PayThyme - a New Deal in payroll software

or

Breaking the rules of commercial software development

~

Why and how we developed a new Free Software payroll

~

John Pinner

Clockwork Software Systems

john@clocksoft.com

Why a New Payroll ?



These next four slides are from our internal meeting in Fall 2002

They show what we were planning.

Target Market





It'll be interesting to see if we have achieved any of our objectives!

What are we Offering ?



These were our objectives. It has to be said that these were all things we thought customers would want.

Business Model

The question was always going to be 'How do we make a living out of it?'

What's different about PayThyme ?



Starting with a blank piece of paper, we had no legacy restrictions, either technically or commercially.

Licensing





PayThyme is licensed under the GPL, which gives the user rights which simply don't apply under normal commercial licenses. And it protects us, the software authors, as well.

Payroll Annoyances





You have exceeded...



the number of Client Access Licences for your system

Payroll is a natural for restrictive licencing...

Payroll Annoyances





You have exceeded...



the number of Client Access Licences for your system



annoying users...

Payroll Annoyances





Contact MegaProfit Corp to licence more users



The solution is consistent...

Payroll Annoyances



You have exceeded...

the number of Employees you are allowed



the number of Companies you are allowed



You have moved your payroll to another computer

You are not allowed to run it on this system !

even insistent...

Payroll Annoyances



It's all your fault !

Contact MegaProfit Corp to licence more stuff



it's always the user's fault!

PayThyme - the payroll





Let's look at the payroll

PayThyme - current status



Getting to the point we are now has taken a while.

Marketing PayThyme



When it comes to marketing the product, we're going for the same payroll regardless of size, then we'll get our income from supporting it

Marketing PayThyme



We're taking it steady in the way we sell PayThyme, starting with a complete hardware and software payroll system, which we call "Payroll in a Box". That way we maintain control of what we are delivering and supporting.

Could you make money out of it ?





As PayThyme is available under the GPL for free download, Clockwork aren't the only people who could benefit from it.

We Broke The Rules

Payroll is a natural for restrictive licencing...

We Broke The Rules

and we are breaking the rules by not imposing these restrictions.

PayThyme - a Glimpse





In the live presentation we have a look at PayThyme, you can get a feel for the product from our website www.paythyme.com where you will find screenshots, FAQ's and general information.

PayThyme Development



This was a first attempt at remote development, it worked well, thanks to a well-defined interface.

PayThyme Development Platform



The fantastic development facilities of Linux and Python allowed us to get the first version running very quickly...

PayThyme Development - Tools Used



...and Thyme helped as well, with its data-aware widgets and program and screen generation tools.

In the presentation, we look at the tools, with a little live program development.

PayThyme Development - Tools Used





Python is a major benefit.

Finally...







Thanks for listening



Any Questions ?

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