Most businesses use software as a service (SaaS) technologies. DropBox, Hubspot, MailChimp, Slack, Google G Suite, Adobe Spark, DocuSign, and Shopify are all examples of these products, and many of us rely on them every day, both for work and personally. Following a subscription-based model, the technology is often foundational to businesses’ efforts to conduct their operations efficiently and productively.
It’s not surprising, then, that the SaaS market is worth nearly billions of dollars. And while out-of-box tools are still popular, increasingly, businesses are outsourcing SaaS development, taking advantage of custom designs that meet their unique business needs.
When businesses do turn to SaaS development outsourcing models, the provider will complete all stages of the process as a dedicated team or work with the business and its team members to complete the project. The latter refers to staff augmentation, in which the outsourcing team is brought in to fill in the gaps, although in-house developers will also continue to work on the project, too, alongside them.
Out-of-Box SaaS vs. Outsourcing Development — Which is a Better Model?
That depends on the needs of the business. For startups and small businesses, the standard software could be more efficient, although this isn’t always the case. For example, if a startup is in need of a highly customized tool that will help get the business off the ground, such as a leads management tool, then SaaS sales outsourcing could be the solution
Larger businesses and those with complex needs and requirements may find they have demands for their tools, too. Perhaps they want to ensure that the solution fits in with other tools and technologies they rely on regularly or they need specific features that aren’t available in off-the-shelf solutions.
Additionally, when you choose to outsource SaaS development, you will save time. That’s because you will be able to continue your operations and focus on your core business while leaving the SaaS development in the hands of a skilled external team. This is true whether you intend to build the software from scratch or update an existing technology.
This can be the foundation of a successful SaaS and overall strategy, helping businesses improve and modernize their technology stacks.
SaaS Outsourcing Process
While the SaaS development outsourcing process will vary from business to business, depending on their specific needs, it almost always involves the following key steps:
- Identify the business needs for the technology, pinpointing how it will complement the overall strategy and objectives of the organization.
- Create a list of realistic requirements for the product and how you intend to use it in your organization.
- Research potential outsourcing partners by reading reviews and testimonials, looking through portfolios of work, and speaking with the development team. Focus on candidates with expertise in your niche.
- Evaluate a range of factors as you make your decision, such as compatibility in approach and work culture, price, reliability, technologies they use, and experience.
- Select a partner.
- Work with your partner, establish goals, benchmarks, and a strategy for achieving your objectives.
- If you outsource the project to a dedicated team, they will conduct steps such as architecture, development, UX and UI design, and quality assurance (QA). In a staff augmentation model, you will determine each of your roles in undertaking this process.
- Deploy the software.
- Continue to receive support to update and maintain the software.
Hire Developers for Your SaaS Project
It’s critical to work with a partner with expertise, skills, and experience in SaaS development. At BairesDev, we have carefully honed our SaaS application development process over our many years in the business. Our team members represent the Top 1% of Tech Talent and bring their skill sets to a wide range of projects.
The BairesDev development team will work closely with you and your business to identify your needs, goals, and concerns. Then, we will craft a plan to build an application that meets and even exceeds your requirements. We will bring a variety of specialists to the job, including project managers, UX designers, QA engineers and testers, and, of course, the software development team.
We will work quickly and efficiently, walking you through every phase of the project. Moreover, the project doesn’t end with deployment. We will continue to update and maintain the SaaS application as you scale your operations and your needs change. We will also provide assistance as you integrate the application into your existing technology stacks and offer guidance on how to leverage all the key features of the comprehensive product.
Benefits of Outsourcing SaaS Development
Lower Costs
Like most other tech companies, SaaS ventures typically operate on a shoestring budget focused on reducing initial development costs and maximizing the return from their finalized software. Software outsourcing companies help startups in a variety of ways. Staff augmentation involves hiring skilled software engineers to supplement your staff on an hourly basis only for the exact amount of hours that their high-pay, high-knowledge work is necessary. Experts may be brought in for a few days during crunch time, while other contractors may work within your firm long-term. On the other hand, some companies opt to outsource their entire development process to an experienced end-to-end delivery team, capable of translating a rough idea into a polished final product. Whatever your needs, your outsourcing partner should help you create a cost-effective plan of action that allows you to add hyper-specialized developers to your company as soon as you are ready.
Reduces Manager Burden
The biggest burden that managers face throughout the SaaS development process is sourcing and hiring the right staff. This is a time-intensive project during normal business cycles, but it becomes even more urgent and challenging when hiring for a major development project. That’s why well-regarded software outsourcing services will help you figure out how to approach and work through your project in the quickest, most effective, and less costly manner before you begin the candidate sourcing process. In addition, the professional recruiters at the top software outsourcing companies work with technology specialists exclusively and have a list of talented, hyper-specialized software engineers ready to start a new project on cue. This helps to save your management team time and frustration, freeing them from the candidate recruitment and hiring process and allowing them to focus on their current team and software goals.
Faster Project Completion
By working with a SaaS development outsourcing company with recruitment capabilities, you can avoid the unnecessary challenge of finding and hiring the right people for the job. Recent estimates agree that it takes an average of a month and a half to hire tech employees (http://dhihiringindicators.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/2017-09-DHI-Hiring-Indicators-FINAL.pdf), there is a huge amount of time that you can save by outsourcing recruitment. Furthermore, highly-skilled augmented staff does not need the sort of company onboarding and on-the-job training that your typical, in-house developer needs to get started. Companies like BairesDev, which only work with the top 1% of talent in the tech field, have a bullpen of qualified and experienced software developers that are unreachable to all but the most competitive companies throughout the world.
Find the Right Talent
The Annual CIO Survey found that 65% of technology leaders said that the search for tech talent is one of their industry’s biggest challenges (https://www.hnkpmgciosurvey.com). However, thoughtful tech leaders can sidestep this problem through software outsourcing–and by working with outsourcing partners who have a wide network of experienced software engineers ready to begin their next project today. Just as importantly, their recruiting staff is can identify which software engineers are best suited for your organization given your internal capabilities, budget, and project goals.
Learn from Others
Outsourcing software development allows you to bring in the most sought-after experts in the SaaS development field without the need for a drawn-out hiring process and, even more impressively, allows you to add them to your team almost immediately since your outsourcing partner will have these engineers on-call. These specialists can help you identify potential problems well in advance of deployment, solicit useful customer feedback, and use their years of hard-won experience to help you speed up the development process and avoid unnecessary work.
Flexibility After Development
Managers who followed the old system of hiring a full-time staff are trying to figure out how to reduce their budget and put these employees to work, asking what will we do with all of the new hires who are no longer needed full-time?. While those who outsourced development are looking towards the future and reorganizing their augmented staff for the next big project.
