So you’re a business looking to further your market share by creating a new App.
You’ve carried out some research and have a clear vision of how you want your final product to look and feel. You know who will be using it, and you’ve a sense of the process you want those users to go through. And most importantly, you know what this app should achieve for your brand.
Now, it’s time to begin looking at which App Development Partner is best suited to your plan. Here are some key factors to take into account when choosing an App Development Agency:
The first thing you should look at when choosing the perfect App Development partner is their portfolio. Get in touch, outline your project and ask for some examples of past work in a similar area to what you are looking to build. It’s always best to get in touch for these examples as the company may have worked on something similar in the past that is not published on their site.
The term “you get what you pay for” truly comes into play here. Whilst you may want to avoid the App Developers that overcharge for the work required, you also don’t want to take the cheapest option you find. It is important to know what each line of the quote is contributing to the end product, and how pulling any of it out might affect the other parts, or overall goal that you had in mind for your App. Mosaic explains the average cost of App Development further here.
Communication between the Client and the Development team plays a massive part in the success of any development project and can mean a big difference in cost and time. If you were based in Ireland, you may want to prioritise having an App Development agency based nearby so as to allow for face-to-face consultations, or at the very least calls in the same time zone. These meetings can speed up the design and development processes dramatically, and iron out any misunderstandings or gaps in the design, thus lowering the associated costs of a project.
It’s helpful to ask any Agency that you are considering partnering with about how they approach each project, and how much flexibility you will be afforded as a result. Most traditional agencies will aim to lock a Client in from Design through to post-launch Maintenance from the very beginning. This doesn’t leave the Client a lot of room for the partnership to adapt to their expanding vision, or a potential need to table a project altogether in favour of another business priority. This level of commitment often leads to businesses delaying the process to the point where they are only starting the journey when they are already in desperate need of the App.
At Mosaic, we approach our projects in three stages (Design, Development, Support), that are contracted separately. For example; you could engage Mosaic for the Design process and come away with a high fidelity prototype for pitching, or taking back to the team to consider alongside the product roadmap, without having to commit to a development contract. Alongside our unique approach to the contracts, we have a continuous innovation loop that circles back through each stage, as your product and business grows. Our aim is to develop strong and long term relationships with our clients.
It’s critical that you get the above correct as your Application is not just an add-on to your business, but it will become the face of your brand. With over 75% of web users coming from mobile devices, the quality of your App can make or break the business and if done well, will benefit your company more than any other marketing strategy ever could.