HOW TO CHOOSE A RIGHT SOFTWARE OUTSOURCING PARTNER

Each and every business has its specific requirement when it comes to Software Development hence you have to choose a right software development partner who fits to your needs. Businesses today are heavily relying on software applications for expansion, successful operation and increasing profitability. However, managing software development work in-house is often found challenging as businesses have to focus on their sales, marketing and operations. So, the best option is to find a right software development partner in India to outsource the web application development or mobile application development projects and thus continue focusing on core business activities.

Choosing a reliable and competent software development partner is a task. Here are some important points you as a business owner should consider while choosing a software development team to work with.

1. Define Your Software Development Needs

You, as a business owner are always aware what your business goals and needs are. Define your software development needs in-line with your business or customer requirements and then identify what you are expecting from this relationship.

Ask yourself a few questions. Are you looking for help with web application development or mobile application development or both? Maybe you need a team who can help you with end-to-end development including application backend, frontend, UI/UX, DevOps and QA. Or maybe you just need a backend team. Some companies only cover development, leaving the business side to the client. If you’re looking to have a team to cover everything you need from an IT point of view, you’ve already set a defining factor in your search for a partner.

Define what you need or want first and it will be a lot easier going forward. I don’t recommend using cost as a factor from the get go. You can do it of course, but going for the cheap route usually doesn’t end well.

Thus, first step is to make a list of all your software development requirements before you have any detailed presentations with software development teams. Make sure that you deal with the D word which means the data. You need to understand data, clean data, migrate data and all this is important as the data is foundation of any software system.

2. Check Portfolio

Another important thing to be taken care when you are choosing Offshore Software Development Company in India is to check the past work experiences of the company. It is always a good idea to hang around the past project which are executed by the company and check the credentials. You can check the time from when the company has been working in software development field, the growth of the company and the number of clients handled by company gives you a better idea about their credibility. Along with that you can also check about the industry domain the offshore company is specializing into. You would never outsource the retail software application development work to a company which is a banking software solutions specialist. Also make sure that the company you choose has right and adequate staff as per the technology skills you require.

Feedback or References prove to be the most reliable and easiest way of finding the right software development partner. You can look at the client testimonials available on company’s website or ask them to share the same with you. You should insist on doing reference check which can help you in knowing the company better. You can contact the past clients and check out about their experience working with them. While doing this process, you can also try to know and understand the length of the company experience, quality of the services offered, intellectual capital and responsiveness.

3. Scalability

Scalability is important thing which you need to consider when you choose the company for your software outsourcing project. You should always check how much scalability and customisation support the company is able to provide for any software developed by them. This is a factor which needs attention with business expansion as the software needs to be scaled as per the business growth. You would never prefer to purchase the software or solution which doesn’t meet your growing needs or is not scalable in long run. This is not a solution and you need to foresee future and choose the software provider who can handle the growing business needs.

4. Performance Measures

You need to be able to measure the performance of your software development partner against the key performance indicators (KPIs) you have defined for your software projects before signing the contract. This is important to do in order to avoid the differences at a later stage.

When you buy a new car, you prefer to take a test drive before you purchase it and in the similar manner you should check how the company performs when it comes to delivering a software. It is important to check whether the features and functions which you desire are satisfied or not. If the company has a ready product you can always ask for a live demo to test it out or you can do a small Proof Of Concept (POC) to test the waters.

5. After-sales Support

Software bugs, glitches and breakdowns be it small or large would result in business loss. Ask your software development partner how they plan to handle updates and upgrades after the software is released. They should provide you good after-sales support service to maintain health of your software.

You have to understand that a software which you are going to build is a long-term investment and the software company you choose is a partnership. A software solution is not just a once off cost, but continuous improvement and transformation is what makes a solution valuable to your business.

Seeking some help in getting a right software development team on-board? Feel free to connect with us and we are happy to help you!