often encounter this request during the consulting process with customers. It’s like those who have experience in software must advise us on how to apply it to make it better for business. If the software writing company can advise you on how to apply the software well for your business, that company is a consulting company or a software business company. You can only ask Fast company to advise you on how to apply accounting software best for your business, you cannot ask Maytech software company to advise you on how to sell more products with software.
• You must have your dream. You tell the software company about that dream and they will make it come true. You cannot pay to have a dream.

6. Conclusion

Hiring custom software design (software outsourcing) is a trend, more and more companies are focusing on the core values ​​of the business (core value) to focus on business to improve efficiency. Software is a pioneer in the outsourcing movement because of its specificity. That is because building software requires highly qualified human resources, short implementation time from 6 months to 1 year.

If you need custom software writing, please refer to the custom software writing service at Maytech.

Long term support – Source code handover

Maytech with 10 years of experience in software development, we will accompany businesses throughout the system’s operation.
Maytech chooses the best and most suitable technology to build software systems for partners. This ensures the system operates smoothly and stably while consuming little machine resources. The tools selected by Maytech are all from large companies, recommended by the manufacturer to ensure long-term support. The source code is handed over by Maytech so that partners can be as proactive as possible when they need to upgrade and develop.

1. Web Admin – Web app – Mobile App

Programming language:

• API: C#.Netcore is a tool developed by Microsoft, is one of the most popular tools for building software platforms.
• Web app interface: Angular is the best tool to build web admin system. Angular is developed by Google.
• Mobile App: Swift, Flutter, Java

2. Web Server + DB Server

• OS/System: Linux, NGINX, Mysql. MySQl is the most popular database management system today.
• Configuration:  4 -core CPU, 8 GB  Ram  , 50 GB  SSD

Dynamic Dashboard

Helps administrators have a comprehensive view of the system, how many tickets are being processed, how many are overdue, how many are not assigned, and the total number of tickets in the month.

Paging data on server

Ensure fast page access speed, no slowdown when data volume increases, reduce server load, reduce transmission load and avoid slowing down user’s computer.

Flexible search

Support User search requests depending on each list

Dynamic authorization

Flexibility in creating new roles. Roles are also flexible in adding or removing access rights.

Permission screens for:

• User group.
• User.
• Use the delegation matrix.

The authorization panel is designed to be intuitive, vivid, easy to understand and easy to use.

List of Roles

Save system-wide logs

All operations on the system are logged to ensure easy retrieval of the cause: who edited the data, when, how the data was edited from the old value to the new value.

Log list

Intuitive user guide

Support visual instructions that accompany each input screen. Instructions and questions during use are viewed by users and recorded by the system. This helps new users to easily review the history of screen usage, avoiding errors that have been recorded in the past.

Use guide bar

Error reporting/suggestion system when using

Users can easily take screenshots and add feedback about the screen they are using when encountering errors or difficulties in use. Administrators will receive requests and process them.

Error/suggestion screen. The system automatically takes a screenshot and sends it.