This document discusses strategies for technology, applications, and infrastructure for startups. It recommends: 1. Mapping business needs to IT strategy to define capabilities and resource requirements. 2. Defining application requirements and ownership models, prioritizing buying existing products over custom development. 3. Choosing proven, mainstream platforms that can scale with the business over personal preferences or "hobby skills". 4. Designing infrastructure for growth with room for expansion rather than current needs alone. Outsourcing and cloud services are preferable where possible.

1. Technologie als Motor,
nicht als Mühlstein:
IT für Startups
Markus Kempkes

2. Wer ist das?

3. Map Business to IT Strategy
What does Which are my markets / products / services / channels / partners?
it mean Which are the capabilities / things / people I need to have to achieve
this?
How much resources / money / time do I have for this?
Why is it It helps you to define the things you need to do in IT
important? It helps you to prioritize: “beauty vs. duty”
It helps you to define limiting assumptions and boundaries
How can I Series of workshops with or without external help / facilitation
do it?

4. Application Strategy
Which Applications do I need?
What does
What is the required / desired / nice-to-have functionality of the application?
it mean What is the level of control and ownership, which I need?
How much is this application related to my core business value / intellectual
property?
You understand what you need to do by yourself
Why is it
important? an outsourcing partner can develop for you
a product supplier can sell you
Define your business units / processes / functional requirements / features
How can I
do it? Try to get it in the Cloud for free or rented
Try to buy a product
If you can‟t buy it, try to outsource it
If you can‟t outsource if, do it yourself

5. Infrastructure Strategy
Which Infrastructure do I need?
What does Which are my strategic platforms / languages / databases / integration technologies?
it mean Can start small and cost effective (pay as you go)
Can scale up and out as my business grows (1 to 10.000.000 users)
Enterprise level support available (24x7, around the globe)
Will be around in 10 years (solid vendor, market leader quadrant)
Is supported by many suppliers (sufficient supply, hiring area, university supply)
You will learn to thing big
Why is it
important? not transform your “hobby skills” or “personal taste” into your strategic platform choices
layout the baseline for long growth
avoid a very! painful learning curve and a business continuity risk
Design for 20x capacity
How can I Implement for 3x capacity
do it? Deploy for ~1.5x capacity
Choose mainstream, proven, solid vendors
Choose IAAS / PAAS where ever possible

6. Starting
2-3 founders / 100€ per month
Intranet & Wiki 0,00€ ALM / SCM /
8,00€
Tools
eMail & Database
0,00€ 18,50€
Collaboration (5GB)
Internet & eShop 12,00€
19,90€
Phone
CRM CMS 10,00€
32,40€
(2 User, Group)
Server
Bring your Micro Edition, 1st 0,00€
Notebook 0,00€ year)
own!

7. When the Business Angel rings twice
Team of 10 / 800€ per month
Intranet & Wiki 72,50€ ALM / SCM /
38,00€
Tools
eMail & Database
included 229,00€
Collaboration (MultiServer)
Internet & eShop
included
Phone 45,00€ (MultiServer)
(VDSL50)
CRM CMS
included
(3 User, 210,00€ (MultiServer)
Professional)
Notebook Server included
180,00€ (MultiServer)
(10x600€)

8. And the company is buzzing
50 employees / 7.500€ per month
Intranet & Wiki 950,00€ ALM / SCM /
700,00€
Tools
eMail & Database
included (6xMultiServer, 2 1.374,00€
Collaboration
Datacenter)
Internet &
eShop included
Phone 135,00€
(3xVDSL50)
CRM
(20 User, CMS included
2.800,00€
Professional &
Service)
Notebook Server included
1.500,00€
(50x1.000€)

9. Staffing the DevTeam
Domain of Expertise Employee Freelancer Local Partner Nearshore Partner
Benefit Keep control Work on premise, some Work on premise, fix price Fix price packages,
control, easy to replace packages, warranties warranties, joint ventures,
lower cost
Risk Not easy to find, not easy to Attrition, IP leakage Long-term commitment, Language and distance,
replace price pressure learning curve
Project Management
Cost: 300-450€ Cost: 700-900€ Cost: 800-1000€ Cost: 350-450€
Solution Architecture Availability: Low Availability: Medium Availability: Low Availability: Very Low
Web Design
Software Development
Don‟t do Cost: 300-500€ Cost: 400-800€ Cost: 150-250€
Testing (only KEY developers) Availability: Medium Availabilty: High Availability: High
Operations & Support

10. My 5 cents
You don„t choose plattforms, you
choose ecosystems
You prefer commodity over cutting
edge technologies
... unless it gives you a
competitive advantage
You learn to partner and outsource
right from the beginning
Don„t over-engineer!

11. Vielen Dank
... any questions?