Reply #58: Meaningless Number Without More Data

[SteelPenguin]

You want a website based on open source software, where you do everything yourself, domain registration, server space on a virtual server, using only open source software to create the site, that won't really receive much traffic, or handle many emails...You're looking at something along the lines of $65 bucks for a year.

You want your own server that you don't have to share with anyone else that has reasonable support through a third party? You're closer to $4000 for a year.

Need massive bandwidth, backup servers, the ability to handle thousands upon thousands of emails, backup servers, exchange mail servers, private space to maintain those servers, and the various other infrastructure involved you're looking at six figures for a year. Heck a liscense for an Exchange server is what? $15,000 a year alone? I haven't priced them recently. It might be higher.

Not to mention that on top of all that infrastructure you'd need a whole IT staff. An IT Manager, a couple of peons to do the heavy lifting, maybe an Exchange expert on staff depending on their communciations load. You're looking at maybe $200,000 or more in salary and benefits for just the people to maintain the site.

So my absolutely rough guestimate says that just to have the infrastructure and manpower to simply maintain the site we're looking at closer to a half million dollars a year.

Of course that doesn't include ANY development or design of the site, and sounds like that whole thing had to be initially developed in 11 weeks. I'd normally say a project like that woudl need a few months in prep, usability, information architecture, and other stuff before development would even start, but they did the whole thing in 11 weeks. That's pretty crazy.

So we're talking a massive staff, working round the clock for 11 weeks at very high hourly rates because of the rush. maybe at team of 20 designers and developers for 11 weeks. That's another quarter million minimum in basic salaries, for 11 weeks, probably a million across a full year for design and development staff, doing continuing maintenance, development, design.

So bigger office space for now a staff reaching maybe 30 people of pure workers, say 10 managers above them coordinating, etc. Probably need at least what...4000 square feet minimum? Depending on where they are to get enough good staff you're probably paying minimum 10 bucks a square foot per month, so 40 grand a month on space. Another half million a year just for the space.

I forget where I'm at now...what...half million a year for infrastructure, half million for space, million for salaries at least, Plus other crap that adds up....elecricity, utilties, janitorial fees, benefits, receptionists, software licenses, desks, chairs, computers for the workers...Tag on another half million for all sorts of other crap.

I'm already roughly up to 2.5 million a year. Figure they want a 20% profit on the contract and you're looking at they probably factored for about a million in profit per year on the contract, and we're at 3.5.

As an owner of a software company just spitballing this shit, it seems pretty reasonable to me.

But hell what do I know.