How to understand that she is “the one”? Top 6 criteria for choosing a developer company from CEO Fingers Media

[Mila Eryomina]

According to statistics, during  2020 in the UK alone  , a new tech start-up was created every half hour (in total, about 20,000 companies for the entire year). This once again points to increasing competition in the field, as well as the ongoing demand and development of technology. 

At the same time, there are several hundred thousand IT service providers in the world, the choice of which is a real challenge for both a beginner and an experienced entrepreneur. When creating a mobile application, most of the success depends on the right choice of a developer company. And although information about companies, examples of work and customer reviews can be found in the public domain, all this is even more confusing and leads to an excess of choice.

In this article, we have collected tips from Fingers Media CEO Alexey Palchunov, based on 10 years of experience in creating IT products and launching more than 100 projects. 

When analyzing mobile application development companies and communicating with their teams, you should pay attention to  6 main criteria :

1. Goals and needs of your business 

The development company must meet the goals and needs of your business. To do this, even before starting the search for a suitable contractor, you should answer questions that will help you understand these very goals and determine the basic functionality:

1. Do I fully understand my idea?

2. Do I fully understand the competition and market requirements?

3. To what extent do I understand technologies and understand which ones will be most suitable for my project?

4. What are the main features and solutions that should be in my application?

5. What are my deadlines and budget? 

6. How will my project grow and develop in the future?

These questions will tell you how you see the development company, as well as help you form a clearer request, which will reduce the time of negotiations in the future. 

2. Required services and technologies

After answering the questions above, then you should soberly assess your experience and knowledge in the IT industry, as well as decide on the tasks that you are ready to delegate to the company.

If you already had experience in implementing projects , have a clear understanding of how the industry works, and you can decide on the functionality and technologies yourself, then, of course, you may only need a dedicated team. By hiring only a development team, you take on the responsibility of reviewing the project, leading the team, setting up processes, and monitoring results. It is also worth deciding whether you are ready to hire an application development team or marketing and advertising can be delegated to an IT company along with development.

If this is your first project  and you need help in selecting the technologies and features of the application, during the consultation, be sure to find out:

• What technologies the company is ready to advise you as modern and easy to maintain.

Do a basic research on this yourself and compare the results. If, for example, you are offered to write an iOS application in Objective-C or create a cross-platform application at a time when performance and UI (appearance of the interface) are extremely important to you, proceed to the next paragraph.

• Why you should choose the technologies offered and why they suit your project. 

This will make sure that they are not trying to sell you specialists who are not currently working on projects, but offer the best solution for your business. Keep in mind that it is risky to hire specialists who own both outdated and very highly demanded technologies, since in both cases the number of professionals is small.

3. Experience and expertise of the company

When evaluating this criterion, pay attention to the following points:

• General experience in the IT sector.

Competition and demanding users in the mobile application market is only increasing. Making cheap and low-quality products is now pointless and risky. To create a really good high-demand product, you need the help of an experienced company with established procedures, accumulated practices and knowledge of employees, thousands of hours of analysis and detail work behind.

• Experience in the field to which your application belongs.

This point should be taken into account in the case of narrow and / or complex industries, for example, trading, mobile games, data analytics, etc. If this is some kind of B2C product for general use, for example, buying, renting or delivering something, then not so critical. 

• Accumulated experience in required services and technologies.

Obviously, if a company does not have expertise, for example, in testing, it is better to delegate this to other specialists. If you need to implement AR / VR technologies, and the company does not have real working cases, it is also worth looking for someone else. Feel free to learn as much as you can about the company's experience and ask for  examples of completed projects .

• Reviews from previous clients.

And while most companies post reviews on their website, it's also worth checking your reputation in search results and social media, as well as reviewing reviews in third-party business directories like  Clutch ,  DesignRush ,  GoodFirms  , etc.

4. Communication

Communication both between you and the company, as well as within the team, is one of the main criteria for the success of a future product. The composition of the mobile application development team can reach up to 10-15 people, so it is very important how they communicate with each other, how effective the management is and how transparent the processes are for you. 

A company that has everything in order with communication,

• holds all meetings on time, with a designated agenda and transparent results;

• does not try to sell any solutions without explanation and as quickly as possible;

• shows the advantages of its procedures and techniques at the first stage, which convinces you to move on with it;

• explains the reasons for choosing specific solutions and what results they will lead to;

• uses modern tools for prioritization and distribution of tasks and provides access to them.

If all communication processes are established, all team actions will be transparent, you will see how much time is spent on each task and what status they are in, and you will be involved in the project as much as you see fit.

Most often, especially in the absence of experience, it is better to make the first agreements with the company under a Fixed Price agreement. You will be sure that the company will not go beyond the budget, and the team will show what they are capable of and will try to win your trust. If after this stage you are confident in the team and are satisfied with the results, you can switch to the Time&Material contract. 

5. Cost

So far in 2021, a lot of people are trying to build a working mobile app for $10-20-30K. If you also think so, we advise you to reconsider for the following reasons:

• High demands from users

The focus of people's attention is increasingly blurred. Once users open an app, they expect it to be fast, simple, and intuitive. To make this possible, each step on the way to the target action from the first touch of the icon to the last must be clearly calibrated and worked out. 

This requires additional investments of time and budget in the design stage  of a mobile application . At this stage, most theories and hypotheses are discarded, the market and user behavior are analyzed, which leads to a decrease in both the cost of development and the likelihood of reworking the project. 

• Competition from industry giants

Now you need to compete not only with products from your niche, but also with such giants as Facebook, Amazon, Uber, etc. Users are accustomed to their products and look up to them when choosing other applications. Therefore, making a non-competitive application with minimal functionality and a bunch of errors is pointless. This can only work if you have a traffic generator that will bring a loyal audience to your application. 

• High salaries of specialists

The market for technical specialists in IT is overheated. The growing number of companies and projects, the demand for certain technologies outweigh the number of experienced professionals. This results in ever higher salaries for good, experienced developers.

If you have a mobile app made for $20K, it is most likely either a product that is not ready to enter the market with a minimum of functions, or poor quality work that will have to be redone.

Despite the above points, a team of professionals will take into account your budget and try not to go beyond it.

6. Location, language proficiency and time zone

As for the location, the company should be chosen from countries that are similar in mentality to you. This way you will be sure that you understand each other. Of course, the team (or at least the project manager) should be fluent in one of the languages ​​that you speak fluently in order to avoid any misunderstandings and you can understand what is happening with your project at every stage. The time difference is also important, and if it is minimal, it will help you to work on the project without any delays. We recommend that the difference is no more than +/- 4 hours. 

Conclusion

There is no one right choice of company for all projects. You determine your own needs and expectations, and only you know with which team you will be most comfortable. 

Ask all the questions you are interested in, compare and study the approaches and portfolios of the candidates you like. Do not be afraid of ignorance or misunderstanding - it is better to ask again several times than to be disappointed after the signing of the contract.

If you decide to develop a mobile application and are looking for a suitable contractor, our team is ready to share their expertise and turn your idea into a working product. You can get acquainted with  examples of our projects  or immediately  request a free consultation , where our managers will help you choose the best solution.

[Anna Roccova]

Ordered from Cordus Technologies Inc. development of the application, done in the shortest possible time. The service is good, they immediately solve all the problems that arise during work. The ability to hear the needs and desires of the client is in 1st place - it's nice, contact a good team of specialists.