Hiring professional software experts is crucial for business owners looking to develop or enhance their software systems. However, finding the right vendor is often a daunting challenge that may lead to long-term consequences.
This article provides comprehensive guidelines on what healthcare business owners need to know before choosing the right software vendor. By understanding delivery models, the importance of checking references, and paying attention to the details that differentiate between decent and stellar software vendors, healthcare executives will be equipped to make the right choice for their software needs.
Different models of outsourcing offer various benefits. Some can reduce costs but may present communication and cultural challenges. Others can provide you with much-needed specialized skills and flexibility enhancing your internal IT team. Assessing factors like budget, complexity, expertise, and risk tolerance will help to determine the most suitable outsourcing model.
Offshoring entails outsourcing software development to a company in a different country. It often provides cost savings but may face communication and cultural challenges. Meanwhile, nearshoring involves outsourcing to a nearby country, offering better alignment and collaboration, shorter response times, and reduced travel costs if there’s a need for face-to-face meetings. However, in both cases, you often are left with technical ownership whilst having less control over the quality of the delivered work.
With team augmentation, external resources are used to augment a software development team. It provides access to specific skills and expertise needed for the project. Moreover, the external team members will work side-by-side with your internal team, which offers greater control over the project delivery and leaves the technological ownership inside your organization. Due to the close collaboration between in-house and augmented developers, you can also count on better project team alignment and, in the case of very proactive team members, natural knowledge-sharing and striving for innovation and efficiency.
In contrast, end-to-end project outsourcing involves transferring the technological responsibility for the entire development process to an external company and requires careful selection of a reliable partner. It saves time and resources by leveraging the outsourcing partner’s expertise, but it is crucial to select a trustworthy partner that really understands your business needs.
When considering outsourcing or partnering with a vendor for software development, it is crucial to thoroughly check their references and experience. This step is essential to ensure a successful collaboration and delivery of high-quality software.
Start by requesting and contacting references from previous clients who have worked with the vendor. Ask about their experience, the vendor’s reliability, communication skills, adherence to timelines and budgets, and overall satisfaction with the partnership.
Additionally, evaluate the vendor’s experience in your specific industry or domain. A vendor with previous experience in your industry will likely have a better understanding of your unique challenges and requirements, leading to more effective solutions. That is especially important in industries such as healthcare, where digital product needs can be very specific and unique.
Conducting a comprehensive review of the vendor’s portfolio is also important. Examine the projects they have worked on, analyzing the complexity, scale, and technologies used. This will give you insights into their technical expertise and capabilities. Many software companies claim to have previous experience in the healthcare industry. However, they often do not have specific cases, so always ask for references.
Furthermore, consider the vendor’s team composition and qualifications. Assess their technical skills, certifications, and expertise in relevant technologies. While you might lack specific technical knowledge, the number of senior engineers or architects is a good indication of their skill. Moreover, ask for their certification, as, for example, many cloud technologies require one as proof of proficiency.
Thorough research helps make informed decisions; however, it is often easy to forget about things such as cultural fit and proactivity. Ideally, you want to find a vendor that offers both hard and technical skills and fits your company culture while providing something extra, be that knowledge or problem-solving attitude.
In my 20+ years of experience in this field, one thing that always stood out the most was the proactive mindset of the engineering teams. With that, the team takes real technological ownership of their work while embracing the business goals and value to be brought to the end users. You will often find that such teams think three steps ahead, being able to identify all product functionality dependencies and suggest product changes that will improve scalability and performance while reducing overall development costs. Of course, that means you may sometimes hear an idea is not the best, but it is most often worth listening to the tech team and treating their concerns seriously.
That is why trust and good communication with the tech team is so important, as it can help your business grow exponentially. This is where a good culture fit also comes into play.
English language proficiency and communication skills are very important, and crucial in the case of team leaders, especially for remote, global teams. It is always a good idea to check it during one of the online interviews.
Software development is a complex field and choosing to outsource or partner with a vendor requires careful consideration. Understanding different delivery models like offshoring, nearshoring, team augmentation, and project outsourcing helps align needs with the right approach.
The right approach to software development and vendor partnership can result in improved productivity, efficiency, cost savings, and faster time-to-market. Understanding options and choosing wisely enables successful projects that meet specific needs and drive business forward.
Marcin Wudarczyk, PhD, is a senior software architect, engineering manager, and CEO of GoSolve, a software company specializing in cloud applications and large-scale Golang-based systems for Healthcare, Fintech, and Martech industries.