According to the IT and BPO Services Market in India 2018-2022 report, the IT and BPO services market in India to grow at a CAGR of 7.63% during the period 2018-2022. With the rapidly changing business demand, global brands are outsourcing application development services to the IT and BPO service providers in India to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Speed and agility are two primary requirements companies look to deliver services. However, it is fairly difficult to find a highly-skilled, outsourcing services company who delivers within the budget and meets the deadline.
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Check out their Core Competency
Always look for an outsourcing product development company has specialized expertise in your desired area. Look up for their previous projects and success record your domain. Also, check if the outsourcing company has some dedicated process of value-addition or not. How skilled are the resources?
Whether it is rapid prototyping from startup concept to development or enterprise CMS and business intelligence tools, in-depth knowledge is a must. A responsive software developer should be able to pivot and align their skills with your core strategic objectives.
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Find out about the Project Delivery Process
Now, that you have a clear understanding of the team’s core competency, it is time to find about their project management and delivery process. For this, you should request for project-specific information prior to the execution phase. You may ask the outsourcing partner, the following questions:
- Project scope details
- What to expect? (as end solution)
- Time frame or deadline
- Project reporting & analysis
- Costing and budgetary requirements
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Know about their Customer Service
Often looked, but one of the key things to mind while choosing an outsourcing partner is to find out about their customer service. To do this, analyze their online reputation by checking out customer ratings, reviews, authentic testimonials, and social media posts. Also, you may ask some reliable online review service, social network, or friends to give you experienced-based opinion.
However, one must keep in mind that many fraudulent companies use paid tricks, sponsored reviews, and testimonials to present themselves as a reliable service provider. Checking responsiveness throughout your pre-hiring process gives you some idea about their whereabouts.
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Know about their Development Methodologies
You may be a technology startup trying to find your feet or you may be representing a core team member of a big corporate house, you must always ask about the development methodologies followed by the outsourcing partner company. You may have a small team with an expanding niche, your product’s maturity, ideal customer profile, and product-market fit all factor into the decision-making process.
Ensure that your product development company understands lean methodologies, market needs, trendy practices, and your business needs. Check out their previous samples and user profiles to understand their level of expertise in particular technologies.
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Best Practices
Most IT solutions providers and consultancies provide a variety of methodologies and frameworks to engage your project successfully. Ensure that the prospect service provider follows a structured project management methodology (Agile, Hybrid, and Scrum) with an integrated quality assurance process.
The product development firm you select should be able to provide visibility and keep you updated on the development process and implementation phases. Remember that consistent communication and reporting that ensures good results.
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Terms and Conditions
Perhaps the most rarely read page ever on a company website is the terms and conditions page. Most of us forget that all companies lay down their product development cycle, terms and conditions, and transparency policy under this most neglected section. Please make sure that you have thoroughly read all the terms and conditions, well in advance before signing on the dotted lines.
Take time. Ensure that the technology outsourcing partner is using an agile methodology to develop the software product and ensures transparent communication of everything on time. Find out about the cycle of status reports, financial transactions, testing, and releases.
- Maintenance and Support
Most important of all, the outsourcing partner for product development should be able to provide maintenance and support after product or app development. You may find, after the regular QA, have some issues with the application in extensive use. You must include this after-sale service in the long-term contract (which may add a few bucks to the budget) but will ensure timely support after the sale.
The above points will help you find the right outsourcing partner for your business needs. Of course, there are no codified rules for hiring the right product development company for outsourcing. The guidelines may be modified or altered at your convenience. Read my earlier post on key considerations for hiring freelancers.
Pixel Solutionz is backed by a team of outsourced product development experts that can provide you with end-to-end product design and development services for your business needs. Want to share some thoughts? Let us know.
