Project management begins at the inception of any project. A detailed functional specification is written by MicroFocus with input gathered from the client project manager, client end users and existing client documentation. This specification is used to provide you with a detailed picture of what the developed software will look like and do. From this specification, estimates are made of the remaining work to be done and milestones are established. You will be kept informed of the status of the project and any deviations or delays that would result in a greater cost than originally estimated.

At this point you can decide to:

Proceed with the next phase of project development

Not do the project

Hire another software development firm to do the project or do the project in-house using the functional specification developed by MicroFocus Software, Inc.

MicroFocus Software keeps you informed through project management meetings, status reports, phone calls, e-mail, faxes, task lists and release notes.

Software development is a fluid process and there will always be changes made to the requirements and design as development progresses. Some amount of change is anticipated and built into the estimates and project management plans. However, major changes will be discussed and evaluated by you and MicroFocus as to the necessity of including them in the current implementation. Where possible, major changes will be postponed to a future phase of the project. If the change must be made, you will be informed as to the impact the change will make on the cost of the project.

Very unlikely. When you deal with MicroFocus you are getting the services of senior software developers—individuals with many years experience with large project management and software application development and in particular with Microsoft software. Contracting firms typically have senior developers on-site at project inception and for periodic project management meetings but for most of the development process will have relatively junior people doing the work on-site. Also, the working environment for MicroFocus developers has been designed to enhance productive software development, which is almost never the case at a client's site. Lastly, when the development phase of your project is over, your contractor disappears. If you need something fixed, enhanced or explained, your on-site contractor is already at someone else's site dedicated to their project and will not be able to afford you the attention you need and deserve, and will not have access to your project. In contrast, a MicroFocus developer will have immediate access to your project and will be able to respond to you quickly.

Decidedly not. Senior level members of large contracting firms have hourly rates up to $175 per hour. They are typically priced more than twice the hourly rate of MicroFocus personnel. Even more junior developers of a large contracting firm can have an hourly rate that exceeds the hourly rate of senior MicroFocus personnel. In addition, the work produced by MicroFocus will generally be of higher quality, be developed more quickly and have fewer defects, all of which impacts the bottom line.

Yes, depending upon the availability of our developers. We charge a 10% premium for all on-site work plus all time spent in travel over 1 hour per day. On-site we require a late model Pentium PC with at least 128 MBs of RAM and 500 MB of free disk space and either Windows 2000, or Windows XP operating system with Microsoft Office Professional and any applicable Service Packs installed. The environment will need to be reasonably quiet.

Work is done on a time-and-materials basis. Hours spent on developing your project are carefully tracked. There exists a minimum requirement of a three hours billing for all on-site project management meetings. Typically, we submit an invoice twice a month, with terms of Net 20.