Technical Decision of Software “Cost”

How much does your new software really cost you?

At EyeBall Division we have the opportunity to frequently encounter all sorts of software providers as we interface with different clients and build integrations to our tracking platform with their fundamental softwares that run their businesses.

As such, we’ve learned a thing or two about which ones we really love to work with and which ones we don’t and the pros and cons of each.

The one thing anyone picking a new piece of software for a key piece of their business has to remember is how much it actually costs. I believe cost breaks down into 4 fundamental categories.

1. How much does it actually cost just to use? Is it usage based? Is it a flat fee per month? A one time fee? Minimum thresholds or user based? All are pretty standard for different SaaS companies offering the best softwares with which you run your business.
2. How easy is it to learn and train others to use? This is a section of cost, because every time you onboard a new employee or partner or client that interacts with that piece of software you better have a good solution to teach them how to use it unless you want to hold their hand and train them individually on how to use it.
3. How open is this software? This is one of the most important pieces, especially if it is going to be a main piece of your business. If it doesn’t have an open API with good documentation and lots of integrations everywhere, it’s likely going to be a pain to work with for tracking, or building anything custom that you’d like. We run into this problem with a lot of one time cost softwares, where you pay for them up front but they don’t have the capability to integrate with many other platforms. This is a recipe for disaster when it comes to scaling your business.
4. How well does it actually perform compared to competitors? There are a lot of softwares that are hard to use but incredibly robust, and it is worth it, for example, some of the internal softwares we have built have a pretty steep learning curve, but the functionality they provide is unparalleled anywhere, hence why we built it in the first place. Others are super easy to use, but as such, they can’t do the most basic of things or provide the data you really need.

All of these are considerations to be taken into your decision. The cost of the software you are picking is far more than just how much they charge to use it, you have to consider all the other facets of what that decision really means.