Companies of various sizes across various business verticals have to go through a series of processes like design, development, testing, and marketing to develop and commercialize a new product. The constant changes in the market trends push the companies over the edge to remain agile and responsive to develop innovative products to satisfy the timely needs and requirements. Multinational companies with capital and resources can very well take up the end-to-end development on their own. But when it comes to startups and SMEs, especially with limited capital and in-house expertise, outsourcing development services becomes the best option.
Companies can either outsource certain fragments from the development process, like only hardware or software development, design, production, marketing, distribution, or the entire product development process depending on the availability of teams and resources. The importance of outsourcing is that it is cost-effective and will also ensure the quality of the product that is being developed. But the most challenging part of outsourcing is finding the ideal product development company that meets the company’s requirements.
Selecting a Product Development Partner
Of late, various online marketplaces help companies in finding their ideal partners. After examining the product category and requirements with a few questions, these marketplaces provide a list of potential development partners. After carefully considering all aspects such as cost, target audience, etc., and researching all of the listed partners, companies can easily find a development partner who can satisfy their needs and meet their requirements. Below are the 5 important things to look for while finalizing a potential partner.
Past Experiences and Accomplishments
Another simple way to know your partner is by verifying their certifications. Many major companies like Oracle and Microsoft offer certifications to their business partners. Rather than blindly falling for advertisements and marketing techniques, companies can request their partner to prove working on projects for similar clients and the result of the outcome. Moreover, these certifications exhibit the technical abilities and expertise of the development partner.
Resource Availaiblity
Product development, as mentioned earlier, involves a lot of processes and requires expertise across various fields like engineering, system design, or marketing. Companies have to ensure if the development partner has the right resources such as tools and teams with prior experience and knowledge in their respective fields to develop their product.
Communication
Communication plays an important role in business operations. A company’s major part is to find out if synergies exist while communicating with the development partner. Companies have to include all the important people such as stakeholders, managers, and tech experts to communicate by sharing important and valid information. 64% of the companies claim that communication occupies a major part of their strategy.
Flexibility
As previously mentioned, the trends in the market keep constantly changing in terms of end-user requirements. A potential development partner must work closely with the companies to improvise the product in the long run. Companies have to ensure that the development partner will offer necessary services even after the product has been deployed. It is best to get all such information drafted into a contract.
Collaboration
Startups and enterprises can also outsource product development to offshore development firms. In this case, there will be obvious issues related to time zones and work culture. Before a company chooses to outsource an offshore development partner, it is essential to ensure they can input their thoughts and points into the development process and work closely with their teams and if the partner’s culture will go well with its work culture. This applies to all kinds of development partners, not just for an offshore partner, regardless of their field and geographical location. According to a report, the collaboration between teams was found to increase profitability by 21%.
Apart from the above-mentioned factors, companies also have to consider other factors like the overall terms of the contract, the price they have to pay for the services, levels of agility, and their responses to the company’s questions and queries. By analyzing and selecting the right development partner, a company will save cost and save a lot of time and effort invested in developing a product.
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