How to Choose the Best Software Development Company for Your Projects
To fulfill their market’s requirements, businesses are upgrading their services and products continuously. Custom software helps business owners to meet the growing demands of customers and change their business system when needed. The tool helps their business to grow and earn. To improve their customer service delivery and employees’ efficiency, business owners need to select the best software development company that can customize software programs according to their business’s requirements.
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Assuming you have already verified your product idea with your target audience, here is some advice on what you should consider when searching for a software development provider.
Where to find the best software development company?
Given below are some platforms and sites that can help you find trusted and good software development companies.
Clutch.co – Clutch is an independent research firm that identifies software services firms that deliver the best results for their clients. Clutch collects every review themselves via phone interview, guaranteeing their authenticity and quality.
Goodfirms.co – This B2B research platform lists software development companies with hourly rates, ratings, reviews etc.
Extract.co – It helps you find firms that create custom applications and websites.
Softwaredevelopmentcompany.co – The site analyzes the best software developers from around the world to determine the top software development companies across all specialties and in all locations.
Google search – Carry out your Google search. Use more specific search queries to find software development companies with the right expertise that are situated in your target areas.
LinkedIn – Your trusted colleagues on LinkedIn may know software development companies to recommend.
Make an initial list of software companies you would contact later.
Read companies’ reviews, references and case studies
Read companies’ reviews, references, and case studies in the applicable technology field. Case studies allow companies to show how their product or service can be used.
If a company has no case studies or reviews in your technology field, don’t get upset. Find out whether they have good reviews from different projects that involved working with different technologies. Positive and good reviews instill faith to go ahead with the company. If the software development firm has positive reviews, it will be able to adopt new technologies and tools to fulfill your needs.
When going through case studies, see if the companies discuss cases where they made a special effort to meet specific requirements of their clients. You will get to know if a company is really client-oriented or not, and also how it will react if you make a request that requires an extra effort from its side.
Choose people from a time zone that you are comfortable working with
Gather information about the location of the vendors. Select software development providers from a time zone that you are comfortable working with. Understand their local business culture to increase your business success. This will help you decide whether you will be a good fit or not.
Check their websites to know more about their core values, and if they are compatible with your own. Going through their social media pages and blogs will help you find out if the vendors engage with their industry and clients online.
Contact the shortlisted companies
Make a list of 10 potential software development companies that you think will be able to meet your needs based on the information you gathered from their websites and listing sites. Begin contacting these companies.
Ask the software development providers for references. Contact their clients and ask them about their experiences working with the vendor.
Take note of the performance software development companies give even before they get their payment. If the company invests time in pre-development preparation and tasks such as market analysis, solution and feature recommendations, and estimating projects before signing a work contract, it is a good indicator that the company is trustworthy and dedicated.
Sign a non-disclosure agreement to protect your sensitive corporate information
Sign a non-disclosure agreement with each software development company you talk to about your work. This will help prevent theft and misuse of corporate information. Businesses use these documents to ensure that their ideas won’t be stolen by individuals they are negotiating with.
Pay close attention on the way they communicate
Good communication is absolutely crucial to every software development project. If you have no technological expertise, and you don’t understand what the other party is saying, it’s not your fault. If you and your provider “don’t speak the same language” – they don’t make an effort to help you understand what they are saying, later cooperation will also be problematic.
Frequency of communication is equally important. We recommend communicating with your service provider face to face at least once a week. Not only to check up on your project, but also to share your vision and ideas, and develop your relationship. If they think this is too much, you should probably keep looking.
Select the best companies and discuss the project in detail
Remove every software development company from your vendor list that doesn’t meet your requirements. Select the best three companies and contact them for a pre-development consultation. Ask for a detailed presentation to find out how they can help you create a brand value and perform better. Give them all the information and details about your project. Understand how they would carry out the software development tasks.
Hear their professional opinions and thoughts. See if they have ideas on how you can improve. If the vendors criticize your ideas constructively, consider it as a good sign. They will carry out orders, taking into account the consequences from their point of view also. We all need to be open to constructive criticism. It allows us to grow and learn.
If you are a startup without in-house IT experts, look for the best software development company that offers a full range of development services, complete with project management, QA testing, design, etc. If the chosen company doesn’t offer these services, find an outside project manager or consultant who has relevant experience and knows exactly how to successfully carry out a development project.
More advice how to avoid project failure here: 3 Common Reasons Why Outsourced Software Projects Fail
