Whether it’s good stress or bad stress, November and December always seem to introduce an extra dash of chaos. You’re trying to close the year while wrapping up projects, meeting annual goals, and juggling holiday and family commitments. It’s also budgeting season. Due to a variety of marketplace factors, many of us will be trying […]
With so many headlines about artificial intelligence, your colleagues, team members, and clients are probably asking about your AI strategy. For many organizations, these questions create urgency, especially when so many software vendors and experts are sending the message that “if you’re not using AI, you’re already falling behind.” At Skeleton Key, we’re excited about […]
Whether you’re a business owner, operations manager, or team lead, you probably didn’t go into your role simply to follow someone else’s roadmap. You have a vision for how to achieve success, and you’ve built a team and made a plan to fulfill it. Doing so means maintaining a certain level of control over how […]
In three decades of helping organizations overcome technology and workflow issues, I’ve seen a recurring pattern. Teams can become trapped by processes and tools (especially software) that hinder growth and efficiency. These platforms or workflows start out as benefits but evolve into constraints. Yet despite mounting evidence that these systems are liabilities, many leaders are […]
This is the second blog about our updated (as of June 2025) approach to pricing for development and support. You can read the previous article here. Billing by the hour for basic technical support can be lucrative for custom software developers, but we’ve seen that hourly-rate billing also generates something unexpected and undesired: Silence. Because […]
Talking about pricing is awkward. Most people and businesses don’t like to do it. Part of what has made us successful as a company is that we don’t shy away from tough conversations, and that includes talking about how we price our services. We’ve traditionally used an hourly-rate model for custom software development projects. That […]
In any business, identifying and mitigating your most troublesome bottleneck can be the key to unlocking improved productivity and profitability. For manufacturers, software is one of the most overlooked areas of trouble. Buggy, laggy, or just slow software can damage the efficiency of your front office staff and line workers alike. Fixing this problem can […]
Given the complexity of custom application development, you might think that the toughest parts of the process would be the initial prototyping, testing, or fixing bugs. In our experience, however, that’s not usually the case. It’s actually the conversation about the project budget that is most difficult. Custom application development costs can vary by orders […]
What’s holding your business back? Sometimes, the answer is straightforward, but it can be more elusive at other times. This case study looks at RJP Electric, which has grown significantly in the past few years. While the secret to their success might well rely on several factors, one they often point to is their new […]
Whenever we begin a conversation with a business owner about developing custom applications, the question of cost is often raised—as in, “This sounds nice, but what is this going to cost me?” These business owners are presumably looking for a ballpark price. They want to know if the custom system we envision is even within […]