A Guide To Find A Software Development Partner In India

By Author: Nidhi Jain
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The above statistics indicate how in-demand outsourcing is, especially for IT services. The leadership of more and more businesses is opting to outsource services such as custom software design and development. And why wouldn't they? After all, outsourcing allows them to focus on their core business activities. At least, that's what the common perception among businesses seeking to hire outsourcing services is, according to a 2019 report published by Deloitte.

Hence, IT outsourcing has become the need of the hour for most businesses, whether small or large operations. However, this is where things get tricky. How does the leadership of a business decide that a company or development team is worth their salt? How can you, as a business owner, decide to entrust the development of your enterprise solution without having a way to ensure that nothing will go wrong? That is why we have prepared this comprehensive guide. In this post, we have compiled everything you need to know about hiring a competent development team. But first, let's understand why it is beneficial for you to find a software development partner in India. ...
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Why Should You Look for a Development Partner in India?

According to Kearney's 2021 Global Services Location Index, India retained its number one spot as the most preferred destination for outsourcing tech services. The South Asian country is home to some of the best custom software development companies. Moreover, the competitive labour market makes India even more of an attractive outsourcing hub from a pricing standpoint.

Hence, businesses should look for potential development partners in India. But how to know which development team could reliably pull off your project? The following steps will help you figure it out.

Step-By-Step Guide to Find a Software Development Partner in India

1. Make Sure to Have All the Prerequisites in Place

Before you go out there looking for a potential development partner, there are specific prerequisites that you must identify first. By identifying and setting some prerequisites, you will be in a better position to find the right partner, as you will know what you are looking for. Following is a brief list of prerequisites you must set before you search for a development partner. Remember, this list is not exhaustive; there are always more prerequisites that you can add to this list according to your needs.

● Assess Your Project, Its Scope, and Its Goals
You need to have some clarity about what you are trying to build. A project needs to have a purpose. And that purpose couldn't be vague. Suppose you want to develop a website for your business and are trying to outsource this task to a development firm. You won't be able to figure out which firm is right for you unless you know what you want your website to do for your business.

Put your project under a critical lens. Objectively assess what components are the most crucial and why. It will help you outline the project's scope and the vital parts you will have to get right for the project to work. Narrowing the focus to essential parts of the project will help you seek expertise targeted to these areas.

Having a clear goal would help you quantify specific milestones you want the project to achieve. It will give you concrete measures for assessing the success and failure of a project. Not only that, but you will also be able to better evaluate the teams you are trying to outsource the project. All you have to do is look for how they usually perform on the measures you have picked as your indicative measures of success.
● Consider the Technical Aspects of the Project
You must give deep thought to the technical requirements of your project. This is one of those prerequisites that you cannot compromise on. You would have to choose a development partner that can fulfil the technical demands of your project, period.

However, to get a clear idea about the technical needs of your project, you might need some help. You can discuss it with a reliable IT team offering custom software development consulting services.
Even though coding is essential, software development goes way beyond coding. There are plenty of other aspects that a development team has to take care of. Hence, when considering expertise, you have to consider many other factors, not just the coding skills of the development team. For instance, a team may be excellent at coding but have difficulty communicating with you in your native language. That might create an unnecessary misunderstanding that can botch your project. Hence, in this case, the development team needed more than coding skills; they needed communication and people skills to grasp what their client was trying to tell them.
● Set the Budget and the Timeline
Budget and timeline are another set of prerequisites that will have an impact on your decision when it comes to choosing a development partner. Custom development is a substantial investment, no matter how you look at it. Therefore, it will be one of the more significant decisions you would take on the financial front for your business.

Hence, it is vital to do an in-depth assessment of the value of the project. So that you can make a more precise estimation of the budget, consider building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) first. Instead of building multiple projects simultaneously, it is better to build one qualitatively to get more from every penny you invest.

The same is true for time as well. Suppose you want to develop a CRM for your enterprise and, thus, are seeking custom CRM software development services. It would be best to put certain time foundations to ensure speedy time-to-market.
2. Do Comprehensive Research
It may seem like a daunting task, but it isn't. You must prioritize what you want, and the search becomes pretty simple. If you type "custom ERP software development," you might get vague answers. However, a few tweaks would make the search more precise, like - "top offshore companies offering custom ERP software development services in Python." And, of course, Google is not the only platform you should look for to hire development teams.

Google might give you many options, but those might not suit your needs. Finding the firm that best fits your needs on Google is tricky. So where should you look?

Following are some of the sites where you should search for the type of firm that best suits your needs within your specific budget and time constraints.

● Clutch
● Goodfirms
● The Manifest
● Dribble
● G2
● Upcity
● TechReview

Big or small, all types of IT companies have their profiles on these sites. Hence, you can easily find potential development partners from these sites.

The best part about these sites is that they post genuine, objective reviews of these firms posted by clients. Based on the reviews, the site assigns ratings to the firms. These ratings are reassessed and updated constantly based on the new reviews posted by clients.

Having access to honest opinions and testimonials of clients, you can get a pretty accurate picture of how a particular firm treats its clients and the quality of service they deliver. You will understand the firm's strengths and weaknesses, allowing you to decide whether a firm has the appropriate skill set needed for your project.

After going through these sites and shortlisting some firms that might suit your project needs, visit the social media channels of those firms. You will find plenty of comments from customers. If customers have had grievances with any of those firms in the past, you will indeed find mention of those in the comments.

Customer reviews will give you the kind of unadulterated feedback that you can get nowhere else.

3. Check Expertise and Experience
Take a closer look at the expertise and experience of the team you are about to hire. You must have an idea about the team's domain experience and subject matter expertise. There won't be any point in hiring a firm where those two things are not aligned with your project needs. For example, if you want to develop your project using Laravel, the robust PHP framework, but the firm you are looking to hire has no developer with expertise in Laravel. Then it clearly won't be a good fit. So yes, ensure the firm you hire has the required expertise and experience.

4. Get a Custom Quotation
Once you have shortlisted the best custom software development companies, you should ask all of them for custom quotations. Typically, the process of asking for a customized quotation is simple:

● Visit the websites of the firms you have shortlisted.
● Go to the “Contact Us” section of the website.
● Usually, there is a brief form made available by the firms, which you can fill out and provide your contact details along with some preliminary information about your project.
● In most cases, you will receive responses within two business days.
● Most companies would provide you with a custom quotation based on your project requirements.
● There are primarily four factors that have the most influence on the project estimate:
○ Whether the project is to be built from scratch or would be an overhaul of an existing system;
○ Whether the project size is large or small;
○ Whether the project is complex or simple to execute;
○ Whether the project requires a large development team or could do with a small team.

5. Compare the Estimates
Once you have received the quotations from your shortlisted companies, compare them. If all the rest of the prerequisites are aligned, it would be an easy decision for you as you can pick the most cost-effective option. However, if there are differences, which often are, you must closely examine what compromises you can make and what tradeoffs you shouldn't.

For example, if a firm is quoting outside your budget and you can afford to accommodate them on the price front, given everything else aligns perfectly, then you should make that adjustment. However, say a company fits perfectly in your price bracket, but the timeframe they have set out to finish the work is way too long for you. Then you shouldn't be working with them, as having a long time-to-market can adversely impact your business. After putting months of time, money, effort, and resources into a project, you wouldn't want the competition to beat you to the market.
6. Assess and Make a Decision
After carefully assessing all of the aspects discussed above, make your decision. While making a decision, make sure of the following:

● The team passes your evaluation of their technical skill set and expertise;
● The team can communicate with you effortlessly;
● The team is receptive to your feedback;
● They can come up with their own unique inputs as you share your project requirements with them;
● They are open and transparent in sharing their work methodology, patterns, and processes with you.

These pointers will help you choose the right development partner for your project.
Conclusion
As you can see, selecting a software development partner is a lengthy process. Nevertheless, utilizing this checklist, you can assess possible software development partners and choose the one that best meets your requirements.

Hiring a software development partner can be a significant move for many businesses. You may speed up development while lowering costs by working with a company or developer who is flexible and inexpensive.

Contact our consultation team to learn more about selecting a software development partner. Our team will be pleased to answer your questions and offer suggestions for proceeding with your project.