Your Project
Be a step ahead!
How does a project work at omnoto?
First things first: Congratulations! You are already further ahead than most of your competitors. You have recognized that digitalization in all its facets is advancing faster and faster. You have an eye for the opportunities that lie ahead!
There are many questions for you are to answer at the beginning of a digital project. That's what this article is for. To take away uncertainties and present perspectives. Starting with at the beginning with "how does the process work over funding to time frame. In between there are many more questions which need to be answered.
One of the first and probably most important questions on your part is: How much will a digitization project, such as your own online store, cost me?
You're probably thinking, "The best thing would be a fixed price, then I'm on the safe side!" This is also understandable and comprehensible at first, if you have no further information as an end customer. As an agency, there are always topics where you can't say exactly how much time certain processes will take.
Basics have to be worked out, the theme has to be tailored to you and your needs, the plugins have to be adapted and everything has to be aligned according to your ideas. Accordingly, it would be best to calculate these tasks by the hour to minimize the risk of time delays. If such estimates are not possible, an uncertainty factor is added to the estimate. Whether this is the best solution in the end is questionable.
At the point we are now, giving a cost estimate is not only very inaccurate, but also seriously impossible. "Why?" one or the other is surely asking now, you have already implemented projects, haven't you?
We would like to present these details in more detail. First of all, we would like to define the points that have to be taken into account in order to make an estimate of the time frame and the associated costs possible.
Cost points
In order to accurately determine the scope of the necessary services, the questions on our side already begin: Do you and your IT provide your own server? Do you need support in setting up the server so that the store runs smoothly? Does your team take care of the server maintenance? Does your team do the backups on their own?
Maybe you don't have your own IT department in your company and you resort to external support. Does the supporter of your choice need support from us or should we do the work for you and take care of all issues around your store? How many customers will use your store daily? Is a "small" server enough or do you need real power and not "just" a server that does everything? As you can see, the range of costs is from 0€ to several hundred Euros per month. Without further information an estimate of the costs is not accurately possible.
Shopware comes in different variants with different additional plugins. Shopware's Community Edition starts at 0€ and goes up to the Enterprise version which costs over 20.000€. In between there is the Professional version, which at 1000€ tears not quite a big of a hole in your wallet. However, it offers fewer options than the Enterprise version and has licensing limitations. Furthermore, it remains open whether you or your team should install and configure the store yourself or whether we should do it for you. The Shopware version depends on the size of your company, your aspirations and individual ideas for the future. The costs amount here from 0€ to 20.000€. This gives us a second point, which, without more information, is impossible to estimate.
We offer you a wide range of customized solutions for the most diverse requirements. You decide yourself which plugins should be used. Our packages "Starter", "Standard" and "Business" offer you prefabricated combinations of plugins, which represent the most common use-cases. You also haf the option to inform yourself about our plugins and decide freely, which ones complement and advance your company and goals the most. Here, too, there are very individual possibilities, which cannot be estimated before the start of a project. Therefore, the plugins turn out to be uncertainty factor number 3. They can cover a cost range from a few euros to several hundred per month.
Probably the greatest uncertainty in the serious costing are caused by this point. Here, too, some questions must first be clarified:
- Do you import your product data yourself?
- Do you do your product matching for the import yourself?
- Do you need product images?
- Do you need to program plugins to implement special requirements?
- Are there alternative ways to implement them?
- Do plugins need to be added by us so that your store can go live?
- many more...
omnoto offers you a customized e-commerce platform, which adapts to you and your company's needs. Our goal is to advise you comprehensively and not only to fulfill your wishes and visions of a digitalization project, but also to secure and accompany you in the long term. Updates, new requirements, changes in your wishes or changes in the course of your business, support and demands can not be planned and estimated at the beginning of a project.
One point is often ignored: What if...? And here really everything can be inserted.
- How or who does the store updates?
- Who takes care of the plugin updates?
- Who can I turn to if I have questions about the store?
- Who helps me with the implementation of new requirements?
Here it is similar to the points above. If you are a lone wolf, tackle and do everything yourself, then you are in for little to no cost (other than your time). Or you belong to the category that prefers to focus on the business and make money? In this case, the cheapest, fastest and most effective option is to let others take care of your problems!
Let's return to the initial question. Now that we've taken a look behind the scenes, can you define exactly what a store will cost precisely? Probably sooner than we can! You know what you want but you have a blind spot with the exact estimations to point 4. You realize it is still not possible to give a serious estimate at this point - what is the best way to deal with this?
The solution is simple as well: divide and conquer! The big problem is divided into many small ones and solved one after the other. At the end of the journey, the big problem has been solved. In the focus we have the risk minimization on your side as well as on our side as your executing hand. Both parties benefit from this approach.
The first step - the analysis
At some point we have to deal with the paperwork. This part of the project is performed as a service and billed on a time and material basis. The advantage for you is that this part is the shortest of the following steps. Thus, your cost risk is very low and manageable. The results of this step are indispensable for the subsequent steps and provide us with answers to various questions.
Open questions
What will the store cost me?
How long does the implementation take?
What needs to be developed?
What are the risks of the project and how can we solve them?
What needs to be done on our side?
What will be delivered and what not!
At the end of the analysis we have a clear roadmap - which tasks need to be completed to acquire your own store at the end.
We have already identified risks and optimized processes! This means the following: We don't start developing until all open issues are resolved. It makes no sense to start with the knowledge of possible complications.
We have done a lot of work in this step and we can reap the reward in the following. Based on the jointly developed knowledge, work packages can now be put together. This makes it possible to estimate the costs of the individual items and the time required for the individual packages much better, if at all. Based on these estimates, time frames and therefore an overview of the expected costs can be created.
Here we now even have the possibility to readjust if the costs are out of line or the time window does not fit. Certain functions can be prioritized and delivered later if necessary. The order of the packages can also be defined, as we can identify dependencies. Mockups can be created and further specified, it can be worked out precisely what should look like and how it works.
The fog lifts and both sides can clearly see what lies ahead. According to experience, this phase lasts between 1-3 days, depending on the scope of the project, during which your cooperation is required.
The second step - the implementation
Now we are talking about the implementation. We have our sequence of packages. We know how long the packages will take and we can focus entirely on the implementation. Tasks can be processed in parallel, which brings speed. There are regular checks on your part and you are always aware of where we are. Costs are under control and can be estimated relatively accurately. The risks are minimized. It's running smoothly as it is!
The last step - going live
The work packages have been completed and going live is imminent. A lot of work has been done on both sides. Now the first people are starting to think, now that we have the store, we can also ...
Ready for the next level?
Sources:
Header by Kvalifik on Unsplash
Questionmark by Emily Morter on Unsplash
Lightbulbs by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash