Thanks to digital advances, it’s possible to do business with companies on the other side of the world. In this competitive market, however, local custom software development services still have a series of important advantages over remote competition. Despite technological advances, these local businesses can still provide superior products.
You Can Expect Collaboration
From your first interaction, you can expect face-to-face collaboration. This includes your initial interview, where you can discuss your long-term goals, short-term goals, and how the commissioned software would fit into these ambitions. The beginning of your professional relationship will set the tone for the rest of the project. Meeting face-to-face provides heightened accountability and better communication. It also makes it easier to learn firsthand about your business and the individual quirks that make it unique.
No overseas company can offer these kinds of services without dramatically increasing costs. Flying developers to meet with clients face-to-face on another continent is not a cheap endeavor. It also makes follow-up visits and the other local advantages on this tremendously impractical. To get true collaboration, you need to hire custom software development services locally.
Work On-Site
Obviously, your developer will have to go back to their offices to do the majority of their work. They need their specialized tools, just as your employees do. That doesn’t mean your custom software development service won’t be visiting again in person, however. They should come in person for additional meetings and further investigation. Although developers trust you to know your business inside and out, they also understand that they may see or hear something that will help them make a better piece of software. This isn’t an oversight on the business owner’s part, but simply another advantage of hiring local developers.
One of the most important things developers should do when they’re working on-site is interviewing stakeholders. How will the people who will use the software every day benefit? Do they have any insight into the problems their old system presented? These discussions can help developers build products better suited to meeting the goals you discussed in your very first interview.
Present for On-Site Testing
Testing is one of the trickiest parts of custom software development. Implementation could take several steps, and no matter how well you and your developer plan in advance, it’s always possible that something could go wrong. Even if you don’t face a major error, even a minor software glitch could cost your business money if it isn’t quickly resolved.
When you work with remote software development services, you again face the obstacle of time and cost to transport professionals to oversee on-site work. Local custom software development services, on the other hand, can easily come as often as necessary to ensure a smooth implementation and transition. Having an expert onsite is one of the best ways to reduce risk during implementation, and it could easily save your business thousands of dollars in the long run.
Receive Feedback through Discussions
This advantage is essentially the follow-up to one of our earlier points. Interviewing stakeholders as the software is developed helps ensure it is designed well the first time. However, that doesn’t mean there won’t be room for improvement. The entire point of custom software development is to create a tailored product that fits your business. This may require a few tests to ensure the program is just the right fit before final implementation. To gather feedback, developers need to discuss test performance with the client. Whether this feedback is positive or points out opportunities for further development, it still gives custom software development services vital information. Holding these discussions on-site makes it easier to demonstrate problems or point out unexplored potential.
Optimizing UX
Optimized user experience is a huge advantage of commissioning custom software. Every business has a different workflow and culture, and it’s impossible to find off the shelf solutions that will perfectly match your work habits and process. Building from the ground up is the best solution. Of course, user experience takes a lot of research and discussion to fine tune. Giving developers access to some of your best employees is a great way to ensure an optimized user experience that can speed up production and limit mistakes. Again, this is tricky to manage from across an ocean or a continent, but local developers can work around your business’s schedule to ensure you don’t lose valuable labor time in exchange for the perfect product.
The best custom software development services are found locally. Only the local advantage can give developers the insight, communication, and collaboration opportunities they need in order to do their best work. Because they are often on-site, they offer the best, safest on-site testing, and they’re the most help during final implementation. Although they are making software, face-to-face interaction with humans is what sets these developers and their products apart. Contact us today to talk about your software needs.
