What to do if your Software Vendor Goes out of Business

Startling discovery #1: Most companies that develop software don't stay in business too long. 

We're not sure why that is, but we've been around since 1997, and we seem to be an anomaly.

Startling discovery #2: Since we're still here, we've taken over a number of "orphaned software" packages.  Orphaned software is custom software that was written:

• for a specific company
• for a specific purpose
• by a company that is now out of business

Example

A few years ago, a now-loyal client paid $90k to a software firm to write custom software to manage their sales campaigns. Shortly after writing the software, the vendor went out of business.

$90k for buggy software that was unreliable - it worked some of the time.  $90k for software whose reports were semi-trustworthy. What a deal, huh?

Since the data was unreliable and the program only worked part of the time, the customer was in even worse shape than they were before they started the software project.  In addition, they were now $90k poorer.  And our contact's job was potentially in jeopardy.

Through lucky circumstances, the company found Northwoods.  We took over the code, fixed the bugs, and over time made substantial changes.  Today that company has:

• Tripled their sales campaigns
• Directly contacted 150,000 businesses
• Increased their sales reps from 200 to 750
• Increased sales by – well, that’s something they don’t want me to share. Enough to pay for the software over and over and over again.

Adopting Orphaned Software

Our method for taking over custom software is pretty simple, and it works.

• Fix the bugs.
• Enhance the software.
• Improve the process.

Sound Familiar?

We hope you are not struggling with orphaned software.  But if so - or if your vendor is simply non-responsive - please contact us.  We can help.