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   Software Development

Sheffield Apprenticeships - Using TwitterOAuth to post Tweets to the Twitter API

Our Sheffield Apprenticeship Twitter account (@SheffApprentice) uses the Twitter API to automatically Tweet out information about apprenticeship vacancies in Sheffield. The Tweets are scheduled - 6 individual apprenticeship vacancy Tweets and two summary Tweets every day.

Using the Twitter API is straightforward. You create your Twitter account, sign-up on the Twitter developer portal and then create your Twitter app. Creating the Twitter app generates your authentication tokens. That whole process takes just a few minutes.

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   Software Development

SaaS pricing - what about a freemium pricing model?

I wondered a bit more about freemium pricing models after writing the last post. Freemium is where part of your software as a service is offered for free. Users sign up, they use the application for free but then have to pay for more premium features.

Hubstaff looks fairly typical. They have a free first tier. You sign up, use the free service and then upgrade to one of the paid-for tiers.

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   Software Development

SaaS pricing models - different ways to charge your customers

Scalable pricing is important because it’s a way of getting more revenue from bigger customers while at the same time you still keep your smaller customers. There can be more profit in the revenue from the customers who pay more, particularly if the cost of customer acquisition is the same for all customers.

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   Software Development

Find an Apprenticeship - developing simple location based search with the EFSA live vacancies API

There is an EFSA API (application programming interface) that allows you to search live apprenticeship vacancies (in England) and then look at the details of an individual vacancy.

The API is easy to use and there’s good supporting documentation - developing a simple location based search interface is relatively straightforward.

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   Software Development

Bespoke CRM Development or Microsoft Dynamics 365 - how to choose?

A lot of small businesses start out with MS Excel. They are run on spreadsheets - information about customers, products, quotes and sales spread across multiple workbooks. Valuable data is inconsistent, almost impossible to query and often never backed up.

Sooner or later someone decides to look for a new, more scalable solution. They want a cloud based system that:

  • Can be configured or tailored to fit the business.

  • Is safe - there’s no risk that it’s going to disappear (with the data).

  • Has low ongoing support and hosting costs.

  • Is a good long term investment. A platform for future development as the business continues to grow.

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   Software Development

Developing a software as a service (SaaS) application - 5 simple ways to optimise your SaaS design

The design of your software as a service application (SaaS) is inextricably linked to your business model. You should think seriously about how you’re going to find and sign-up paying customers before development starts. Does your SaaS application make customer acquisition as frictionless as possible? How does the design of the application facilitate marketing, customer feedback and the prioritisation of new features?

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   Software Development

Bespoke software development vs. off-the-shelf software

Why pay a software company to develop a bespoke application when there are so many subscription based online services?

Bespoke or custom software can sometimes be a better choice, but the decision is not always easy. This may help you decide:

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   Software Development

Working with a custom software development company - things to know

Here are some things we think it helps to know if you are about to start your first project with a software development company.

  • Ask questions about the technology stack. It’s doesn’t matter if you don’t know anything about software development languages or web technologies, you can still ask about the supplier’s preferred technology choice. Why PHP and not .NET? Why SQL Server instead of PostgreSQL for the database? Are there any licensing implications? How future proofed is the technology? Get answers in plain English.
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   Software Development

5 reasons why a bespoke CRM solution is the best solution for a small business

A customer relationship management (CRM) is then next step on from using MS Excel to keep track of customer interactions. You keep data your in one place - often a database in the cloud - instead of storing it in multiple Excel spreadsheets. Reporting on data then becomes easier and your data quality is better - data validation in web forms means you’ve got more control over what people type in.

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   Software Development

Why bespoke software can be a cost effective alternative to off-the-shelf software

Do you want to change the way you collect and manage data? Perhaps you’ve been using MS Excel to record information about potential customers and now you need a better alternative - a single database that holds one consistent set of data and makes reporting easier.

One option is to go down the off-the-shelf application route. Sign-up for a online customer relationship management (CRM) system like Zoho CRM. You replace the ad-hoc MS Excel solution with a third party web application.

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