Financial Questions
Why do you charge monthly?
Our monthly fee and licence-based payment system removes the need for you to make a large capital investment. This allows you to start using the system for a minimal investment. The monthly fee can then be fed into your internal cost rates as a fixed monthly amount.
Is it not cheaper to buy software outright instead of a monthly fee?
When looking at the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for buying software there are a number relevant factors to consider. Paying a monthly fee to access a web solution has the following advantages over purchasing software outright.
- There is no crippling, up-front capital investment to make.
- The software solves your business problems rather than creating installation and infrastructure headaches.
- With all upgrades, support and back-up included in the monthly fee you can budget with the confidence that you are not obliged to purchase expensive upgrades to stay competitive.
- With no physical implementation required the time to get up and running is much faster, measured in weeks not months.
- There are no additional software licence fees required for database or reporting tools, such as Crystal, to worry about.
- Web based solutions have no impact on your existing hardware infrastructure and will not require upgrades to your existing fileservers nor compromise your existing IT strategy.
- You will not require any additional local support or technical knowledge.
- Lower cost. Annual maintenance, support fees and call-out charges for installed software can often equal or exceed the equivalent monthly costs.
- The business model for supporting an installed software base is many times more expensive than via the internet. This allows us to keep our prices low and invest in research and development to ensure your solution is always delivering the best business benefits.
- Our focus is always on customer satisfaction. You will be as important to us in three years time as on the day you sign the contract. This does not always apply to companies that charge a large up-front fee.
Cash flow is tight and we are waiting on a few big projects!
We understand the constraints of cash flow. However our products have proven to have a very quick positive impact on cash flow. Why not maximise the fee income from your current smaller projects and have the benefit of a solution in place when all of the big projects come in - when implementation of software will be the last thing on your mind?
Are there any other systems that I should be looking at?
There is an abundance of time-recording systems but there are no affordable systems that have been built exclusively for your industry. We have taken a lot of care to make sure that when you start to use PROJECTminder you will find it easy to use and it will deliver a positive impact on your business. All of our customers are happy to supply us case studies and act as reference sites - a testament to what we have achieved.
Will you look at our data?
Absolutely not. Our terms and conditions deal specifically with this. We will only access your data if you ask us to in the course of fixing a problem for you. We will never divulge your data to any third party.
What about the small print?
The only small print is written on the back of the sales order. It deals with confidentiality and the terms of the contract. By signing the sales order you are agreeing to our terms of business. In summary, the initial contract is for 1 year. You can give notice in the 11th month, we will then terminate the agreement and supply you with a read-only copy of your data. If you do not cancel the contract in the 11th month the contract will continue for another year.
What happens if the number of users changes?
At IRIS PROJECTminder we like to keep things simple. The contract is for an agreed number of permitted users. If you need to add more users you can do this and the fee will not change. At the end of each year we will review the number of users and adjust the fee accordingly. After the first few months we do check the number of users to ensure that the contract is a fair representation of your staffing levels.
