Software developer or network admin

Talk to your local community college that teaches programming. The professor will be able to put you in touch with a "star" pupil that can assist/intern/contract pieces of the app for you.

Gets your app built cheaply, and gets the student some real world/documentable experience.

who could do it faster and better. If you hire in, you've got two options a full specification with as many i's dotted and t's crossed as you can. Or get a capable resource for a period of time and then specify and build between you. Unless you are completely sure what you want now, and later I'd recommend the latter.
Make sure the source code is yours !
Any outside firm will want to hit you for a maintenance contract, make sure they don't construct a vice and cunningly place your nuts in it.
Last but not least whatever option you take, don't trust anybody to do it right. Learn enough to keep them honest.

If you feel you can do it in house, then by all means go ahead, it's not just your skills and ability though it's your time, it will always take longer than you thought. If it is saving you money, then obviously the longer it takes to get it into place, the more money you spend on it and the less you save with it.

Hi,
Firstly if you have an HR dept, get them 'onside'. If you are 'stretched too thin', and have too much 'on your plate'. Make durned sure HR know about, and keep badgering them until they do something about it!! After all that is part of their remit.

Hello,

You could try using Eicon cards (www.eicon.com) which are not so expensive, plus they provide a free SDK and samples to build Call and Fax applications.

We have just started using them to develop integrated fax solutions using VB.NET.

Regards

I have come across this so often as an employer and a
consultant that I can almost write this in my sleep.

"Hey, we could save ourselves thousands/tens of thousands/
millions of dollars by getting one of our IT guys to write our
inhouse stuff in his odd five minutes of spare time. Shouldn't
take him more than a couple of weeks . . ."

1. Are the benefits proven?
2. Is the company prepared to invest money to achieve them?
3. How reliable are the development plans?
4. What are the user acceptance criteria?
5. Who will provide full documentation for on-going support in
your absence?

Just five questions out of a thousand. If your product doesn't
work and continue to work to the same supported standards of
what the company is now spending tens of thousands on then
you will be blamed. Get them to treat this exactly as if it were
an external procurement so that you know precisely what it is
you are expected to provide. Do not muddle on dazzled by the
prospect of the bonus in the middle distance, because it will
remain in the middle distance unless you have a firm schedule to
secure it. If you don't, I guarantee that on the day you hand over
what you think to be the finished product, you will have twice
the work you have put in to that date to get it just like they want
it. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

RAMROD

I am a devloper who is and have been working on delivering complete software systems from scratch and know what you face. My software isnt as critical as a voip system and I have been on the same project for the last 4 months. I wouldnt say your project is impossible but it would take at least 12 months at a push.

What your boss is proposing is going to take a singular developer far too long to implement. Why design it from scratch when there are already solutions that you can deliver - the open source system:

http://www.vocpsystem.com/

Wont cost you anything unless you want to subscrive for support, just the config. Its secure - non windows based system. Could save you a big headache.

Regards

Luke Lincoln

I understand the plights of small companies, however this does not excuse them from running their IT ---department which is you, into the ground. You must consider, no matter how well you code, you're still going to wind up modifying, and supporting it when users start to untilize it in the company. I would lobby very hard at least for a part time administrator or tech support person to handle the basic network and user demands so you can work in peace.
good luck ...

_Scott

I've been working as a one person IT team doing network and database management for a small company of 150-200 users for about five years, develop software, and am finishing my work on a Masters degree. You can accomplish the task without burning yourself out by applying the following concepts.

- Automate all maintenance
- Replace equipment in 3 year cycles
- Have your internal customers form the bulk of your specifications
- Have regular meetings with department leaders in order to form priorities
- Creates systems that users use as opposed to systems that you must operate
(Get out of reporting by giving them the tools)
- Build excellent remote access for you and the organization
- Design your schedule using flex time if necessary
- Remember perception is reality (If they believe that you are performing well, you are...)

During the last five years I have replaced ERP systems, written customized solutions related to BI, document management, and other MIS systems while running the entire IT enterprise. Plus I currently attend Masters courses and week long conferences. If I can do it so can you.

Best of luck.

Tom Staight
Information Systems
Ext 141
tstaight@nemcomedical.com

Tell the cheap bastard to give you a reasonable budget, which includes the ability to hire a programmer, (even after hours side-job proggy
that want incentive bonus money).... THAT is your strength.... To MANAGE this project.

This guy would have to change his underwear if he got a quote for what a telephony software project really costs..... lol

Seriously dude, prepare your timeline, budget, goal breaks, testing phase, implementation phases, final testing, etc..... and get a quote from a fellow IT project person. Then cut it in half, and present THAT to HIM, instead of this "carrot-dangling" IT people will do anything cause they all on sale" attitude that is prevalent in today's world....

Good luck.

I would be real careful about this. Depending upon what your higher ups view your position to be, even if you do the 'heroic' act and pull of the software development, you may get the bonus, but raise the expectation that (even as your organization may grow and other responsibilities become part of your regular job) you can of course 'do whatever it takes.' This will lead to many more long, and probably uncompensated hours.

Were I your manager, I would be more impressed with your ability to find and direct an independent developer to do this (including setting up maintenance) If you pulled it off, within budget, and were able to continue all of the other functions, you would get the bonus. But then I don't write your paycheck.

What is the price of your family life? on your soul?

tol

Asterisk Linux is a platform for exactly doing this. It has saved companies like yours 10's of thousands of dollars. It has every feature known to the telephony world and is actually easy to setup.
http://www.asterisk.org/

Do you have another more important task to complete? If the answer is yes, put a case to your boss and ask for his priority. Then, you may find the fund to outsource the CTI project without lossing your bonus, may be have a credit as you can "manage" your tasks. As suggested, you can go to college or Open source for more resources.

Personally, I thinkyou shoul dtake up the development by yourselves.

If you've not an experienced CTI programmer then although the cost of producing a solution may only be your time, the cost of supporting it is the time you lose from doing the rest of your job properly. The ROI on a self-made solution is lost to supporting it unless you get it right first time and I guarantee you won't do that!

The saving made in buying in a solution will come in the form of the fact you can get on with doing your job and that a bought in solution will have warranties and possibly tech support as part of the deal.

If your boss is offering a bonus on saving money then buying in a good solution should be justification enough to get it.

You could hire short term (from a staffing firm or local IT college) a tech to help with the day-to-day responsibilities while you program. Saving the company a LOT of money ought to mean they could invest a little to get some short term help for a special project.

We contacted the local college that taught IT courses to find someone new and inexpensive. We weren't looking for someone to come in and change things, just to do what we asked. Worked for us and in the end we actually hired one fellow (because we lost another one due to illness.)

I agree that you ought to consider asking for some money though to help as without this EXTRA project you were already 100% committed. Asking the company to put up some dough is one way to find out what they really are wanting to do as well.

Design HOW you're going to develop this software. Put it in writing with the associated priorities that occur with your job now.
For example:
Beginning Stage
Intermediate Stage
Finishing Stage
Intergration Stage

Job Priorities
Desk-side support
Network Support
Administrative Support
Software Development

You can also add the average time per day for each task.

Instead of outsourcing the software development, why not "temp" an assistant to take care of the low priority tasks?

The important part is to have a design of how you're going to accomplish this. And then have the appropiate managers sign it in agreement so when it begins there's no question about the priorities.

Good Luck!
Paul

I feel that everyone has pretty much covered the topic of being stretched thin. However, I haven't read anyone that's actually answered your question. Might I suggest using Asterisk? It's an opensource PBX system, and hopefully would get you most if not all the functionality you need. Keep in mind it runs on Linux, so hopefully that won't be a problem for you. There's one distribution of it (Asterisk@Home) with a nice front end and helps you set it up rather quickly. In addition, there are some commercial GUI front ends, read more about that here: http://voxilla.com/voxstory155.html.

Hope that helps! :)

Hi,

There are a lot of components and application code available in open source now. Take advantage of it. I could help you locate the components if you could let me know what application you are trying to replace.

Ajanta.

I cannot tell you the number of times I've come across situations like yours, where you find you could use the help, but are forced to weigh the pros and cons of your time, money, etc.

The first step is you realizing you need the help. At this point, exploring your options for outside temporary help, is most likely your best bet, since you sound like you're in a bind. If you bring in a skilled person to assist you, you can get the project completed in a timely fashion, save the company all that money-and be a hero, and not be as stressed out.

If you make your director aware of your needs, he may consider extending the task out or find someone to help you. In doing so, you still end up saving the company all that money, get the job done right, and with that said, they should consider giving you the bonus for getting the job done-with or without assistance.

If it ends up that you need a contractor, I work for a company that specializes in working with niche people for contract and contract-for-hire positions in IT. I'd be happy to help. Best of luck!

I lived this scenario! Only, I was tasked to develop an equipment lease management package to replace crappy software my company was paying out the nose for.

My friend, this is a possible setup for failure. I can testify to that. Even if you were a C# expert, I would cast a jaundiced eye your way. In order for software development to be successful, you have to have excellent project management, sufficient resources, and realistic deadlines (among other things). You have none of those.

You don't want to go in and tell your boss that you can't do it from the get go - that is bad PR. On the other hand, you don't want to drag this out until your failure becomes so apparent that they want to fire you.

Your management needs to have their eyes opened to the facts. I personally would read a book on project management. That will give you an idea of what it might take. Then make a believable proposal that is well thought out and has at least two options.

Applications need to be developed with functionality, stability, and security in mind. You don't want a cobble-job app that becomes the company joke.

At the company I mentioned above, I put together a proposal that convinced management that I could not possibly do it alone and still manage the network (my forte). They had two options - outsource the project or purchase COTS that fulfilled most of their requirements.

Unfortunately, they opted to outsource. They only hired two developers and set a six month deadline. Three years later, they continue to develop a product that has become the company joke. I still ended up with my bonuses, raises, and valuable experience for maintaining the network and providing excellent customer service. I have since moved on to bigger and better things.

Good luck!

.. of the ignorance of business leaders. Unfortunately, too many time bosses see the word "computer" without understanding that there are different aspects of the business. I'm not saying that that the one-man shops arent't capable, but the time constraints of people who already have their hands full aren't taken into account. When the IT community as a whole finally stands up and says NO!, things will begin to change. Otherwise, we as an industry are doomed to do more and more with less and less.

Stand up to the cheap son-of-a-"gun" and tell him to buy a package that can do what he wants. Also, remind him of the contributions you make to the company and how much it will cost him to train someone new if you leave. Best way to stop a bully is to stand up to him/her. If you have the skills, you can get another job.

Just realize you are taking on a significant risk by being the only goto IT person. Keeping the network running is a high profile service and now you may be adding a high profile telephony system.

You can go from hero to goat real quick. Just make sure management has realistic expectations. Good luck!

Note: Please understand that with this answer, I'm not minimizing your skills as an IP Professional.

If you are willing to pay for a solution that's already available, you get two benefits: the functionality (or at least some) that you need now, and a support system for that functionality.

Once you've bought a company's product, they may also solicit enhancements that you think would benefit your company. If they have a beta program, that's worth checking into as well.

If you are forced into writing the solution yourself and there are problems, how many hours would it take to find and fix that problem? How long will your company services be down while you write the fix? These are the types of questions that could easily help justify a purchase of an already existing product.

I have built IVR systems for 15 yrs, starting with the 900 boom. I have been using Asterisk this last year and I could not do it better for less no matter how I tried.

Jump to RedHat linux and Asterisk.

I spent most of carrer in this trap (even though I had a department of 12). We kept building systems, but, were never allowed to budget to maintain them. Even if you manage to get it built on the cheap; who is going to maintain it?

If you have not seen the graphic of the iceberg look it up. Just like an iceberg, which is 2/3 under water, 2/3 of the cost of a system comes in after it is in production (maintenance, support, help desk, enhancements).

If you don't go along you are not a "team player" if you build it you will have even less time to do your job for evermore, because you are the expert on this system.

If you outsource development, you will not achieve the cost savings the PHB is looking for, but more importantly, you have outsourced the institutional knowledge necessary to maintain and move the system forward in future years.

Time to find a new job. The sooner you realize that your are working for Dilbert's boss the better of you will be somewhere else.

I ended up in a similar situation. I support all of our in-house users (60 desktops), administer a small ASP of 2-300 remote users, provide first line phone support for 1500 medical offices, go out on-site to install the software we rep and develop, build around 150 white box clones a year and I administer our phone and email systems. I also handle the administraton for twelve ecommerce sites that are hosted in-house. I drive around 3000 miles a month doing on-site support and installs.

When I was told last month I would have to take over the on-site installs of the backup tech so he could transfer to application development, I put my foot down and refused. Management is finally considering hiring a second tech/administrator to share the load.

Be very careful. This is an area that almost all new or young administrators find themselves, thinking that all they need to do is to "just write a small script," and life will be good. Often, it's a manager or customer who throws this idea out in order to solve a sticky problem. But the problem really is this: they don't want to pay to have the problem fixed. The perception is that your time and services are already paid for, so they are essentially free. Unfortunately, IT people tend to be lousy at basic economics. There is no free lunch - Milton Friendman.

Anyone with a few years of professional software development will be able to tell you this:
1) Good software development takes time. If software development were easy, then the joker telling you to write the code could do it.
2) All software development projects are unerestimated. Nothing ever takes 5 minutes.
3) All software that is actually deployed to a production environment increases ongoing support and maintenance costs. It doesn't matter who wrote the code, if it's commercial or in-house.
4) Don't underestimate the impact of opportunity costs. Time spent coding new software or poviding ongoing support for existing in-house software is time that you cannot spend doing anything else - like your job.
5) If the company wants custom in-house developed code written all the time, they should budget, staff and organize around a professional software development group, the let you go to that group for your projects.
6) YOUR TIME IS WORTH SOMETHING. YOUR CAREER IS WORTH SOMETHING. PROTECT IT. IF YOU ROLL-OVER NOW, YOU'LL ALWAYS BE TREATED LIKE A CHEAP RUG. CHEAP RUGS DON'T GET BONUSES OR PROMOTIONS.

I'm not being facetious here - I had a friend of mine who was killed (at the age of 32) in a motorcycle accident. Asside from the grief of losing a good friend, there was the problem of supporting all the things he had done. Evidently he had implemented several systems (in different programming languages) and was the only guy who understood how they worked or what they did. One of the systems was not even Y2K compliant and he was fixing it by hand each day while trying to find the problem.
Who knew? The guy was getting things done and nobody bothered to look over his shoulder to check on things like documentation, testing, etc.

110 customers seems like a lot for a Windows environment. You could do it on a Mac, maybe, Linux for sure if you are clever, but I'll bet you're using Windows. You need one or deputies.

As someone who has headed a team of developers in providing telephony I would give you the following advice:1 use Linux telephony -all you need to understand is the application specifics, some Linux Admin tools and how to interface with Voice T1's and possible Nortel or whatever brand of switch you are using. This will provide you with such things as DID (Direct Inward Dialing features, call routing, rules pertaining to off hour call handling (such as voice mail, announcements, wait times et.)

However if you are doing something for a call center such as handling incoming call queues, outgoing predictive dialing etc. then you are looking at an enormous task that will require a dedicated person or even team to develop. I had a team of 4 devlopers working for over a year on this project. The cost of buying the software was ab obout the same as writing it but by writing it we at least knew in-house what the software did and how to cusomize it as wll as having all of the source code.
If you are doing outbound call center applications you must also understand alot about tarriffs, laws pertaining to don't call lists and don't call hours etc which vary by state and also the percent of dropped (calls you initiate but can't get a person on the line quickly enough when answered) as well as host of other issues-this requires at least a consultant to set you on the right path so your company doesn't get fined.

Good Luck

Quit your whining. This type of request has been going on for years. Our ability to meet requests like this is what built up your salary.
A lot of us don't have regular jobs anymore. Maybe you should remember the challenges you were ready to meet when you entered this field. When did your career dreams become a series of "bonuses"?

Why don't you get a full blown open source software PBX?

http://www.asterisk.org/

It will save you time and hassle. It works with VoIP and configures pretty well with most equipment. It is pretty easy to setup and there are some nice GUIs out there for it.

Strange how many one man shops you bump into, seems to be a popular mistake for business'. Excellent grounding for us if you can avoid the nervous breakdown though. I left for more authority, less responsibility and a ?10k rise in pay.
Worth it for me, doesn't sound like good business for the short sighted fools who created the situation though.
Do want to gain experience as a DBA, a Net Admin and a developer.
Er OK then
Course you need to do all three for a goodly amount of time before you can be confident about your skill level, and theres no way you can be an 'expert' in all three at the same time, not unless you invent successful human cloning in your spare time.

If the app you need is complex, then It could be a much better bet to start with some freeware that has open-source code development and make some minor, documented changes to support your efforts. Or, outsource and require thurough documentation as a deliverable. Support in the future is your worst enemy should you remain with this company. Your time,ETC. is valuable. There is a reason for having other companies with records of "longevity" develop "for" you.And if it is well documented, and your contract states that you own the finished product, then licensing is not an issue.
Good Luck

Like many who have replied to your post, I too have encountered simillar circumstances.

The bottom line here is that you have done an exceptional job managing a 100+ user Infrastructure on your own.

In order to resolve your issue while securing your chances of a bonus, may I suggest the following:

1)Talk to the Director. Determine his motives for bringing up this topic.

2)Build a Business Plan for a CTI solution. A good place to start is in evaluating some of the solutions featured on this thread.

3)Determine the cost-benefit ratio for your chosen solution; it is critical here that you show savings to the company's bottom line; eg. how your solution would save the company actual dollars in Telephone costs...

4) Present the solution to the Management team in your company.

If, after doing all the above, you have failed to deliver the expected savings and Return on Investment for a CTI solution, at the very least you have shown that you have complied to the Director's suggestion. Thus justifying your job and possible bonus.

Conversely, if you succeed in getting Management to approve your solution (and potential costs savings; which you would then need to deliver), you would not only have complied with the above but also have saved the company money and time (while improving productivity and all the other BS etc). Hence, you could justify additional head count for your department or a raise, at the very least... or both!

Remember, IT people have always been credited for their ability to think 'outside the box'. This is exactly what you should spend your time and resources on...

Good Luck.

Hi Ramrod,

I'm not sure exactly what the cti software is meant to do, but if it is to measure usage and traffic in your telephony network, be very very wary. This is a highly specialised field that requires and excellent knowledge of statistics, traffic measurement theory etc.
Having gone through the process of trying to source a system to do this, some years ago, and seeing all the starters that couldn't come up with the goods, I wouldn't even contemplate trying to write it myself.

This seems to me to be a matter of not programming an app from the ground up but understanding first PBX that the telephony data will be coming from. Many PBX's today have a CTI interface API already developed and desktop software available.

Avaya as the major telephony vendor in this space and my best advice would be to start to understnad what the given PBX that you are working on has to offer. Much if not all of the work has been done in many PBX interfaces. The database dips may have to be customized but if the API is already present then it may be simply some SQL calls.

Regards,

Jerry

Even supposing it's easy to write & implement, who's going to support it? Who will they call out of hours? Who will they call when you're on holiday? I bet I can answer those questions! Worse, what will they say to you if your 'phone is switched off while you're in the cinema or at your child's birthday party?
If you are currently paying too much then shop around, but one-man IT departments should never do development.

How in 'ells name did my response get down here ?

Because that's where I posted ?

Oh well maybe.

This will not help, but while the bonus may be important you can work yourself to death in this business. I lost two kidneys and eleven years of good health working on multiple systems projects over the last twenty years. Now that a transplant has solved the health problem, my employer wants to clone five of me.

Privately, I say good luck and people in hell want ice water.

I gotta wonder how many of you "one man show" IT types are single - my wife would leave me if I were in a similar situation with the 12 hour days, stress and crankiness. There aren't enough hours in the day to run a network, keep end-users happy and program a telco app from the ground up.

Looks like they're already saving a boatload of $$$ by having only one IT person and running you into the ground. When you burn out and go on disability for a stress-related illness, where does that leave the company?

Anyway - back to the original question. There's no such thing as a free lunch. You have several options: hire a programmer so you can be the IT guy, hire an IT guy so you can be the programmer, or outsource the project so if it's screwed up you have someone to blame.

If you have your eyes on the bonus - then you're doing so at the expense of your own well being. Keep your eye off the prize and maintain a realistic workload and staff the IT department appropriately.

Hi
Your story is just exactly what I went thru the past two years, working as an IT Admin for a small company on humble salary and was asked to develop different projects. One of them was a java project that I had to outsource other developers to work on. However, I ended up having no job after that project. So my advice is Be careful for what you will be offered or compensated, especially when you outsource the other "contractor"