• They've seen our work, or know of our reputation as one of the top development firms in the area.
  
  
• They want a system that will do exactly what they want it to do. Or, they "sort of" know what they want, and rely on us to help them determine their needs.
  
  
• They require one or more features that aren't available from commercial software packages.
  
  
• They like the idea that the system can be modified down the road as they identify new features they would like to incorporate.
  
  
• For their industry, the cost of commercial software is comparable to or exceeds the cost of custom development.
  
  
• They know the learning curve will be far gentler with our software, since it was built from the ground up to address their particular needs. There will be no distracting "features" they didn't ask for.
  

Why would anyone pay for "custom" software?

Good question. The first thing we do with prospective clients is have an in-depth conversation, or series of conversations, about their needs. If there's a way to make an off-the-shelf package do what they want, we tell them straight out, or offer to research it for them if we think there might be.

Do we work outside Northern California?

You bet. Arcata, California, is three hours from the nearest interstate highway, so we fly a lot. And we support clients remotely via PC Anywhere and Timbuktu Remote, as well as email and telephone

In fact, we've done projects where everything was accomplished remotely, and we never met the client face-to-face at all.