Now it is much easier to choose a contractor than ten years ago – the development of the vast majority of products has ceased to be Rocket Science, and many tasks have known solutions. In this article, we will talk about the points that you should pay attention to from top specialists that provide Custom Application Development Services at Peiko.
What should not be done?
We'll start with a list of what not to do. It is short, simple, and will save you from a clear shot to the knee. More precisely, use only these methods of choosing a partner.
- Look at public ratings. The presence of a company in the rating does not mean at all that you will come across exactly the person who ensured getting into the rating. Data for them is taken from open sources – profit, annual turnover, number of employees, etc. In addition, participants in most ratings pay for participation. The algorithm is simple – the more paid, the higher the place in the ranking. There are resources where people post their work. Personally, we like it more than ratings. For example, behance.ru. It is more about design – you can see the project externally. But if you wish, you can successfully go to the websites of companies and get acquainted with other aspects of the team's work.
- Choose a contractor based on price alone. If you have three offers from companies of similar size with a significant price spread, you need to find out why there is such a spread at all. No need to immediately rush to the cheapest. This information will help you pay attention to the depth of the team's development of the requirements and may point out inconsistencies in your requirements.
- Follow the concept – “who pays, he is right.” The one who can achieve your business goals turns out to be right. Yes, the client pays the money. But he also turns to the contractor for help, to his experience and professionalism. The client is in pain, and the contractor is doing everything to stop the pain. And for this, he receives money. And then there is the conversation about mutual trust. Already at the initial stage, the two parties agree that they will develop partnerships and build relationships on this foundation.
- Blindly trust the recommendations of friends. If someone has advised you, do not rely solely on the recommendation. Always make your own decision and check. You work with the selected team, not the one who recommends.
What is useful to do?
- Search and request case descriptions from specialized companies. This is a working strategy, but there are a couple of things to be aware of.
Firstly, the presence of a case on the site does not mean that the same people who did the project from the case on the site will do the project for you. It is important to conduct team scoring from scratch and draw conclusions based on personal communication. If you communicate with the company that you have chosen based on cases on the site, be sure to ask who exactly will do the project and how knowledge about the previous experience will get to the new team (if the case was done by other specialists).
Advice. If you don't have anyone with development expertise at all, then your key search query might look like this: “mobile application of the company “…” The areas in the development market are clarified, and the query can be formulated precisely. People make sure that their cases are searched. As a rule, companies come to search for contextual advertising and publications about themselves when they have already accumulated experience and have something to show. Often, a custom development business starts with some team receiving some order and just starting to do it. At first, the guys work at the expense of the existing network of acquaintances. I don't know a single company that went into search traffic on the very first day of work. Most likely, they have enough projects if they decide to create a company. It doesn't happen that several programmers get together and decide – let's launch an advertisement, an order will come, and then we will already fuss. So it doesn't work. At Peiko Company, we came to promotion only in the sixth year of work. The team is still covered by contracts, but we are ready to grow faster, and therefore we have allocated a separate department that will deal with the promotion. The company is growing, there are more and more resources and professionals on the team.
Secondly, outsourcing and outstaffing companies cannot tell you everything. This is also confirmed by personal experience. A significant part of our projects, especially in the first years of work, we did on a subcontract to large companies. In addition, there are clients who explicitly do not allow information about the work done to be published publicly.
- Ask about the personal experience of acquaintances or partners. If earlier the business of one sphere did not intersect with each other, now the business community is quite friendly. Conventionally, if I do the packaging, and you do the packaging, most likely we are in contact on some sites, forums, chats, etc. And it is perfectly normal in such communities to ask for recommendations. But remember that you cannot rely on them alone. The choice is yours to make. Use this recommendation as a source of contacts and an opportunity to know the potential difficulties in advance in the work.
- Look at the experience of companies you like and contact them. Contact those who have already bought such a solution. If this is not know-how, the business calmly shares development contacts.
The fulfillment of one item will already become a source of 5-7 contacts. Doing all three will equip you with an excellent set of information to make an informed decision.
