In all sincerity, you can keep your Android app development project in-house. But should you do so? The short answer is no.
For many businesses, app development is a big decision and changes the course of their business strategically. They may consider it a milestone that leads them from their predominantly brick-and-mortar setup to a digital or semi-digital one. Given the severity of the decision, the process of executing this step demands similar care and thought.
Once your business has decided that it will go with developing an app for its operations and has chosen Android as its go-to operating system, the next question arises about the process of doing so. You could keep this development in-house if your app is only secondary to your business’s image or operations. However, for most businesses, this is not the case.
If an app is as essential for your customer’s satisfaction as it is for most businesses, you should hire a professional Android application development company. Still not convinced? Here are ten reasons to seek the service.
Cost
It’s easy to believe that your business will save bucks by handing out this app development project to the in-house tech team, but it’s a rooky mistake. Your IT team is not built for app development-related tasks. Maybe you have equipped them with web-related skills. Or they could have been hired after considering their network maintenance skills. But they aren’t built to develop apps.
Delegating this task to them will be like giving a high schooler a Ph.D. research project. They will make mistakes – lots of them. And mistakes are costly. Think about the costs of human time spent on this project. The cost of hidden rigidity and glitches is even higher.
In contrast, external teams will keep the process standardized and keep the costs within the discussed budget.
Ease of Operations
Hiring and utilizing the talents of an external team may sound difficult, but it feels easier when the team knows its roles.
Those days are long gone when communicating the project and defining its deliverables used to take a full-fledged intermediary team between the business and its software development team. Today, businesses are more technology literate, and the software, aka app, development teams use communication templates and strategies to understand the idea better.
These teams know business because of their exposure to hundreds, if not thousands, of similar projects in different industries. This experience allows them to plan the project with the help of your internal team and execute it without demanding micromanagement and day-to-day input from your business.
Speed of Delivery
Only a few businesses nowadays are app-based. In other words, not all business models keep apps at the heart of their operations. Instead, these business modes use apps as a secondary operation to remain within their customers’ reach.
Such a situation means that these businesses don’t need a dedicated mobile app development team but will carry out this exercise only once or a few times in their lifetime. As such, its IT team must lack the exposure that is needed to build a robust, functioning app that can not only succeed at getting the attention of its customers but also maintain it.
The team will have to first learn the process before developing the app. On the other hand, if it hires an Android application development company, the company will bring its experience and skill set, making the process easy and quick.
Guaranteed Quality Control
The quality of an app lies in its efficiency as well as its navigation options. While internal teams can often detect and correct the most common quality issues and glitches in an app, they may not look at the app from the viewpoint of customers.
An efficient and experienced app development team is different in this area from a generic internal IT team. It has worked with end users and understood their needs and navigation psychology. This exposure allows them to highlight performance issues more quickly, improving the end-user experience considerably.
Risk Management
App development has standardized a lot as a process in recent years. Yet, it isn’t free of surprises and setbacks. Sometimes, miscommunication happens between the teams. At other times, businesses face the need to change the definition of their minimum viable product (MVP). Oftentimes, the glitches subject the final product to strict revision needs.
In any case, app development teams not only expect but also prepare for such setbacks. Their nature of business allows them to put more demanding projects on the fast track by utilizing their internal resources. In most cases, this is part and parcel of their app development services and doesn’t demand over-the-top money.
Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity is the key concern for more than 97% of businesses operating in the digital world. Related threats, if they materialize, have the ability to wipe more than 60% of businesses out of existence. Consequently, businesses cannot take risks with the security measures of their apps.
However, internal teams are often not equipped with the right skills or tools to ensure reasonable security, making a third-party Android app development company more reliable.
Consistent Delivery
Modern app development processes are streamlined and predictable. Developers have developed effective and result-oriented strategies for every step of the app development process. This focused policy starts with initial communication and continues with every step along the whole process.
The developers’ team is quick to define and communicate expected outcomes for every step of the process, allowing the business to evaluate the progress as the project nears its end.
Up-to-date Features
It’s a no-brainer that professional app developers in Houston bring subject-based, practical knowledge to the table. They know the industry trends and best practices to follow. They can identify a fad from a trend that’s going to stay and act accordingly.
With updated features, the app not only improves its performance but also captures customers’ attention easily.
Built-in Agility
In this era of continuous change, agility is the only feature that guarantees an app’s sustainability. It should be built into the code written for your business app so that minor changes in the app can transform it into a fully updated source of connection for your customers.
Internal teams may not know how to keep the code easy to develop with the developing requirements, adding maintenance and upkeep costs in the long run. On the contrary, app developers know the best practices to ensure agility and flexibility remain the key features of the product they offer.
After-Sale Services
For many business models, a transaction is complete as soon as a product is delivered. However, the app development industry is different. It depends on a long-lasting developer-business relationship to thrive. In fact, long-term relationships are a remarkable indicator that the developer is dedicated and professional.
Businesses need app developers for the ongoing upkeep of their apps. This may mean maintenance of their apps or developing them to reflect the latest developments in the business and/or customers’ demands. Oftentimes, app developers are needed to introduce the relevant team to the use of the app for the convenience of the business’s customers.
Take Away
Keeping your app development process in-house may appear a viable and cost-effective option if you ignore its long-term consequences. App development is a project that depends heavily on the skills of the developer. If your team lacks that skill and experience, your error-related costs will be too high to bear.