5 reasons why you should outsource your mobile app development
Once you have decided to build a new product — a mobile, smartwatch or a tablet app, you need an experienced team to implement your ideas in the right way. You are probably wondering which way of development would be most appropriate for you. Options are: an in-house action, outsourcing it or some kind of in-between solution. In this article I’ll give you 5 reasons to outsource your mobile app development.
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Benefits with examples
WhatsApp, Alibaba, Infor, Slack, Viber — these are examples of companies that outsourced mobile app development and succeeded. And the truth is, more and more brands do it because it can actually be very profitable. Because there are many benefits of outsourcing mobile app development. So in order to gain a competitive advantage, it is worth considering this kind of solution for your company.
So why should you outsource app development instead of hiring the necessary staff? Find answers below.
1. You need an experienced app development company
Hiring a team of developers is not everything.
You’ll also need:
- experienced testers (Quality Assurance Specialists)
- dedicated designer
- solution architect
- business analyst
- project manager
They all take part in the process. However, don’t forget that you get a group of employees who don’t know each other. It will take time for them to integrate, organize and finally to be able to build a product together.
Read about the roles in software development projects here.
Achieving the balance within a group so that each person has responsibilities that match their skills and experience takes time. You’d spend weeks onboarding, choosing tools and arrangement of work processes before they can get down to work.
Mobile app development companies have years of practise behind them.
It’s the experience gained specifically in this area. So they won’t make as many mistakes as a new staff which requires team building.
They have been working as a team for the whole time. They have established their habits and don't have to waste time trying to organize the workflow.
You might need to use their experience to expand your ideas even if you know exactly what you want. The team will advise you at every step so that you don’t waste your time and money on actions that make no sense in the long run.
A dedicated company knows for sure how to create a mobile app in an efficient and cost effective way. So among other reasons to outsource your mobile app development, remember about this unobvious one.
2. You can significantly reduce mobile app development costs
How to make developing a mobile app for your business cheaper?
Lots of companies have already become convinced that reducing costs is one of the best advantages of outsourcing the development. So I guess this is one of the most important reasons to outsource your mobile app development.
An experienced mobile app development company will be able to analyze your needs better in order to make the calculations transparent. If it’s needed and possible, they'll organise workshops and backlog refinements. They have the experience in dividing the scope and thanks to this, the development doesn’t take too long. Having an insight into the apps created for previous projects, they know how to analyse and draw conclusions.
Every customer wants to keep costs optimized and a well-experienced company knows how to do it in a reasonable way.
In-house app development
For In-house app development, you’ll have to hire a team of engineers, provide them with necessary equipment and pay salaries. Also, you'll have to worry about annual leaves, sick pays etc.
That’s clearly gaining costs. But most importantly, these are the costs you can’t fully predict. When some unforeseen challenge appears or when it turns out that people you hired aren’t experienced enough or matched to the project, you might also have to hire additional employees.
You don’t have to worry about it when contracting the project to an external company.
Still, you have to remember that you’re also part of the project and you have to spend your time on it. The best solution is when the customer is also the Product Owner, then the Project Manager can turn to them for any current matter, because the customer is the decision maker at the same time, which greatly facilitates the process and thus saves time and money.
3. When you outsource app development, the latest technologies will be used for your project
The need to stay competitive on the market makes a software house adopt the latest development technologies. The experienced team is also able to advise which technology fits best for your project. Therefore, you won’t have to worry about providing the newest solutions for your business. The project will be implemented in an efficient way and you won’t have to spend too much time and money on things that you won’t need in the future.
A mobile app development company has the ability to make an aware decision regarding the technology for your product. A specialised team does a lot of similar projects, which allows to acquire and transfer development knowledge between them. They can use the latest technologies to create your app and they know how to cooperate using tools that speed up the work of QA, UI/UX team and developers such as Figma (UI), Postman (QA), Bitrise and Jira. It makes the whole process faster and more controllable.
All this to provide a beautiful design and do all necessary activities to bring your project from the concept stage up to the finished product.
4. The team knows how to make accurate estimates thanks to their experience
In the software houses the valuation of services goes along with the calculation of time to deliver the project. This, of course, involves your continued commitment to the estimation process by setting requirements in a clear and consistent manner. Anyway, if there is a sudden need to push forward, the company has the people to join in and help to speed up the project.
At FiveDotTwelve we make detailed estimates based on provided materials or analyses conducted with the client. That is possible because we know how to customize the way and form of communication for every client so that we understand all the needs better.
A good, experienced team, great involvement and constant communication — these are the things that let us make accurate estimates.
For example, in cooperation with company Onoco, we were able to deliver the project 10% earlier, i.e. the time we spent on the project was reduced by 10% with regard to the estimation we’ve done at the start.
We were able to find solutions different from the ones being planned at the beginning of the project which helped us save some time.
Nevertheless, you have to know that the estimates (and what follows — price and time), may change every time you change the requirements. It’s not all said and done once you’ve finished the analyses and designs. One of the first questions is “how much does it cost?”. But it is very common that clients change their ideas concerning features during the whole process. It works, of course, on both sides, so if you decide to add a function, it will cost time and money, but if you decide to delete one, it will generate some savings.
5. You’ll have the support when the project is over
You should know that creating an app is not the end of the cooperation. Long-term projects usually last more than 2 years, so the app is constantly updated and checked long after it’s released to be useful and convenient to users at all times, but above all to work properly. To find out exactly how the development process works, check out How to proceed with mobile app development.
The whole development team provides you with constant support. They’ll make sure the app is working, keep it updated by providing support for latest mobile systems versions and fix potential errors or needs that arise during product life, such as licences matters, law changes (e.g. data protection law) and platform requirements (e.g. Sign in with Apple required for every iOS application submitted to AppStore that utilizes a 3rd party authentication method).
Of course, this can also be achieved by using in-house development. However, in this case you have to provide people with work all the time, but the demand for working hours changes at different stages of the project. When involving the external company, the working time is flexible and if less resources are needed to keep your project running, fewer people are involved so you can cut costs.
So what are the benefits of outsourcing app development?
To sum up, unless you already have an integrated team on your side, these are crucial reasons for you to outsource mobile app development:
- You can reduce costs significantly
- The team has an experience, which is the key to success in the world of mobile development
- A software house always gives advices on choosing a technology that meets your requirements
- An experienced development team is able to prepare accurate estimations
- By delegating heavy duty tasks you avoid issues with working time and resources while still receiving support from the app development company.
Nowadays, the app development process is often carried out remotely. See how to do it effectively in this blogpost.
