Software today plays an important role in the development and growth of any Company. Be it a medical field, or a manufacturing field or a service field company. At least some software functioning or automation of the process takes place somewhere between. With the growth of technology and the digitalization era, computer or internet software services are also gaining huge popularity. Developing a superior quality website, app or even a chatbot becomes crucial in customer satisfaction. Building a reliable easy to use custom-software requires great planning and execution. Choosing the Software company you going to entrust this development is the most important. A bad company can turn out to be your Biggest Roadblock. In this article, we share a few things to look for, on How to Find the Right Software Company.
Figure the Needs of Your Business and Your Customers
You may be wondering why does this matters in choosing a company. There are thousands of software services available today, and millions of companies doing these.
Figuring out what your customer needs, and figuring out how your customer will use your service can help in choosing the best company working in that specific field.
Geography Specific Searching
Communication is the most important part of any software development. You don’t want the language to be a barrier between your communications. Outsourcing projects to cheaper labor countries may help you in reducing costs. But the difficulty in communication may kill your project. Development is always 50% of the job, so even if you hire the best professionals in a language you cant communicate. The other 50% may drag you behind.
Cheapest Developer Cost is Not Your Goal
The Goal of your company or business is to provide the best customer service thereby increasing the value of your business and profit.
Cheapest developer cost is in all conditions is proportional to inexperience and Cheaper Output. Even while buying a product, you would have noticed that the more you go for the cheapest, the more you end up paying in the end. This is applicable to development costs too.
Poor Communication, poorly written code, lack of Quality tests, confusion in source code ownership are all part of cheap cost.
Some companies charge based on the project and some based on the time taken to complete the project. We suggest you go for time-based developers if you are someone new to the field. Most companies charge extra % in project-based billing, for not knowing the exact scope of your business if you are new.
Developer Should be Your Unofficial Business Partner
Developing software is easy, Developing the most optimized and reliable software is the tough part. Your Developer should be able to elevate your ideas by helping you focus on priorities, challenges that may occur, etc. from a technical perspective.
Ability to say NO
Focus on expertise- Jack of all trades, master of none.
You may have noticed a huge list of languages and technologies they are working at while going through some company’s websites. This is possible for a huge software developing company. For all others, it’s better you don’t hire them for your work.
Being a master of different technologies or different languages is not always possible. All the successful developers you see or companies who have grown had initially focused on a specific skill set.
Identify which language or technology you want for your software, and hire an expert in that field.
Comparable company profile
Being an important customer of your developer is always the best.
If you are a small enterprise or a newly starting company, too big a development company is not your way to go. They may have many other high profile jobs, so they may give the least attention to your job.
With a developer company with similar profile, you will have a better voice in the process and also, being in same stage of yours, they will want you to develop or grow.
Ultimately, it’s the success of their clients, the measure of their success.
Preparing a Questionnaire for the company
Questions, questions, and questions are the only things you trying to answer when finding a company for your project. So prepare a short questionnaire with all your doubts and make them answer these. It can help you in hiring the best companies you can collaborate easily with.
The questionnaire can have
General Questions like ‘how do they work?’, ‘What are the communications methods used’, ‘What do you expect from us’, etc.
Risk factor Evaluation Questions like ‘top 10 risks that may occur when going further with this project’, ‘Warning signs to look for, to find these risks’, ‘How will you tackle them’, etc. If they do not have any answers for these, reject them immediately.
Technical and Business Questions like ‘Technologies used’, ‘is these better technologies available’, ‘source code ownership’, ‘what makes your company better’, ‘any similar projects done’, ‘any testimonials’, etc.
Reviews and Referrals
Shortlisting and rejecting of companies can also be done based on reviews and referrals.
LinkedIn, Facebook, Google, and many other media can be used to find reviews about the company. It also helps you in identifying whether they are good at customer satisfaction and after development support.
Digging more into your local networks, searching for contacts who already availed services can be used for gathering opinions.
Developers and Software developing companies are all not best or worse. Choosing the best suitable one for you is always a difficult task. With these pieces of information in mind, you can shortlist companies, and choose the most Appropriate one.