Are you planning to order software development or outsource IT? Then you may have already encountered how difficult it is to choose a reliable software development provider who fully meets your requirements.
It isn’t easy to find reliable suppliers who honestly do their job without the appropriate search tools. How do you choose a reliable supplier among others, so that it meets all the criteria?
At the moment, about 64% of companies worldwide outsource software development, and this share is expected to grow after the pandemic. Demand, as you know, creates supply: more and more outsourcing companies appear on the market. They offer almost the same set of services and write about themselves about the same thing on their websites. All of them are “leading”, “experienced”, “recognized” and promise “unprecedented benefits”.
How can you be sure that these are not empty words? How to choose the right outsourcing partner? In addition to official websites and portfolios, be sure to consult independent third-party sources: check industry ratings and reviews, find objective reviews, find out which organizations your potential vendors are partnering with. This will give you food for thought and help you make the right outsourcing decision.
According to Moz, 68% of buyers claim that the Internet’s recommendations affect their confidence in the seller. Some outsourcing companies publish customer reviews on their websites, but they are mostly positive and laudatory (which is not surprising). Fortunately, there are several independent platforms – Clutch, ITFirms, Appfutura, and many others – that analyze the B2B market, compile IT companies’ ratings, and publish detailed, objective interviews with clients of the represented company.
Such platforms continuously take care of the reliability of their ratings and reviews. On Clutch, for example, all users who create company profiles or leave reviews must verify their identity through a LinkedIn account. Clients with projects less than $25,000 can leave a review by filling out a form on the site. If the project costs more than $25,000, a Clutch analyst will contact the client and conduct a telephone interview. Clutch publishes only verified reviews that you can trust.
The IntexSoft profile has appeared on Clutch since 2016. You can view our customers’ full interviews in English in the IntexSoft profile on the Clutch website.
The recognition of the professional community is what verifies the company’s expertise. However, if you type “outsourcing company ratings” in Google, you will get an endless list of top rankings compiled by different agencies and magazines. In order not to get lost in this diversity, and especially not to become a victim of “paid” ratings, focus on the most frequently cited and authoritative industry ratings that not only list companies but also provide the reader with complete information about the company.
GoogFirms is one of the rankings that help customers research and compare suppliers. This resource ranks the best outsourcing companies globally, including large international corporations and small, fast-growing firms.
IntexSoft is also featured on GoodFirms, so you can find our profile here.
The size of a software company and the scale of its projects matters a lot. If a software development provider is too large and works primarily with large businesses, it may not pay enough attention to your specific needs. If a company is too small, it may not have the experience of working on that scale.
Another aspect influenced by the vendor’s size is its ability to increase or decrease the development team. Medium and large suppliers have more internal resources and more external candidates. This way, they can quickly expand the development team to cope with the increasing workload and transfer people to another project to shorten the timeline.
Social media posts and blog updates show that the company has something to share, something to tell about. Blogs usually describe case studies, analyze industry trends and technologies, and create educational content. This is the right way for you to test how in-depth their knowledge is. It is unnecessary to go through every post, read a few articles, and check how regular the posts are.
The right software development provider involves the customer in the development process. For this, various tools can be used to help the customer track the current state of the project, contact in real-time with the project manager, programmers, and designers, and participate in planning meetings and make changes to the terms of reference.
There is no gold standard here. The most popular solutions are enterprise messengers for internal messaging and tracking process changes, code updates, system alerts, etc.
Key features:
You can implement continuous integration and delivery platform that helps development teams release code quickly and confidently, automating the build, test, and deployment process.
Well, choosing the best software development provider for your project is not an easy task. Your decision will inevitably affect the business, so let it be deliberate, balanced, and well thought out. Take a close look at the different outsourcing companies. Find out about their partners. Check out authoritative ratings and peer reviews. Read honest customer reviews on independent platforms. Choose wisely to avoid paying twice.
And remember – this is just beginning of the journey. Check our post on how to build an effective partnership with your outsourcing provider to succeed at further stages 🙂
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