A business must surround itself with an efficient and trusted software company to ensure the proper functioning of its IT infrastructure. It is not always easy to find a successful company, which offers services tailored to your needs while staying at affordable prices.
To effectively choose your Software company, different criteria will have to be taken into account. To help you in this process, here are a few things to keep in mind when making your choice.
How to choose your software company?
Identifying Needs
A corporate management software is among the essentials for all businesses today. You will first have to identify what your needs are for your IT infrastructure (computers, network, storage, software, security).
Software companies are generally specialized in certain fields of activity, while others are not. This notion is important to have available the skills of a person who knows the specific issues related to your sector of activity. Whether you are in the hotel business, the manager of an e-commerce store or a healthcare player, your issues will not be the same.
List your needs
Before contacting the companies you have identified, it is recommended to list the expected services. A good company can assist you to help you list your specific needs. You can also ask yourself some questions that will allow you to establish an exhaustive list:
- Do you have all your equipment and software or do you need to be supplied by your service provider?
- Do you need an internal or external data backup solution?
- Do you need preventive, curative maintenance or complete outsourcing?
- Do you need to install or upgrade your local network?
- Would you like to have a cloud computing service?
These questions are not always exhaustive and may change over time. From this list of needs, you will be able to find a software company with technical skills who can meet your needs. Also, by listing all the things, it becomes easier for you to organize all the things.
A local or national software development company?
Some providers operate on a limited geographic market. This can be interesting for companies with a unique local presence.
As soon as one intervenes on a larger territory (regional, national), or that one has several agencies, it is necessary to identify a software company capable of intervening on all the equipment.
How to check the skills of a Software company?
As with other recruitments, it is essential to check the skills of the professional you are about to hire. Indeed, you must make sure that the software company is up to your needs. For this, do not hesitate to consult its website in detail and to obtain information from other companies which have called upon the services of such a professional.
The best is to organize an interview with the software company to ask them directly all the questions you want and thus ensure that they will be able to meet your needs.
Do not hesitate to ask him if he has certifications from software publishers or hardware manufacturers who are a guarantee of the quality of service.
As the software sector that is evolving very quickly, make sure that your service provider performs technological monitoring.
Do not ignore recommendations
In addition to the skills check, do not hesitate to gather recommendations. Generally, we consider that a service provider who offers quality work has no trouble giving the contact details of other companies for which he works, or for whom he has worked in the past. The verification of the recommendations is essential to get a precise idea of the quality of the work that is proposed. For this, you can consult the various customer opinions about any Software company that it is possible to find on the net.
Besides, do not overlook the importance of word of mouth. In your entourage, you may be able to find professionals who have already used the services of the service provider you plan to hire.
Software company: how reactive in crisis?
Computer failure can be a very critical event for a company. This pauses the activities of the company for a more or less substantial time, resulting in an equivalent drop in income and which may jeopardize the projects in progress.
The longer the delay to restart your computer system, the more it will hurt the activities of your business.
Data security: what guarantees?
As we have just mentioned, in certain cases, the data of your company can be endangered. It is strongly recommended to anticipate the implementation of data security solutions to avoid putting your company in a critical situation.
Your Software company remains the best person to set up this type of device. This must be anticipated before any breakdown. To secure data, you need a regular backup solution.
This involves setting up backups (regular backup) that must be configured or replicating the data on a server. The backup can be carried out on your premises or the infrastructure of your service provider.
What are the different means of the company?
Depending on your needs, you can also look at the size of your software provider’s business. Concretely, this will be a criterion that can define whether your service provider is reactive in the event of a problem or the event of changes in your needs (launch of a new subsidiary, fleet migration, etc.).
How long has the software provider been there?
In addition to the size of the business, seniority may also be important. Of course, this point will have to agree with the other criteria that we have just cited. Concretely, a company can be very old and offer a poor-quality intervention. It is important to check their portfolio.
However, this will be felt in the many customer reviews that can be found. In general, we can consider that seniority can be a guarantee of quality. This translates in particular from significant experience on IT parks of different natures and with a multitude of systems and probably in crisis management.
What is the price of the software company?
The IT budget is often far from negligible, especially for SMEs. As with any other charge, the cost of your service provider must, therefore, be taken into account.
At first, you must keep in mind that just because services are very expensive does not necessarily mean they are of high quality. It will also be important to avoid IT providers offering excessively reduced prices, which often hide reduced availability or expertise.
Conclusion
A good Software company will provide not only warranty obligations. She will provide the project in the future and comprehensive technical support.