A Programmer's Guide to Starting a Software Company and Building an Enterprise Application

Introduction

This is the first in a series of columns in which I will tell you how I started SplendidCRM Software, Inc. I hope my entrepreneurial experience will inspire you as creating a company can be a wonderful adventure.

Article 1

I started SplendidCRM Software four years ago when I was between jobs (in other words, I was out of work). I was bored all day and was looking for something challenging to do. I read the latest trade journals, which included an announcement about SugarCRM, a new, open-source application. Since SugarCRM was an enterprise application and I was an enterprise developer; I immediately thought to myself, "I can do that, and it is a good match”.

The way I approach these kinds of projects is to assume that my efforts will not be wasted. Even if my software generates no revenue, I am certain to enhance my skill set, become a better developer, and become a more valuable employee for any future employer.

With SplendidCRM Software, the best part was that all of the application design was already done. Also, as long as I followed the terms of the original open-source agreement, I was free to use the existing artwork in my implementation. I did not have to think about the details of the product; I simply had to apply all of the skills that I had learned over my career as an enterprise-software developer.

By selecting a CRM, I had a really good feeling that there still were plenty of software challenges. By way of example, an enterprise company usually has offices all around the world. Its employees live in different time zones, speak different languages, and use different currencies. Most important, they all access the same CRM and all want the experience to be localized. Therefore, an enterprise product needs to:

support multiple databases
support multiple platforms
support multiple languages, and
support multiple currencies
On top of these four challenges for a global enterprise, the resulting system would need to be fast.

Let me repeat myself. I am an enterprise developer, so I selected an existing enterprise solution and set out to create an identical solution. If you are a games developer, consider creating a game. You don't have to design a new game; instead, just find an interesting, existing game and try to duplicate it. Chances are that in the process of creating an identical game, you will learn something new. In my case, SplendidCRM is not different in functionality from SugarCRM, but it is different in technology and I believe that it has a much better software design. I learned so many new techniques that I will have to save them for future articles.

Read more: Codeproject Article 1, Article 2, Article 3, Article 4, Article 5, Article 6

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