Finding The Right Software Development Partner
Category : Digital Transformation
Blog posted by : Admin / 01 Dec, 2020
With the advent of the age of technology, businesses across industries have evolved to adopt technology-driven growth models. The path to software development models is now being charted with IT solutions at the helm. Technology has never been more crucial in the world of business, and organisations have become well aware of this fact. But, in a world of technology-led success, ready-made software products in themselves are often not enough to create strong business differentiators. Most businesses require a proficient software development partner who will prove reliable in the long term.
In an age where customers are pampered constantly and consistently by businesses with the best features and offerings, a standard software solution that delivers the fundamentals and basics with excellence is not enough. In order to stay at the top, businesses need to constantly develop new features to cater to all of the ever-increasing needs and wants of the customer base.
In such a heavily competitive business world, it is imperative to have a software development partner who not only understands the needs of your customers but also understands the philosophy of proactive innovation to keep your customers convinced of your commitment to go beyond the call of duty.
It only makes sense that one should take exhaustive efforts to ensure they choose the right software development partner because it will directly affect the success of the business. We would like to share with you a few guidelines that will help you to find the right software development partner for you.
What are your requirements?
First things first - What exactly do you expect from your software development company? What will be the scope of the duties covered by your software development partner? Penning this down in a detailed and specific manner will in itself cover a huge part of the search process.
Are you expecting your partner to handle everything IT related to your business? Or are you only looking for a team of professionals to help you with a limited number of tasks and few, relatively smaller requirements as they pop up? Maybe your in-house team is very capable in front-end development and only requires support with the back-end development, or it could be the other way around.
Once you define all your requirements in specifics, you will already have created a clear picture of the direction you need to head in.
Research! Research! Research!
This could not be more straightforward or obvious. The universal rule for making a decision - Make sure you do a structured and thorough research of all the vendors available in the market. Internet research is now something that is a mundane activity not only for businesses but also for the average student and the average consumer. But, this does not mean that all forms of research fall under the same category. The effectiveness of your research will depend on the approach you undertake.
Make sure you have covered all the important elements of the research, and ensure that you are following the correct order. We will give you pointers to help you with your research in this blog. But before we get there, make sure you recognise a few good platforms that will serve to be a good source of references and information such as Clutch or Quora.
The Right Mix Of Expertise
The first step in choosing your software development models should be to recognise the vendors with the right set of skills and expertise. When you penned down your specific and detailed requirements, you created a blueprint that will help you with your entire decision-making process. Since that blueprint already outlines to you what are the skills and expertise you require from your partner, you will now know what to look for.
This can go many ways. Your requirement might be the simplest such as only front-end development, or it can be as encompassing as taking over the complete IT solutions responsibilities of your business. And, it can also be a thousand things in between those two extremes. Find out what it is that each vendor excels in, and shortlist the ones that will serve as viable candidates for your requirement based on the mix of expertise each vendor possesses.
Review and Testimonials
What could be more important than hearing straight from the customers what they say about your potential partner? All the things that an organisation says about itself are meaningless if it is not echoed by its consumers.
Testimonials give you a good idea of what it is that the vendor and their consumers agree is good about your potential partner. They provide a good understanding of how a software development company approaches operations and deals with its consumers and how much value they put on customer experience.
But, testimonials are not known for their candour. This is where reviews come into the picture. Reviews are honest opinions of customers about businesses. You will get to know exactly what it is that your potential partner is not good at by reading their reviews. It is also necessary to ensure you take reviews with a grain of salt, as there is a high probability that a lot of the negative ones might be sabotaging campaigns by ill-meaning third parties.
Get to know the developers!
Most times, the only people that a potential customer gets in contact with is only the sales team. It is the sales team that makes the pitch and interacts with potential customers, so all one gets to see is what the sales team wants to show you. While the sales team will have a well-prepared image to put up to potential customers, you can never be sure what the ground reality of the services and operations is.
But, remember that the ones who will be providing you with the actual services you are seeking are the developers! The best view you can have into your potential future partner is by talking to the developers who provide the services. Have a chat with them and try to understand the level of attention they pay to their customers by probing them with the right questions. This will give you a real picture of what you can expect when you sign on with a software development partner.
Read Case Studies
This might seem like a rather unimpressive or not-so-impactful activity. But reading their case studies will let you know what kind of approach they follow. Where they start, how they proceed from the initial stages of the project, what philosophy they follow to reach the objectives, how they define their goals, and what their action-plan for completing a project is.
Having a good understanding of the approach and philosophy that an software development partner holds to will not only let you know how poised for success they are but also whether they are a good match for you.
Value > Cost
A very common mistake that a lot of organisations make is prioritizing cost-minimisation over business value. This is equivalent to a business shooting themselves in the foot.
Remember that in today's technology-dominated world, your software development team determines how people see you. Even your customers see you based on what your software development team puts out - website, applications, software products, etc. Skimping on price is not even an option when it comes to investing in IT solutions. Focus on return on investment in terms of value.
Also, it only makes sense that the best solutions will cost a pretty penny. So, be willing to spend good money in exchange for good business value.
We hope that this proves helpful to you in your search and that you find the right software development partner for you. If you are looking for a flexible software development partner who caters to businesses of all shapes and sizes and provides the best in class services, we invite you to check out our solutions at www.strategicerp.com. Our software development life cycle model offers swift development while not compromising on quality, which has enabled us to bring ideas to market miraculously fast. If you wish to read about one such development, click here to read about how we assisted the country in fighting the coronavirus pandemic.