London is the centre of commerce and business in the UK, and even simple searches will give you a deluge of software companies. They shower you with buzzwords and sales pitches promising you everything you want for low prices. More often than not, you’ll receive a bug-ridden software 3-months after deadline with a receipt that contains a bunch of extra costs you were neither made aware of or learned about. Here are things you should keep in mind when choosing a software company in London:
Relevant Experience
Software development isn’t a monolith – there are widely different disciplines, e.g. machine learning and front-end design that falls under the term software development. If you’re looking for a company to help you build a mobile app, then their five-years of experience building top-grade websites won’t mean anything to you. The first thing you need to do to ensure you get the best service is to learn a bit about your project and the areas of software development pertaining to it. This way you’ll be much more qualified to judge the companies and their qualifications for your job.
Outsourcing
Outsourcing has been a staple of software development in the UK for the last two decades. Many companies have a dozen or so employees in the UK and the rest are freelancers from India and Bangladesh. If you go on websites like Freelancer and Upwork, you’ll quickly notice dozens upon dozens of job postings by UK companies that are offering to pay pennies for relatively complex jobs.
Those companies not only exploit people from the third world and drive out the capital of the UK, but the product you’ll receive will be low quality and ineffective. The people trusted with your application usually don’t understand British businesses’ needs and processes and are in a hurry to finish your job to move on to the next low paying job. Leaving you with a half-working product that causes your business more harm than good. Hiring an SEO company in London wouldn’t cause any of those problems, because you already have a shared language and culture.
Hidden Costs
Software companies usually beguile and captivate customers with extremely low prices. When the customer finally gives in and signs up, the software company will send him bills for miscellaneous stuff every other week, random delays will occur. By the time the project is finished, he finds out he’s paid a lot more than the original asking price.
Be extremely careful with the software companies offering low prices and too-good-to-be-true sales pitches, you’ll more likely pay less and get a higher quality software if you go with a middle-of-the-road run-of-the-mill software development company. If you still decide on going with one of those companies, make sure you read a lot of reviews and make sure they are completely trustworthy before depending on them for your project.
Customer Support
Applications are usually a source of frustration and dissatisfaction for most companies. When you first adopt a new system, some of its functionalities will appear obtuse, and you’ll be spending hours looking up how to do a simple task. This is where a professional customer support service comes in – they can support your team and help them learn the application quickly and solve any problems they might have during its operation. Customer support is an essential part of your software package, and you must make sure it is always available in the highest quality.