Any firm would agree that information technology is one of the most integral parts of their business model.
Whether you are a startup firm, an established brick and mortar store or an e-commerce business, the software you use will differentiate you from the crowd.
If you want to hire a software development company for your business, you need to do your homework well.
The million-dollar question is whether you want to invest in an in-house Information Technology department or outsource it. In 2017, the global market of Information Technology services reached nearly $90 billion.
This number is reflective of an increase in outsourced software development expertise around the world.
At Arkbauer, we strive to contribute to this industry in the best way we can. Developing enterprise-wide solutions for different clients is our forte. We pride ourselves in the quality of our code and dedication of our team to every project.
As a company CEO, many questions cross your mind when deciding how to implement information technology at your firm. Answering a few questions will make things easier for you.
Once you have a fair idea about what type of services you are looking for, you can start looking for the firm that fits your criteria.
With outsourced software development in great demand, there are many contractors available in the global market.
Choosing the right one is the most crucial decision for making your outsourced project successful.
Rosy sales pitches and colorful presentations should not impress you.
Here are some useful tips on selecting an outsourced development firm that is right for you:
Like any other piece of technology, cheap outsourced software development comes at a price.
You might hire a software development company based offshore because of their low price. However, the language barrier may end up costing you.
Besides, experienced and skillful software engineers are hard to find and usually demand a higher hourly rate. If you hire a software development team that is offering you a very low price for your project, you never know who will be writing your code.
You might end up getting an IT program written by novice programmers.
Therefore, to ensure product quality at your end, always ask for a number of years of software development experience of each of your provider’s team member.
The worst-case scenario in this situation is a project that is completed on time but is based on a poorly written code. As you scale your business, the software may start crashing and the poor after-sale service will cost you more.
You should look for a cost-effective solution rather than the cheapest for your outsourced project.
Software development is not just about writing a perfect code, it is majorly about understanding your business requirements.
You should know how to hire a software development team that commutes and integrates well with all stakeholders.
They should be able to analyze your existing system and make appropriate recommendations.
It is best if your software development partner understands your business. This will reduce the overall project timeline and make the whole process smooth and convenient for both parties.
It is the best to look for a software development company with relevant experience in your business. However, it might not be that easy to find one.
If you don’t manage to find an exact match, look for the software development companies who have a broad experience in different industries.
Portfolio with different business instruments from different industries reveals the competency and abilities of that software development company to different situations.
Often, software development companies that act as a universal soldier can turn out to be a lot better choice. Reason being that they have a stronger IT team, capable of handling different challenges, that your business might experience in the future.
If you want to include applications, then choose a software development team that includes app developers as well.
If you want to develop an open source application, make sure that you hire someone with freeware experience.
Before you hire a software development company, look for their online reviews. These reviews will shed light on some important aspects of your solution provider.
You will get to know about:
It is very important to note where your outsourced software development company is located. Based on their geographic location, you should pay attention to the time difference, and language issues.
There are online score indices available based on each country’s success which provide outsourced IT services.
This is one of the useful indicators of how to choose a software development company. If you are planning to hire an offshore software developer, it is a good idea to check their country’s score index.
Globalization has played a major role in promoting outsourced or offshore software development.
With fast-paced data communication networks, applications can be built and deployed remotely. This has allowed companies to enjoy major financial and other organizational benefits through outsourcing their IT projects.
Some of the useful ways an organization can benefit from outsourced development include:
Companies have been able to save a lot on their payroll expenses by outsourcing their IT projects. Since they do not need to hire full-time software developers, they save on employee benefits such as insurance and bonuses.
One of the major challenges for any CEO is to manage their staff training and development costs.
Outsourced software development helps you achieve that purpose in the most appropriate manner. The software developers at an outsourced company constantly undertake training courses to update themselves with the latest technology used in the business.
This helps them resolve complex technology challenges for their clients and help CEOs divert their attention to other aspects of the company.
Since software development firms work on a variety of projects, you gain access to a wider talent pool. These experts would have spent a number of years in different software development fields including app development and object-oriented programming.
Outsourcing allows you to gain expert opinions from individuals around the globe.
This is essential when you want to launch your product worldwide. The creative ideas that you get when you hire a software development company that has worked across the globe are priceless.
Since you don’t have to worry about managing your IT staff, you can focus your energy on your core business objective.
This will allow you to gain a competitive edge in the market as you will be able to launch new campaigns and focus on product innovation.
Asking the right questions is an important element of knowing how to hire software development team.
Some of the useful questions that help you determine if the software development firm is right for you, include:
These questions will help you understand about the level of compatibility your business will have with an outsourced software development company.
By now, you would have a fair idea about how you are going to outsource your software development projects.
The next imminent question would be to outsource your projects locally or to take services from abroad. Here are some important concerns that you should address when outsourcing your IT projects to onshore or offshore service providers:
If you hire a software development company that resides locally than you would not have to worry about time difference or language and cultural barriers.
However, in many cases, the price can be high, especially if you are residing in developed nations such as the United States or Singapore where the cost of labor is quite steep.
When outsourcing your projects to an offshore team, the challenge would be to effectively coordinate with your remotely located software provider.
However, recent surveys have shown that countries all over the world are encouraging employers to not restrict their employees to a single physical location. With the advancement of networking technology, remote work seems to be the new trend in the industry.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Each
Below we highlight some of the prominent advantages of onshore and offshore software development. This will help you further in deciding on how to hire a software development company.
It is easier to communicate with your software provider when they reside on your shore.
However, the price they charge may be too high. Here are some advantages and disadvantages of selecting an onshore software development company:
Advantages
Disadvantages
Offshore software development companies are usually less expensive. However, sometimes communication can be an issue when your provider is far away.
Here are some major benefits and hurdles that you face when working with an offshore software development firm:
Advantages
Disadvantages
The best way to make an outsourced software development project a success is to understand your software providers’ limitations. If they are residing abroad, you may need to work with them in different time zones.
It is crucial to address any potential threats from the start of the project.
These may include differences in work culture and payment issues such as mode and frequency of payment.
Collaboration is the key to success of an outcome of your software development project. Besides looking at their skills and expertise, you should also give emphasis to your software developers’ communication skills as well.
Other things that you can do to make your outsourced software development project a success include:
Once you start measuring your software provider’s progress in the above manner, you will be able to complete your software development project on time.
If your outsourced software developer is working in a different time zone, it is better to dedicate a time of day for the quick conference call.
This will help you address on-going issues like bottlenecks in document submissions or tracking the progress of your project.
It is important that you have your own quality assurance procedures in place to test the outsourced product. You need to ensure that you ask for a prototype that you can test with your current system.
This will give you a look and feel of how your end product will look like.
After every milestone, your solution provider should demonstrate how your product looks like. This will help you make any changes as your software is being built.
When working with an outsourced developer, the key to success is not to expect too much from them. In fact, you should be ready to pitch in with new ideas to make improvements to your product.
Since you are the expert in your business, it is always better to work closely with your service provider and offer guidance to keep things on track.
Communication is the key, hence you should resolve any language issues up front. If you are facing trouble communicating verbally, it is better to communicate in writing so that no requirements are missed during the development phase.
Once you decide to outsource your software development work, the next challenge is to find the right provider.
Here are some useful tips to hire a software development team that will help you in smooth implementation of your project:
An outsourced software developer that has spent more time delivering projects will know in and outs of on-shore and off-shore software development.
They will understand your requirements better and provide useful feedback when necessary.
The timelines they provide you to complete the project will be realistic and help you set achievable targets. It is easy to find references for these companies who can vouch for their integrity and speed of work.
One of the major benefits you get when you hire software development company is access to great talent. Hence, when selecting your software development provider, ask for their team list.
This will tell you more about the people who will build your code.
Important things to note about your outsourced team is their area of expertise, number of years of experience and programming languages they have command on.
It is important to figure out who is your provider’s current customers.
Whether most of their clients are off-shore or onshore?
Do they cater to large-scale corporate organizations or small business ventures?
Answering all these questions will tell you how well your potential software development company will work with your organization. At Arkbauer, we work with industry leaders as well as small business owners.
We have experience working with clients from all over the world. This helps us to quickly adapt to working environments of different companies across the globe.
An outsourced software provider that has experience working on a wide variety of technology stack can make recommendations about using the best technology for your product.
They can help you decide from a number of proprietary or freeware software to choose from for your business application. The solution they develop for you will be cost-effective and create efficiencies in your business processes.
Your outsourced software developer should use the latest techniques in software development, like agile methodology. Hence, the provider will be able to gather complete requirements at every step of the way.
Moreover, their choice of methodology is crucial to them delivering your project on time.
An effective outsourced software development company will use an innovative approach.
Moreover, they act as a business partner in optimizing your IT solution. The will work closely with your team to understand their business requirements. An ideal software development company will recommend a solution that is easy to implement and does not cost much.
An important element of how to choose a software development company is the price.
As a CEO, you want to hire software development company that gives you best value for your buck. When looking for an outsourced firm, you should acquire quotes from multiple software development companies.
Some may offer you an hourly rate while others will ask for a monthly fee based on each team members average pay rate.
You should make your choice keeping in mind the price, experience, and expertise of your software development provider.
In this fast-paced and technology focused environment, managing software cost is an issue for many CEOs.
Fortunately, with globalization in full effect and network technology improving at an exponential speed, organizations can outsource their IT projects.
The magnitude of software projects companies outsource is evident from the following facts:
With greater benefits and easy access to outsourced software developers, companies are approaching outsourced software developers more than ever before.
Facing minimum hurdles and acquiring colossal benefits, companies outsource their software projects on-shore and off-shore as well.
There is a large amount of data available on the internet to measure the service level of outsourced companies from different parts of the world.
European software developers fare well in terms of ease of collaboration and delivering projects on time.
The latest trends in software outsourcing include cloud computing, data security,and artificial intelligence.
Software developers providing these services help business managers scale their operations with much ease. Cloud computing helps host business applications on the internet, which means they depend less on physical resources, such as on-premises servers.
As businesses grow, their major concern is data protection.
Outsourced software development firms make it easy for corporate organizations all over the world to add data security.
Artificially intelligent software are difficult to build in-house and CEOs hire software development company for these projects.
Working with an outsourced software developer can be a challenge if you don’t do your homework right.
It is better to spend a considerable amount of time searching for an outsourced software provider.
You should hire a software development company that is most suitable for your business needs. Building a strong relationship and keeping your expectations aligned with your software developer is the key to successful completion of your project.
At Arkbauer, we help CEOs resolve a number of financial and operational issues by implementing the latest software technology at their firms.
Our area of expertise ranges from cloud computing to desktop applications for public and private sector companies. Moreover, we serve a diverse client base in different industries, including Healthcare, FinTech, Tourism, and Manufacturing.
We are recognized as a top Software Development Company on DesignRush.
As a CEO, if you feel you do not have the right resources to build your software in-house, you should start looking for an outsourced software developer immediately.
The support you receive from an outsourced software developer will help you grow your business and add convenience to your overall structure.
