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Unlike big companies that have hundreds of employees, small and medium digital and design agencies may face a problem of covering the full scope of clients’ needs. To sustain competitiveness they have to offer full-stack services, including software development, but it’s quite challenging as there is usually a lack of time and human resources. The solution lies in outsourcing. But the question that still remains is: how to choose a reliable web and mobile development partner that will not just “fill the gaps”, but provide top-notch services that will leave your clients satisfied?
Choosing an Outsourcing Partner for Web and Mobile Development
In this article, we will outline the most crucial aspects digital agencies should look at when they’re considering Top Offshore Software Development Companies. But before you can read our post about Hot 9 Reasons to Outsource Software Development.
Expertise
The market is quite diverse and you can easily find young and brave software engineers who are ready to take over any project you pass on to them. Yet, as the responsibility for the final result lies with a digital agency, the quality cannot be compromised.
It goes without saying that the first thing you should look for is the expertise, meaning that programmers have to be skilled enough to create a product that meets your and your client’s expectations. They also should have enough expertise to properly understand (or identify) clients’ pain points and suggest creative and 100% original and custom solutions to them. This is especially relevant for digital agencies that go for outsourcing because they offer software development services to their clients but do not have in-house app developers.
Altamira has been on the market for more than seven years and we have already gained a reputation of trusted and highly professional programmers. Our developers were featured as top-rated in Ukraine by Clutch (a B2B rating and review firm based in Washington, D.C.) Besides, we are extremely adaptable and can do both–develop a product from scratch and pick up the existing project at any stage.
Experience in White-label development
Even if a team you hired know how to write good code, being an intermediary between a client and developers may be quite painful if the latter ones don’t have any experience in so-called white-label development. So when a digital agency decides to outsource software development services, it’s essential to look for an app and mobile development team that has already successfully worked with other creative agencies.
Specifically, they should understand the importance of meeting deadlines and know how to do accurate time and costs estimates. On top of this, a development team must always keep in touch with you and report to you regularly so you can make sure you’ll get a project ready in time. Another reason why effective communication with a development team is important is that you’ll be able to keep a client posted about a status of a project.
Altamira has vast experience in providing White-label Development Services. Our team has already worked with top digital agencies in the US and other countries (referrals and feedback from our clients are available on request). So we know how to establish efficient workflow, e.g. preliminary releases, milestones, and deadlines for delivery of set scope of functionally. We are also very flexible and can adapt to your set processes if needed.
Besides, we always create a separate account for each project and give agency’s representatives access to it so that they can easily track the progress. In addition, project managers are assigned to all our projects so there is always a person responsible for all the work and you can contact them directly.
Ability to work independently
One of the main benefits of outsourcing is that it can make the life of an in-house team easier. This means that developers a digital agency sub-contracts must be able to take over as many processes as possible and support them independently.
In the best-case scenario, the role of an agency is limited to the following actions: contacting developers, providing them with the background information required to complete a project (or the part of a project they are responsible for) and conducting minimum supervision needed to maintain smooth cooperation among all angles of the client-agency-subcontractors triangle. The responsibility for the rest of the work (e.g. contacting a client, writing specifications, consulting, building a product) should lie with a development team.
Thanks to our experience in rendering app development services, Altamira already has well-established working processes honed for years. We can communicate with clients on your behalf from the very beginning and up to the release of a final product, so only minimum participation is required from your side.
Non-disclosure agreement
It’s a common situation that a digital agency doesn’t want its clients to know that it’s outsourcing. That’s why, when looking for a development team, it’s important to make sure that they are ready to work under Non-disclosure agreement (NDA) and fully understand all the consequences it entails. In particular, an outsourcing team should be aware that the app development would be unbranded and its company’s name won’t be mentioned in any aspect associated with it. Read more about NDA here.
Altamira treats confidentiality very seriously and we always cooperate with digital agencies in the strict adherence to the NDA. All our developers understand what a white-label service means, so you don’t have to worry that anyone will find out that we cooperate.
Ability to support many technologies
The opportunity to quickly scale an in-house team of a digital agency is one of the most important reasons to outsource. It brings two significant benefits:
- an outsourcing team will help you out when you’re running out of time
- an outsourcing team will complement your in-house team so you can expand the scope of services your agency renders (e.g. offer not only promotional services but also design and software development)
On top of this, hiring subcontractors can save your money as it’s at least 20% cheaper to outsource the development part than maintaining your own team. This is because it’s quite challenging for a digital agency to secure a steady supply of software development projects so in-house programmers can stay without work for a long time.
Hence, when choosing software engineers to cooperate with, we recommend looking for an established team (not just for separate freelancers) that supports many technologies and can provide software development services to you on a permanent basis.
Altamira’s dedicated team may become your remote office. We have been successfully partnering with two big creative agencies from the US for more than four years already and projects developed by our team received many professional awards.
FAQ
Bottom line
If you’re a small or medium digital agency striving to reinvent your business outcomes, outsourcing is a way to go. It can save your money, allow you to take more work from clients, expand the scope of services you offer and support your in-house team at the development stage.
When choosing software engineers to subcontract, it’s important to pay attention to the following aspects: expertise, previous experience in working with creative agencies, ability to work independently and under NDA, as well as ability to support many technologies and cooperate with you on a permanent basis.
Altamira has excellent indicators with respect to all the above criteria. We understand that the delegation of work trusted to you by your clients may be intimidating and you’re looking for the true experts. For this reason, we are ready to provide you with a free consultation so you can make sure we are the web and mobile development partner you can definitely rely on.
