Eager to increase your annual revenue by digitizing your business? Well, that’s a commendable ambition, but it is not as easy as you might think. We live in the era of rapid development of modern technologies, and it has become crucially important for many companies to stay connected with their customers all the time. The only effective way to achieve that goal is to build a powerful and user-friendly mobile app or website that will help you tackle that challenge.
To substantiate this statement, just have a look at the statistical data and you’ll see that in 2023, it is expected that mobile apps will generate more than $935 billion in revenue. These stats prove that the need for professional and experienced software development experts will also grow. But here we have another challenge: How to find a trusted and reputable software development partner for a startup?
This post will be helpful for everyone planning to enter into a software development partnership. We’ll demonstrate what tips to consider while searching for professionals in this niche and provide you with comprehensive directions on how to choose a reputable team that will help turn your ideas into reality!
Why does your small business need a trustworthy software development partner?
We live in the digital era where customers buy products and goods online. And it is easier to do this if you have a user-friendly mobile app that allows your customers to reach your products or services. In all likelihood, you’ll lose your clients if you don’t provide them with a user-friendly mobile app.
Before we move on to why even small businesses need a reliable software development partner, let’s look at the statistical data. We can see that in 2020, users spent on subscription apps via the App store $4.5 billion. What’s more, custom software is much better adapted to fit your workflow. It’s tailor-made and can surely meet the requirements of your business and customers. As a result, you can be doubly sure that your customers are delighted with your services.
Here’s a list of the key reasons to hire a partner for software development:
- Financial advantage. Place yourself in the position of your clients. It is more comfortable to buy things via mobile apps. When you have a mobile app for your business, people are more likely to choose you than your competitors.
- Enhanced scalability and efficiency. A reputable software development company is usually flexible and provides you with experienced and skilled professionals. So you can scale the team up or down depending on your requirements for the project.
- Better connection with customers. Most marketers think that a mobile app is a superb tool to enhance customer service primarily, so you’ll surely be closer to your customers.
- Constant support. Regular sync-ups allow you to control the development process and keep track of all the completed tasks.
- Diverse expertise. When you hire a software development team, remember that you hire a pool of experts — programmers, QA professionals, designers, project managers, etc. who have already worked with different projects and have deep expertise.
Remember that a reputable partner for software development can save you a world of hassle and will undoubtedly help you save money on hiring an in-house dev team.
Key Factors to Note When Choosing a Software Development Firm as a Partner
If you are a startup owner, you have to consider many aspects before hiring a software development team. This task is not as easy as you might think. It can become time-consuming, challenging, and expensive if you don’t have a proper plan to follow.
Let’s take a deeper look at the main factors that have to be considered before hiring a software development firm as a partnership for a startup.
Testimonials from other customers
Your first and foremost task is to evaluate the skills and experience of a chosen company before hiring them. Browse the web to find the testimonials of customers who have already used their services. People are more likely to leave negative feedback than positive. So you can be sure if the potential company doesn’t properly do its work, you’ll definitely find negative testimonials.
Previous case studies
Almost all reputable companies have a relevant section on their website to learn about their previous projects, which is the best proof of expertise. This information will also help you evaluate the skills, experience, and technical level of your future software development partner. However, such portfolios usually don’t include a list of all projects as a lot depends on a customer’s permission. For example, at Osdb.io, we always ask a client’s agreement to add a project into our portfolio.
However, when it comes to choosing a partner for development, exploring case studies is the first thing you need to do. This will surely help you decide if this particular company can meet your needs.
Transparency in communication
Transparency in your partnership is mandatory. Your partner in development for a startup must provide you with transparent processes.
Make sure you have regular meetings where you can discuss all the nuances of your project. Remember that a reputable development company is always ready to listen to your suggestions and consider your remarks. They should also provide you with information about their rates and all the development process stages.
Management style
If you are going to enter into a software development partnership, it’s one of the main questions to ask a software development company. Today, we have many absolutely different project management styles and software development methodologies, but prosperous companies mostly follow waterfall and agile methods. Your key objective is to discuss this issue beforehand. As a result, you’ll understand their level of involvement and project management style.
Cost
This aspect can either make or break your partnership. Unfortunately, some projects fail because of inaccurate estimates of the general cost. Therefore, you shouldn’t neglect this issue and discuss the app development cost before you sign a contract.
Many factors influence the app development cost. Look at the most important ones:
- Location of your development team;
- Hourly rate of programmers;
- Their expertise in this niche;
- Type and size of your app;
- Tech Stack they use, etc.
Therefore, you need to find out more about cost-affecting factors at the initial stage of your collaboration.
Company size
The size of the chosen software development company matters a lot. If the vendor is too big, there’s a chance that they don’t pay enough attention to specific requirements. And if the vendor is too small, they may not have enough experience in this niche. However, you should mostly focus on the ability of a company to scale the development team. Medium-size software vendors usually have more internal resources and a bigger pool of candidates. They can easily extend the development team to handle the workload.
Here, at Osdb.io, we value each customer. The number of satisfied customers is growing every year, but we don’t forget about our main mission to care about our clients’ requirements and deliver products that meet their expectations.
OSDB Processes and Experience
A professional vendor should be able to adapt to your strategies quickly. At OSDB, we value each customer and do the utmost to build a product that will surely comply with our customers’ demands. We have many years of experience in software development for startups and small businesses and have already tackled many challenges for building top-notch products for our customers. Therefore, if you are looking for a reliable partnership for software development, OSDB is at your service!
In 2019, our team of programmers worked on a complicated SaaS real estate portal for the US market. After our client outlined the main features and all the business requirements, our team started building up a roadmap. It took 6 months to build the first version of the SaaS platform.
The main goal was to build a comprehensive, all-in-one platform for real estate agents, tenants, employees, and service providers. Our task was to build a platform that will be easy to use and can quickly resolve all the user needs. After analyzing the potential user requirements in this niche, we built powerful Individual Progressive Web Applications and desktop dashboards for various users of this system.
OSDB is a time-proven company that currently includes 30 professionals in the area of software development. We are based in the Eastern part of Ukraine, Kharkiv city. Almost all employees are from the same city, so we frequently gather in our office to clarify all the issues related to the project. All software developers working for OSDB are true professionals with many years of programming experience under their belts.
OSDB software development process
- We begin with the design phase, where we build a clickable prototype that a client must approve. At this stage, a customer can make iterations and updates until we all are satisfied with the result.
- Our project manager creates a detailed specifications file, where all possible user scenarios, cases, and features are described.
- After designs are ready, they are passed to our development team. The development stage begins.
- A professional QA-specialist is assigned to each project to check all the tasks assigned for testing.
- PM / Tech Lead is responsible for the project delivery and communication with our customers.
- We have weekly sync-ups with our customers to demonstrate the result. If you have urgent questions and seek clarification, please contact us via Slack, email, or Upwork.
Our values
- We understand the pains of startups and do everything to predict and avoid them in the initial phase.
- We understand what aspects can make a platform attractive to users thanks to the decent experience in building software products for startups.
- Our team of programmers is always focused on consistent and predictable results for the end client. That’s why we always begin with a clickable prototype that will help you understand what resources are needed for future development.
- We value each customer and do everything to meet the requirements of their projects.
Final Thoughts
So far, we’ve reviewed the main tips that might help you find reliable corporate partnership software development for a startup. Following all these recommendations, you’ll surely find a trusted team that will help turn your ideas into reality. Wrapping up, we’d like to add that OSDB is a time-tested, professional SaaS software development company with many years of experience in this area.
If you have an app idea that you want to bring to life, don’t hesitate to contact OSDB. We always take absolute care while working on a project. On the plus side, our managers always keep you updated with the current progress via regular reports. Overall, we keep track of everything that we do and make sure that you’ll get the best solution!
