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Did you know that hiring an enterprise software development company is very different from hiring developers for a consumer app? Not only is the scale of an enterprise project greater. But the development process itself must follow a separate route starting from the project planning stage.
Understanding how enterprise software compares to consumer solutions is a must if you want to create a product that will bring maximum value to your business.
Enterprise Software Development Company Services Vs. Consumer Software Development
In order to hire the best enterprise software development company, you need to understand what sets enterprise solutions apart. It will enable you to evaluate your options better and understand the services you should focus on.
Enterprise Custom Software Development Solutions
The easiest way to explain what enterprise software is and how it differs from consumer apps is to say that enterprise solutions are aimed at businesses. So, these are apps that serve several goals for an entire community of users. Therefore, the solution’s whole design, objectives, features, and even pricing are developed from a different perspective.
Let’s take a closer look at the crucial issues that an enterprise software development company must tackle in projects:
- Serving a community of users.
An enterprise-level solution must solve the business needs for a community, be they enterprise employees or customers. Therefore, these products must manage and connect multiple tasks efficiently. As a result, this software is complex and often not user-friendly. Also, it’s crucial for the app to be custom-tailored to the enterprise structure and its unique business model. - Constant improvements based on processed customer feedback.
When you hire an enterprise software development company, you’re in for the long haul. This type of solution should constantly evolve along with the business. Therefore, the app must collect customer feedback that developers can process to improve the product. - Features and prices depend on the requirements.
Many factors affect the cost of software development. However, when defining the price of enterprise software development services, the customer (business owner) is the deciding factor. They choose what to include in the package, which dictates the development costs. Note that future updates will often add new features to enterprise software. - The customer dictates the requirements to developers.
Of course, there is a lot of input from the enterprise software development company in the project. However, the customer greatly affects the development process by dictating requirements for these solutions.
Consumer Software Development Solutions
The vast majority of consumer apps only focus on a single feature. However, even if they have several, there is usually one core functionality and a few supporting features. Therefore, custom software development solutions directed at consumers are less complex. They are also geared towards satisfying one end-user needs. Therefore, they differ from enterprise software in the scope of functionality and application design.
- Serves a single end-user’s needs.
Consumer applications are always designed from the point of view of benefitting one user at a time. Therefore, connecting users into a sophisticated system isn’t necessary, which makes the software design a lot simpler. Of course, these apps can be complex as well. However, they are still geared toward one person, even if millions of people end up using them. - Applications must be flawless from the start.
While custom software development solutions today are often released at the alpha or beta testing stage, most apps must launch ready-to-use. It’s because consumers are more likely to dump the app and install an alternative from a competitor than report bugs and wait for them to be fixed. So, consumer apps must be at their best at launch instead of waiting to gather user feedback and improve. - Pricing is determined by consumer spending power.
Unlike an enterprise software development company, consumer app developers don’t have the luxury of negotiating product requirements to up the price of their product. Instead, they must consider the end-user’s spending capacity before designing the software. So, being affordable for an average individual from the target audience is one of the major requirements that govern consumer software development. - Developers are in charge.
End-users do not influence the consumer software development process directly. Instead, the company that creates the solution is entirely in charge of requirements.
What to Look for in an Enterprise Software Development Company
When looking for a provider of custom software development solutions for an enterprise, you need to consider the company’s experience, case studies, and developer profiles. As you’ve just seen, enterprise solutions are very different from consumer apps. Therefore, it’s essential to look for a development company that has experience with projects similar to yours.
However, it’s even more essential to find a developer that can overcome inherent enterprise software weaknesses. In particular, one of the main things to consider when choosing an enterprise software development company is the devs’ ability to create great user experience. According to statistics published on TechRepublic, about 28% of users rank enterprise software user experience as somewhat worse and 16% as majorly worse.
For the majority of enterprise-level businesses, the customer itself is not the end-user. Instead, it’s the people that work within or with the enterprise who are end-users. And they have a consumer mentality when using any applications. Therefore, their satisfaction with the user experience will affect their satisfaction level with the enterprise as a whole. As a result, it can affect the business’ sales or even employee retention.
Taking all this into account, you should always look for an enterprise software development company that can make sophisticated software that remains easy to use. Devtorium is one such company. Contact us today and we’ll find a way to create a top-grade custom software solution for you!
