For any business the top priority is its customers. Thus businesses invest huge amount of resources in the customer satisfaction solutions. However, there are several other factors that contributes to a business’s success such as the market trends, competition, internal processes and employees. Today’s world is heavily dependent on digital and information technology. The technology have completely transformed our lives, from our smartphones to vacuum cleaners and from our vehicles to electric switches everything is becoming smarter day by day. Businesses also have to keep up with the pace. Especially here in Dubai and in fact all around the UAE a common consumer is far much educated and well-versed with products or services than anywhere else in the entire middle east. Savvy customers not only demand high from the businesses but eventually such markets tend to have tougher competition too. That is why businesses also need to become smart and more efficient. Which is achieved by utilizing a variety of software systems and solutions such as ERP, HR System, CRMs, CMS, Smartphone Apps, Websites, Accounting Software, HR Management System, Performance and Appraisal software, etc.
In order to keep up with the market needs and to improve efficiency, each business function has to be connected with each other. The flow of information makes business processes smooth and fast. Now a day’s businesses are adopting a fully centralized information center which connects everything within the organization‘s eco system and make businesses more efficient and profitable. However, when a business has to choose a software or a solution they always have two options. One is COTS which stands for commercial off-the-shelf software solution and the other is the custom software development. If you are reading this article that means I don’t have to convince you that custom software development is far superior to the COTS. In fact since past few years the custom software industry have witnessed a sudden spike in the growth. That is all because the COTS have failed to offer much needed maneuverability for the businesses to journey across fast moving markets.
When a need arises for a customized software development the biggest challenge is to find a reliable software development vendor who can not only meet your needs but also assure the success of the software or tool you are developing. Here in Dubai and all around the UAE there are hundreds if not thousands of software development companies which makes it very difficult to choose a right vendor. On top of that most of the businesses and the managers are not experienced enough in the custom software development which further clouds their judgments. In this blog we will discuss all important steps that a business should take in order to find a best custom software development vendor in Dubai, UAE.
Step 1: Define your Goals, Objectives and Project Timelines
Before starting your search the very first thing that you need is a goal and objective of the custom software development project. I am not saying you should have a full fledge plan of action, just an abstract of what you need would be enough.And the end-goal should be crystal clear. Let us take an example of document sharing and processing tool. For example, currently your employees are manually processing documents for internal processes. A document that is being generated by a clerk and it needs approval of his superintendent or supervisor, then it might require another signature of the manager and even several other internal authorities could be involved. Preparing the document, taking its prints, then moving the file upward could be time consuming and it could cause delays, especially when cross-function tasks are involved where managers or employees from different business function has to approve a single file before submitting it for final approval to a general manager or eve CEO, the manual process could take a week or so.
However, when a digital system is in place which provides a semi-automated or fully automated framework to push the files from one point to another, this could be done before the afternoon. The clerk could prepare and push it to his/her immediate manager, then it could be reviewed by them and pushed to the next level, and so on. If anyone wants to hold the document, they can hold it, if the approve it, it will automatically appear in the next manager’s dashboard. This is super-fast and it can have a significant impact on your internal processes and performance. In case of this example, our goal was to ‘minimize the file processing time’. Which can be achieved with the help of a small software application. Similarly whatever you need, you should have a clear goal in mind and you should know what you want to achieve with your custom software development project.
You are not required to have an in-depth work flow at the beginning but just a brief understanding of how you want to utilize the software. Let us take the same example, in case of custom document processing or file processing software, you should know what hierarchies you would be needing to achieve the required work flow. What will be the approval process, who would be able to edit the document and/or who will be creating it and who will be the final authority for the approval, etc. Just the simple and basic things about the project. Since we are dealing with internal documents which might contain some sensitive information so would you be comfortable to host it at a remote hosting or would you like to host it at in-premises data center. Will you be needing to integrate that software with any other existing software and how the users will sign-in to the system, etc.
These all details will not only help you achieving the desired results from the custom software development project but even a basic plan could save you a lot of time and cost. You can set milestones and dates which will obviously be revised but it will provide vendor a clear picture of what is expected from them. That is why having a clear end-goal and strategic objectives with a basic project plan and scope of the application must be laid down before you even start looking up for a custom oftware development vendor.
Step 2: Search for Customer Software Development Vendors
Searching for a custom software development vendor is not an easy task in Dubai and in fact anywhere else in UAE. If you search in Google, it shown you hundreds of custom software development vendors. The Google search is the easiest way to find some custom software development vendors. Check out the websites and try to learn about the business, its customers, work and other details. You can click on both ads and the normal search results too. You can also look up in the popular listing sites such as Clutch and GoodFirms, etc. These listing directories also provide a variety of filters such as location, industry focus, hourly rates, project size, etc. These tools can help finding top rated custom software development vendors. Surfing their websites will provide you more clarity about the company, its size, and its expertise. However, the website might not provide you enough information, each company build their website is a different way, although there would be a lot of similarities but still you might find some useful information about on one vendor’s site which would not be available on the other.
Don’t make rules here, just judge a custom software development vendor on the bases of their website and whatever the information they are publishing on it. The best way is to start with smaller companies with adequate work experience. It could minimize the cost a lot and they would be more agreeable on a lot many things. Try to look up for case studies on the vendor’s website, this will provide you much better understanding of the capabilities of the custom software development vendor. At this step make a list of at least 10 custom software development vendor who are located closer to your business and request them all to share their portfolio and experience in relevant industry. The reason of going through the case studies and the portfolio is to find a project that closely resemble to your requirements. The biggest drawback with the larger vendors is that they usually have multiple layer of management which could make processes and communication a bit more time-consuming that is why a smaller or medium sized custom software vendor could be a good choice, but remember, that is not an ultimate criteria.
Step 3: Analyze the Relevant Experience
It is crucial to analyze the portfolio and relevant work experience of the short listed custom software development vendors. This will provide you a better understanding of what they did in past and what you can expect from them. You can also learn if they have ever did something similar to your custom requirements. As if they have already done something similar to your requirements, it would be a lot convenient for them to do it again and most probably they will do it even better. From technical point of view, the skills and the level of expertise that is required to build a project might be sufficient to build several other totally different projects, but for a business owner or a manager it is very hard to understand those technicalities. That is why it is better to see if they have done something in past that resembles your requirements. If a custom software development vendor is saying they have done something similar but couldn’t provide the proof or sample then it is better to avoid them.
Sometimes businesses do sign a NDA or non-disclosure agreement which prevents them to share some of their work a good company will be able to share enough samples of work to let you understand their capabilities and level of their skills. In case if a custom software development vendor is unable to provide you relevant experience due to NDA then at least they will be able to provide you a broader outline of their previous projects. Which would be enough for you understand if they are telling the truth or not. The point here is that if the custom software development vendor will have relevant work experience they will be able to deliver a good quality product.
Step 4: Consider their Location
Usually business don’t consider this much but the geographical location of the vendor is very important. It is best to have the custom software development vendor from your Emirates or from a nearby city. For example, if you are located in Abu Dhabi and you chose a vendor from Ras Al Khaimah it will take them almost half day to reach you out, which will make difficult, however, if you are located in Sharjah and the company you chose is also located in Sharjah or Ajman, they could easily come to you. Here in Dubai and all across UAE there are vendors who only have sales office in UAE and their technical teams works from outside of the country, mostly in India or Pakistan. Such custom software development vendors are very hard to work with. Since the team is overseas which makes communication difficult and it could create a lot of problems during the project execution.
There is another type of custom software development vendor very common in UAE, those are completely off-shore companies, and they neither have sales office nor any other establishment in UAE. Since they are not bound to UAE laws so you will not get any protection in case of dispute. Working with off-shore companies and sharing confidential information with them could be very risky and it can compromise your security in future too. It is better to completely avoid off-shore companies.
Step 5: Compare Different Custom Software Development Vendors on the bases of their Proposals and Quote
Make a short list of all the custom software development vendors who have passed through above all steps and request them to submit their proposals and quotes. Comparing different proposals and quotes is a very critical process. It is better to prioritize the technical aspects over financial aspects. However, the cost of the custom software development project is also a major rating factor when comparing different vendors. The primary rating criteria should be the features of the system and the value it can add to you businesses and not the price. But make sure you are not overpaying for something. Sometimes some features might sound very fancy, it is important to focus on your pre-determined needs and only consider the features which are meeting to those needs.
Here are a few important points that you should consider while comparing different proposals and quotes from different vendors:
- The age of the company, how old is the company?
- How many projects they have delivered so far and who are their customers?
- How much staff they retain and what is the qualification and experience of their staff?
- Did they expressed the offered solution clearly along with your requirements?
- What technology they are proposing you, and how experienced they are in it?
- Does their proposed timeline meets your timeline?
- What project execution method they are using?
- What service, maintenance, AMC or SLA they are offering?
- What other relevant services they offer?
- What are the payment terms and costing of the project?
Once comparing all those aspects re-arrange a list while best on top. At this stage you should ask them to provide some other important details too such as:
- If the new system has ability to integrate with your existing infrastructure, tools and systems?
- What is the integration method?
- What kind of training and skill set is require to operate the new custom software system?
- What training and user manuals they are offering?
- What is the support and escalation process?
- What will be the renewal cost for any time-bound agreement? (Usually for AMCs & SLAs)
- What will be the customization and scaling cost in future?
- How the upgrades and updates will be managed during the warrantee period or under AMC?
- How the upgrades and updates will be managed after the warrantee period or AMC?
- Is there any cost for the upgrades and updates in the software?
Sometimes some of the above concerns are already addressed in proposal or correspondence. But it is important to clarify all these details. This will further help you to accurately estimate the operational and upgrade cost for the software in future.
Step 6: Consider the Technology and Scalability
Hopefully by now you have already made up your mind, however this is a very important aspect of custom software development. There are several technologies available in the market which are used to develop tailor-made software solutions for businesses. It is important to understand some of these technologies are compatible with each other and some are not. The compatibility is usually for the integration and data transfer/sharing. If your new custom software and your any of existing tool are not compatible then the integration between such platforms will be expensive and might not meet all needs. That is why the integration compatibility is also very important. There are two major types of software that are most widely used, not only in Dubai, UAE but all around the world. One is the native software application building and the other is web-based software and tools. These two are completely different from each other and also require a completely different development skills. Usually the scalability is not an issue with the customized software, however, it is important to discuss this point briefly with the custom software development vendor and see how easy and cost-effective scalability their solution is offering.
Step 7: Get into the Agreement and Sign Contracts
The agreements, contracts and sign-off is the final stage of selecting a custom software development vendor. It is also a very crucial step. The contracts and agreements lay down the foundation of the future relationship. It is important that you go through each and every clause of the agreement. Whether it is data privacy, payment terms, delivery and milestones, communication process, complaint and escalation matrix, just go read them thoroughly and don’t leave a single stone unturned. Most of the time these agreements use legal or technical terminologies, so if anything confuse you, immediately ask the vendor to explain it. Keep all of the correspondence official and maintain full record of all emails. These cautions are not because the vendors are not trustworthy, in fact agreeing on all these points is mutually beneficial. The custom software development process is a complex and lengthy processes where an average development phase could last for a month or so. So, it is important to avoid disputes and unwanted delays in the project completion. That is why it is crucial to fully understand and agree on each and every clause of the agreements. Once you are satisfied then do the sign off and initiate the project.
Conclusion
No matter what your requirements are the above step-by-step guide will help you finding the best customized software development vendor in Dubai or anywhere in UAE. The success of a custom software development project heavily depends on the vendor. Good vendors always help their customers and provide them great advice, which also help customers to further improve their software. Furthermore this is a long term relationship, and a business will require services and support from the custom software vendor too, so it is important to choose your custom software development vendor wisely. RSI Concepts is a leading custom software development company in Dubai, UAE. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want us to help you with your custom software development project, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.
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