How to find the best software development company?

We are living in a digital era and with the advent of technology, the demand for software development organizations are also on rise. The world is becoming more and more technologically advanced and it has become, it has become vital for Organization to have a digital presence, as this helps them to promote their business and engage with their customers. Therefore, the demand for adept and experienced software development firms is on a rise.

Most of the organizations do not have in-house software development capabilities, and it is not feasible as well. Hence, startups and enterprises keep on looking to hire software development companies that have adequate expertise in the kind of project they are looking for.  Before starting any Software development project there are many aspects that come in the mind of the project developers and the investors. The basic question is to find the best software development company.

We can say that finding a software firm and finding the best software company those are the different poles and it is not an easy task for the professionals or for the beginners. In order to search for the best software development company, some strategic approach needs to follow. The major question is to find a company which can provide the appropriate solutions for your needs as millions of players are already in the market.

The leading software development companies have spent a considerable time in the market of software development and they are well aware of all aspects and latest trends of creating software or applications, they have gained excellent experience in creating and developing programs from scratch to enterprise level. Obviously, they are the masters of their art of delivering value and excellent software solutions and services.

So, selecting a suitable service provider from the long list of the experts is a tricky job and should be done with caution, well by following below mentioned tricks and tips you may be able to select the right software developing partner.

Define project scope clearly

The initial step should be to define a clear scope of your project and for that, you need to prepare a good Requirements specification document. Generally, it’s observed that a lot of project owners commit a mistake of not writing and defining the project’s needs, it is scope requirements clearly. It’s been observed that software development companies are only focused and desperate to take the project through any means, however, they should be conscious enough and adhere guidelines for finalizing the project scope before taking any project from the market otherwise project will begin with a lots expectations, enthusiasm and excitement, ends up being delayed or completely messed up and draw a negative reputation of the vendor and sometimes lead to a conflict between the vendor and the project owner because the scope of the project was not defined in its initial stage. So before starting any new project with any of the vendors please define the scope of the project and clearly mention your requirements.

List the companies with domain experience and technology expertise you desire

If you are planning to outsource the project so your first step would be to identify the list of cities around the world. You may define the list on basis of your preferences. People generally use the following points and target the cities to outsource their projects.

  • Cost & Expenses: Here we need to check the kind of salary structure or payment model a software firm uses. The average salaries of the developers in cities should come under your overall budget.
  • Language: The Software firm should use the popular spoken language in cities and your preferred language to communicate well.
  • Time Zone – Time zone difference plays a major role, if the software firm follows ‘follow the Sun’ model, then it could be beneficial for you.
  • Cities with Technical talents – The preference should be given to those firms that based out of the cities known for Technical talents, as such proposition increases competition and you may get the resources at a competitive price and well within your budget.
  • Online reviews – You can navigate the Web portals to seek reviews of your target software development firms. There you can access the reviews of existing customers and that can help you make the right decision.
  • Software Firm Portfolio – Your next step is to check the software development company’s portfolio and shortlist the top 5 brands or top 10. Next step is a bit tedious, try to reach their previous client to get review and feedback about the company. It will give you a clear picture of the company and work ethic. It is very important that the person who created the software company’s portfolio is still employed with the company and will be assigned to work on your project as well. Otherwise, things will be gone in the wrong direction and you may get something for which you have not paid.
  • Employee Reviews – There are some other ways like LinkedIn from where you can check the profiles of the employees of the software development companies to get a clear picture. Also, you can get details about the employee’s salary from Glassdoor or Payscale, which will give you a fair idea about the company’s working environment and its payment structure.
  • Compare Developer price with competitors – Still, if you feel that the information which you gathered from different sources is not enough to draw a clear picture of the vendor than compare the prices of their developers with the industry average. Well you will find competition exists everywhere and Software development industry is also a competitive industry, the higher the talent is paid, the more qualified they are. If you still don’t rely on reviews and on some point of time you realize or feel that these are fake reviews so always compare it with industry’s average it will help you to differentiate the good agencies from the bad ones.
  • Effective Communication – You should be more conscious and pay attention to the developers which say yes to everything and deny identifying their capabilities. In such a situation, you need to check their responsiveness as effective communication plays a vital role in building business relationships. “Where there are communication and comfort, there is a streamlined work process”

Underline your requirements

Selecting the best of the talent from the market, when you are not well equipped and not completely aware about your requirement could be a big challenge. It is always recommended to identify our business needs effectively before starting to look out for a software development firm. Consulting with the workforce is the best way to underline the needs because they are the real users, they will give you the clear picture, and they will help you in evaluating the problems and analyzing the solution. To meet or achieve your objecting draw a visualization of the solution. Selecting any sort of service provider depends on the nature of the project’s requirement.

Assess the company’s technical skills and expertise

We should collect as much as information related to the company like skills, how knowledgeable are the developers and their portfolio and how much expertise they have in the same technology domain in which are you are dealing.

We should conduct a primary assessment based on company’s experience in handling projects in a specific area, company’s expertise in formulating your project’s requirement and make correct solutions, the communication effectiveness, adherence to deadlines, and the like. One more important aspect is how much liberty or access provides by the company to its developers to communicate well with you. It is always better to choose a Software development company with teams experienced in the latest methodologies.

We can start a formal conversation to know each other, to build healthy relationships but the objective of the conversation is to get the valuable and appropriate information that will give you a clear idea about their effectiveness and efficiency in their past projects.

Check their reputation with others

Your goal is to select the best software development company, but no one would go with the company or resources, which is not well-spoken or efficient, obviously, no one would like to work with them. By looking at their client relationship history we would be able to know the company’s flexibility to work in different environment and deadline. There are few platforms like Clutch, GoodFirms to get more details about the potential software development firm. We can also check different platforms to check the business reviews along with their client’s testimonials. We can also use Social media channels to check reviews about them. We can try to connect with their clients to get their opinions about the company and their work culture, through online forums we can connect to the people, invite them in discussions and on social media to know their perception, opinions and direct and indirect experiences with the software development company. Getting different opinions from different sources will make you confuse so avoid much brainstorming. Just take an average on negative and positive aspects and decide and make a fruitful strategy on basis of the negative and positive opinions that go with your project need.

The budget

Cost plays a major role in designing and developing any type of project. We can conduct a prior assessment to determine if the project cost aligns with your budget as buying expensive software solutions for your business may create a financial crunch and may lead to overburden on the project, but that doesn’t mean you have to compromise on the quality of the product by investing less on it, we have to maintain a fine balance in our approach here.

Sometimes few companies play smartly by increasing the price of the solution by adding some additional and hidden costs. So, you need to assess the cost of the solution wisely by looking at the hidden charges or fees in the legal contract like extra fees for documentation, management, annual maintenance charges, training cost, and then decide which is aligned to your defined budget.

Size of your software project

We should know the size of our project, whether it is a small project, medium-sized or huge as every company undertake any size of software development projects. There are specific Software Companies like TCS, HCL, Wipro that can work only with larger customers, who can provide them big size, long term and million-dollar projects, such organizations are called as big brands and industry leaders. Whereas much small or medium-size company works smartly, they take multiple-year projects. These small-scaled companies have huge potential to grow in a short span of time which showcase their potential, competency, and capability. Also, we need to assess whether the company is continuously growing, losing the ground or stagnant. Such information could be accessed from the stock market or finance ministry, where we can view their financial records and statements.

How passionate are they to develop the solution?

The software development organization to which you want to delegate the project must understand your project needs and future work. Do they feel the same passion as you about your project? Are they willing to develop good quality software for you or are they more interested in making money only?

These are the ways through which you will be able to judge their way of suggesting ideas and features, which can be included in your project and can enhance the productivity of the workforce. We need to check how much aligned they are with the future scope of the products, or I comfortable they are in refusing or denying the ideas which may not work in favour of the project, or not fulfilling the requirements of the project. We also need to assess if they are presenting the ideas or suggestions with proper facts-figures and reasoning, that underline their clarity of thoughts and moreover you should be convinced with their dedication. This will help both the parties to align and work in a streamlined manner.

Conflict management

This is certainly an important aspect which is very much required in the scenario of any conflict in future. There are instances where few software development companies follow some unethical practices by holding your valuable data, as if they own it and in return, they demand a huge amount of money to release the data. We would always advise you to get a proper agreement on safety and security issue and in the agreement it should be clearly defined that how you will retrieve your data from the service provider if you face any conflicts or decide to terminate the contract. If data is encrypted so some charges would be exempted but it should not make you bankrupt in any case. There should be legal conditions defined in the contract to address any conflicts later.

After sales support and services

Well, every solution has some shortcomings too; the most efficient software can provide only 99.99% up-time. Unfortunately, there are no 100% perfect solutions in the world. If we talk about small-scaled solution there is a possibility that solution may fail, or few functions become unresponsive post-delivery, especially related to the software solutions. So, make sure your software development company draws a direct communication channel to the technical team and provides better customer and technical support, cloud-based solutions, maintenance, and updates and upgrades for a specific period post-sale. It will be helpful for you and for the vendor to find the minor issues and their solutions related to the software product.

Take a trial

These days most of the leading companies offer a free of cost trial to ensure their customers can get a flavour of their services and assess the quality of their services, features, benefits, and usability. These tactics applied to get some statistics from the user end; on that basis, they ensure that the software meets the requirements of the customer. Also, such trial users can provide feedback to them, which can help them in developing more reliable solutions.

These free trial versions do have all the core features and functions. It’s recommended that during the trial, users need to expand their hands and use the product as much as they can, to test all included features in it and raise as many questions and discuss the doubts to get more clarity.

Conclusion

Choosing the right software development company is the first step towards achieving your targets. A small mistake may lead to a disaster and may bring disrepute to your organization; hence it is advised to be very conscious while taking this vital decision. Please conduct an in-depth analysis and perform thorough research by following the guidelines above. As per our experience of software development and solutions for a small level project to a big size enterprise level industries and different sized organization, we would say that best software company is one that delivers solutions amalgamated with your business vision and requirements. It also should take care of the projected cost and timeline, without any trade-off on software quality.

We always need to remember the golden rule, we do not need a Software company which is too small to handle a large project and not a company that is too big for small projects. All we need is a software company that can manage the projects with the right expertise and a personal touch; we need companies with the right resources and a client-focused approach.

Satyam Chaturvedi
Satyam Chaturvedihttps://www.arkasoftwares.com
Satyam Chaturvedi is a Digital Marketing Strategist at Arka Softwares, a web and mobile app development company. I'm a tech-savvy who loves to explore and implement the power of business applications and software. Being a tech addict, I love to spend time in studying market trends and helping startups and enterprises in achieving their business goals.
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