The advent of Industry 4.0 has not only brought forth a plethora of technological novelties that revolutionized our lives. It has also brought the whole planet together into a global community where businesses have access to the worldwide pool of talents. The IT industry that is a trailblazer of the majority of novel trends in the early third millennium is making extensive use of outsourcing practices that turned employing an affordable first-class software vendor into a cakewalk. However, there is a flip side to this gold coin too.
The contemporary software outsourcing market is rich in vendors that offer their services to all and sundry. Most of them are solid firms able to satisfy the customers and deliver a viable product on time. Yet, there are some unscrupulous actors whose ultimate goal is to get money from you whereas the quality of the solution is only an afterthought with them. So, how to choose a software development company from the first category and not fall with anyone from the second?
How to Choose a Software Vendor That Will Deliver
While deciding on a partner to implement your IT project, you must go through the following list of steps.
1. Inquire About the Technical Expertise
This is the point of departure in your selection journey. Unless the developers in the company you want to hire possess the necessary knowledge and skills to tackle the end-to-end process of creating your software project, it will be a total failure. So talk to the vendor's representative or check the company site.
2. Consider the Experience in the Industry
Every field has its own nitty-gritty peculiarities so building an e-commerce site is quite different from developing an e-learning solution or a ridesharing app. Each of them presupposes employing a special tech stack, workflow algorithms, and data protection measures. Your potential partner should be competent in the domain to which your project belongs otherwise it will take them eons to get the hang of things. How can you know it? Peruse their portfolio and blog to see whether they are a good fit.
3. Look into the Past Record and Current Standing
If a company has plenty of successful projects under its belt it is sure to mention it publishing testimonials of its former employers. You can also communicate to their customers to discover whether they have something to add to what the vendor's site quotes.
Another helpful qualification parameter is various ratings by international agencies or professional rating sites. But be careful to trust only reliable references such as Clutch or GoodFirms.
4. Pick the Model That Suits You Best
In the IT outsourcing realm, there are three basic models of payment that condition the form of cooperation between the stakeholders: time and material, dedicated team, and fixed price. A mature company must be able to offer any of them for you to choose from, depending on your personal preferences and the specifics of your project.
5. Don't Neglect Security Issues
Not a single customer wants their data to be compromised but in some spheres (such as banking or e-health) financial and personal data security is mission-critical. Your prospective vendor must make clear how the information you will share with them is going to be protected and whether they comply with NDA practices.
6. Cultural Fit Is Important
You must speak one tongue with the vendor of your choice. And not only linguistically, although proficiency in English or any other language convenient for all stakeholders is a must. It is also about sharing the same values, work ethics, corporate culture, and approach to performing tasks. Moreover, the outsourcer should be ready to meet their client halfway and negotiate mutually satisfying terms.
7. Take Thought for Time Zone Discrepancy
If you are going to hire an IT company from another hemisphere it is vital to determine a collaboration pattern and schedule that would allow for the overlap to perform a status check and give/receive feedback. When the nature of your project requires constant or at least frequent interaction, it makes sense to select the vendor from a region with minimal difference in time from yours.
8. Establish Effective Communication
For remote collaboration to bring success, communication is crucial, otherwise, the project is doomed to defeat. You should take care there is a two-way communication channel open for regular sessions so that both sides can be always in the know of what is going on and what is going to happen next. And if there is any need for corrections, a system of emergency calls should be envisaged. All the more so as contemporary state-of-the-art technologies give plenty of opportunities for vibrant communication, no matter how far partners might be located.
9. Don't Fall for Too Low Prices
It is true that in some regions (like Eastern Europe or South Asia) hourly rates of software outsourcing companies are much lower than in North America or Western Europe. However, if a vendor offers their services at lower than $25 per hour the huge odds are that the quality of the solution will be rather poor.
10. Ditto Short Deadlines
The same consideration refers to the promises to deliver the final product within an unreasonably short time. Well, it can be done, but how can you expect adequate performance from software that was built in a rush?
Conclusion
Outsourcing custom software development is a viable strategy that allows customers to obtain a top-notch product at an affordable price. However, choosing a qualified and reliable vendor is quite tricky, so you must take into account many factors to hit the bull's eye. Axisbits ticks all the boxes to be such a partner for you so contact us to commission a software project of any complexity.
