What to Charge for Custom Programming
 

I've written a business related excel program that has been accepted by
the local industry rather well. I've been approached about selling the
program or to put it on the web. The people who approached me have the
idea that after it gets up and running on the web locally that they
would like to sell usage rights nationwide. I have no idea about how to
value the program. Should I sell it or rent out the rights for the
people interested to market it locally and later nationally. If so, can
anyone here give me some ideas on how to value it and what to charge.
Any ideas will be greatly appreciated.

DLS

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What to Charge for Custom Programming
 

Congratulations on having something to sell
My own view is that you should not sell anything outright. A good formula is to sell at £x per user and then to charge n% of £x times the number of users per annum as maintenance. The maintenance covers the cost of bug fixes, enhancements and perhaps some email support i.e. the customer base get all these for free, and the maintenance goes to pay for your bread on the table
It is difficult to quantify £x or n%--you are probably better placed to do so.

What to Charge for Custom Programming
 

I am in similiar situation where I too have an excel
program with people interested in buying it.

What is your suggestions to prevent people from copying
my program? Anything that relates to having control on
who uses it or how to set a date for the program to self
delete.

thanks in advance

-----Original Message-----
Congratulations on having something to sell!
My own view is that you should not sell anything
outright. A good formula is to sell at £x per user and
then to charge n% of £x times the number of users per
annum as maintenance. The maintenance covers the cost of
bug fixes, enhancements and perhaps some email support
i.e. the customer base get all these for free, and the
maintenance goes to pay for your bread on the table.
It is difficult to quantify £x or n%--you are probably
better placed to do so.
.

What to Charge for Custom Programming
 

I think that if you sell, the transaction will be based on some sort of legal contract between you and the buyer. That contract--subject to you having the legal resources--should be enough to protect your rights
I know that a password protection scheme is not all that secure-but may well be enough with the support of the contract. If you wish, write critical parts of the package in an activeX DLL--the code is binary i.e. locked from prying eyes. I don't think that a 'self-destruct' device buried in your software will convey the correct professional image
Generally speaking, organisations shy away from legal wrangles and will pay the correct dues, sometimes later than you would like.