5 Ways to ensure that your Sitecore Development Project is in the hands of the Experts

No matter what people or market say, there is this one undeniable truth associated with Outsourcing which is, “Outsourcing is still all about Money”! But there has been a huge paradigm shift in the approach of the enterprises and about what they expect their Software Outsourcing Company to deliver in return of the money.

For instance, initially Outsourcing Software Development was all about getting the least possible bid for the development of the Software Product! Now, the focus has changed to hire the best talent for the software development and forming a value-based partnership where the IT Outsourcing Company takes equal interest in the development of your Software Product!

Initially, Outsourcing the Software Development was about reducing the cost of development and releasing the product in least possible cost! Now, the development is continuous and it is not the cost of development that is the concern, it is about having faster go-to market, employing agile methodology to reach targets early and to maintain software in a way that it saves the enterprise a huge cost of product failure or product rejection from the market because of errors! Basically, it is about getting the maximum benefit of the opportunity that the market has to offer by making your software product, the best possible version of it!

To put it in a nutshell, initially it was about “Saving Money” and now, Outsourcing Software Development is all about getting the optimum “Return on Investment” that enterprises are investing in their software product. Now, let’s understand how the whole process and the experience of Enterprises are changing with the evolution of the Software Development Outsourcing market. What are the differences that Software Outsourcing Company has to incorporate to provide their clients the best value of their money and what are the challenges that enterprises have to face during this evolved times. Basically, if you opt for the right Sitecore Outsourcing Partner, below is how they must ideally approach for the Sitecore Development:

1. Seek for Collaborative Outsourcing Relationship:

   There are three types of Outsourcing Relationships, one is Directive Outsourcing Relationship where you tell your Outsourcing Partner what to do, second is Collaborative Outsourcing Relationship where both the parties brings their expertise on the table and jointly they will strategize and execute the Sitecore Development Project and the third is Dysfunctional Outsourcing Relationship where there is a lack of communication and your collaboration doesn’t accomplish anything.

   While Dysfunctional is not an option, we suggest you go for Collaborative Approach and not for Directive Approach! To vouch for our suggestion, we have Steve Jobs with us who once quoted something that goes like, “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”

   So, instead of instructing them, get them onboard before the actual development and employ their expertise to strategize the ideal development approach for your Sitecore Commerce Platform. And the ideal hiring process is that instead of hiring the whole team, you form a small cross-functional team of a Project Manager, Business Analyst and you as a client and you three together can strategize the whole project and then after thorough blueprint of the Sitecore Commerce is made, then you hire Sitecore developers to execute this project.

2. A good mix of in-house team and a Dedicated team from an Outsourcing Partner:

   One of the biggest hiring firms once analysed millions of their data and gave a result that an average Global time to hire a resource for the vacant business function of Information Technology/Design is 56 days! Imagine if you need 30 different resources for your project and you need them to gain initiator’s benefit. How will you accomplish that task in a limited timeframe? While it seems impossible to pull-off that task, it should be such that you collaborate with a Technology Partner and together you create a good mix of both an in-house team and an off-shore development and maintenance team! But, you must determine the roles and functions that each team will carry out. For instance, client must have an in-house team that works on the holistic development supervision and on the other hand, hire Outsourcing Service Providers to again access to rare talents for all the aspects of Software Development Lifecycle. This will increase the efficiency of the project and will also ensure that the development process becomes transparent along with proper understanding and protection of your data and of your ecommerce idea.

3. Ensure you hire a Team of Experts who are certified and has relevant Domain Exposure and understanding:

   One of the best things about Sitecore Development is that no matter from where you are, there would a local Sitecore body in the area who could vouch for the integrity and technical expertise of the resources and the firm with whom you are planning to collaborate. For instance, when you are in collaboration with Addact Technologies, you get access to one of the three Sitecore MVPs and 20 Sitecore Certified Senior and Junior resources who have exposure to various Domain specific projects of Sitecore. Apart from that, to understand the integrity of the firm, one can also ask Sitecore Singapore and Sitecore India body about the functioning and efficiency of Addact Technologies.

   And the thing apart that is essential apart from Technical Expertise is the Domain Experience and Exposure of the industry on which you are planning to build your Sitecore Commerce product. The reason why Domain Expertise is important is because when the Sitecore Development Partner has worked in the same industry in the past, you can not only review the whole work that they have done for your competition, you can also rest assured that the firm with whom you are associating has known all the possible challenges and setbacks that they can face in the project and can handle it with ease. Also, past experience can also assure that the developers are aware of the Market Trends and will handle all the requirements of the Industry Standards with expertise.

4. Off-shore your Software Development for Round the Clock Development and Support:

   Off-shoring means Outsourcing your Software Development task to a country that works in different time zone then yours. This approach is more beneficial for software that is made available for open market or a large target audience. The reason why it is a wise idea is because when you are serving to a larger audience, you will have many maintenance tasks that might need immediate attention and if you have an off-shore team working on the product, you could manage to have teams that can work round the clock to handle all such requests.

   Apart from that, such huge products also sometimes need constant support and instead of hiring teams and paying them extra for night shifts, you can actually save money by outsourcing it to an Off-shore team. While it is completely subjective to the type and purpose of Software Development, these are some obvious benefits of Off-shoring if you could manage to handle communications effectively. And if you have an ideal Outsourcing Partner, then they will already have tools and processes defined to overcome that challenge.

5. Place your bets on Value Based Partnership against Cost-effective collaborations:

   This is the most important aspect of Sitecore Development Outsourcing irrespective of what the product and its purpose is. Because in the times where in revolutionary product of today in IT Domain’s can possible become obsolete tomorrow, thus you need a Technology Partner that can provide you optimum value of the investment and help you get you on an innovation drive that will help you keep your Sitecore Product relevant and updated and not just an Outsourcing Agency whose concern is gaining profits from you by providing the means to an ends.

   Instead of looking for such Agencies that only renders development service and does not contribute and work to make your product the best possible version technically, then there is a possibility that you would end-up paying more for the same product when you need to make upgrades and modifications in that software. Choose a partner that employs their Technical Skills, Entrepreneurial Capabilities, domain experience and their expertise to guide you towards an ideal Technology Solution with conviction and without cutting any corners with zeal to walk an extra mile to achieve perfection. While this is the last ideal approach in our list, we would say it is the most important one amongst all the others. Because if you deal with a Software Outsourcing Company that offers Value Based Partnerships, then all the above mentioned approaches would become an implied conditions of the agreement whether you mention them or not and you will get all the services as the part of the package.

   So, basically all we are suggesting is that instead of taking a blind leap towards this deep valley of Software Market, it is essential that you understand the depths, prepare and equip yourself for safe landing, have a contingency plan if Plan A fails and then jump into the market with an ideal Sitecore development partner.

Let us have coffee together and discuss your requirement for Sitecore. Mail us at info@addact.net.