Someone enlighten me. I keep running into this idea with certain people I talk to.
"Why are you charging me for this custom program? It has already been written for another bank. All of the work is already done."
I've tried explaining that programs are like books. Even though you only wrote it once you charge it multiple times.
I've tried explaining that custom programs are like our software product. You have to pay for YOUR copy, even though we've already written and sold copies to other people.
The last person I tried to explain this to told me that I "shouldn't argue with the customer".
/sigh
This isn't a complex idea.
"Why are you charging me for this custom program? It has already been written for another bank. All of the work is already done."
I've tried explaining that programs are like books. Even though you only wrote it once you charge it multiple times.
I've tried explaining that custom programs are like our software product. You have to pay for YOUR copy, even though we've already written and sold copies to other people.
The last person I tried to explain this to told me that I "shouldn't argue with the customer".
/sigh
This isn't a complex idea.
Comments
We have a client that likes to modify the business logic behind the GUI two days before demonstration and ALWAYS says something like "That shouldn't take too long. I mean all you're doing is making a button look different!"
I sometimes tell clients that what we are selling is a physical asset: it's not easy to see (without an electron microscope) the 1's and 0's on the hard drive, but that is what we are selling. What those 1's and 0's do when loaded in memory is free ;-).
I love how when you tell someone that what they want isn't feasible, they still insist. Just call them a n00b next time.
What I would do is, "If you don't pay for your licence to use our product, I will cancel your subscription. If you happen to find a way around our code to allow paying users only to use it, I will sue you for violating the terms and condions that we have."
That way, you are going to get money as they will "need" to use your software sooner or later... thats why they asked you for it in the first place.
They're paying to ensure that even if the original customer's environment changes and the custom code gets adapted for them on their money, a fork will be developed to ensure all paying customers retain functionality.
It's a finance guy asking, no? :)
Think about it: you can listen to a song on the radio, maybe it's on a commercial on the television, and your friend might have a copy of the song, but you don't own a copy yourself. You can purchase a copy and then play it all you want within specifically created parameters.
The idea is that it's an asset, whether or not you can put your hands on it. It's like a book, or a car, or anything else you buy; the effort into designing it and making a physical copy was some time ago, but you still need to buy it. The music analogy is probably the best one to go with, however, because that's a non-tangible product that you pay for.
@everyone thanks for the examples/support hehe. As my supervisor said "well, tell them they're paying anyways". It just boggles me that in today's world someone wouldn't understand how programming is sold.
To which I would respond... "No, here, we hire people with half a brain who aren't wrong all the time. We aren't that selective with whoever walks in the door, however..."