What Is An Enterprise Software Development Company?
An enterprise software development company offers software solutions aimed at helping a brand, a business or an organization instead of an individual.
You can think of it simply as larger-scale software solutions.
Because enterprise software is aimed at organizations instead of individuals, it typically encompasses business-related tools. These include:
- Customer relationship management (CRM) systems: Enterprise-level applications that help companies improve relationships with their customers. CRMs can store authorized customer data, including birthdays, past communications with the brand, purchases and preferences, usually for the purpose of creating personalized experiences.
- Accounting and automatic billing systems: Recurring billing systems, along with accounting and invoicing, automate tedious and long manual processes.
- Procurement management: Procurement systems help businesses track, analyze and optimize organizational spending.
- Online payment processing: Mainly used by eCommerce businesses, online payment processing systems facilitate online monetary transactions.
- Human resource management: These systems help organizations on multiple levels of HR, from managing payroll, keeping employee data, tracking benefits, to managing recruitment.
- IT service management: IT service management systems help organizations manage the production environment.
- And more
As you can see, enterprise software is anything but uniform. It is as varied as organizations’
business needs are.
According to Gartner, global IT spending will reach 4% in 2021 as a result of enterprise software spending.
What Are Enterprise Level Applications?
Enterprise software goes by many names, and enterprise-level applications are one of them.
Here is the list of terms used as substitutes for enterprise software:
- Enterprise level applications
- Enterprise app
- Enterprise application software (EAS)
In 2019, about 3,304 businesses used enterprise systems, and the number is constantly on the rise.
What Is Enterprise SaaS?
SaaS stands for "software-as-a-system," which is a manner of licensing and producing software solutions through cloud computing.
Enterprise SaaS systems typically have a recurring subscription package and are usually not installed on computers individually. Instead, a third-party owns the software and distributes it to companies who want to use it.
Although these systems are owned, hosted and provided by a third-party, SaaS developers can sometimes help to customize services or integrate the SaaS software with your existing solutions.
Enterprise SaaS is simply a software-as-a-service solution aimed at larger-scale businesses and organizations.
Best Examples Of Enterprise Systems
Some of the best examples of enterprise systems are:
- Salesforce: Salesforce is a world-leading CRM platform. It is an example of enterprise software as its primary purpose is to help organizations (not individuals) build better relationships with their customers.
- HubSpot: Hubspot is an inbound marketing tool. It is an example of enterprise software because it is designed to help organizations improve their inbound marketing strategies.
- SAP: SAP is a business operations management platform, typically used as a poster example of enterprise software.
Statistics show that CRM software is the fastest-growing on the market. In fact, it is expected to reach $81.9 billion by 2025.
What Do Enterprise Software Development Companies Do?
Enterprise software development companies offer many services that allow brands to have complete control over their purchasing, financial activities, sales and distribution.
They meet brands’ goals with automated solutions that match their business needs while increasing their productivity.
Here are some of the services these companies offer:
- CRM development
- IoT integration
- Digital transformation
- Salesforce integration
- Sales and distribution automation
- Online and offline mobile applications
- Business workflow process
- And more
How Much Do Enterprise Software Services Cost?
The cost of enterprise software services will depend on several factors including:
- Implementation: The implementation costs can include planning your project, installing software, prototyping, configuring and more.
- Integration: The integration process includes incorporating different platforms such as payment methods.
- Maintenance: The maintenance of enterprise software solutions refers to the post-launch services you will get which include updating and support.
- Training: The training includes teaching your employees how to use the product created for your business needs.
- And more
In addition, the cost of enterprise software services also varies from location to location.
Thereby, here is how much you can expect:
- US-based enterprise software development companies may require between $40-$185 per hour.
- Top enterprise software development companies in Eastern Europe could ask about $27-$50 per hour.
- For enterprise software services, an India-based company might ask between $5-$50 per hour.
5 Reasons To Hire An Enterprise Software Firm
Enterprise systems are one of the best technologies for business management.
Here are five reasons you should invest in an enterprise software solution:
- Automation: Enterprise software solutions automate business processes that will not only make your job easier but also increase your productivity. These include sending emails, place orders and more.
- Easy flow of information: This type of software also allows employees of different departments to share data and files easily which enhances communication.
- Tracking results: Enterprise systems help businesses make plans and track goals. So, owners are able to understand how satisfied their clients are, monitor expenses and even receive notifications when potential issues appear.
- Customer satisfaction: The improved workflow that these systems carry, results in on-time delivery of goods which boosts customer loyalty.
- Secure client data: Enterprise software also stores different customer data while keeping it safe against security breaches.
How To Choose An Enterprise Software Development Company
Whether looking locally or globally, the choice of enterprise software development companies can be overwhelming.
For starters, almost any software company will be experienced and expert in building enterprise software solutions.
The first logical step to choosing an enterprise software development company is to decide whether to onshore or offshore, i.e. to narrow your search down to your home market(s) or overseas.
Let’s see what are their pros and cons.
Choosing Onshore Enterprise Software Development Firm
Onshoring gives you more control over the development process. Being in the same time zone or a couple of hours apart makes meetings, both scheduled and impromptu ones, easier to manage.
This may sound like a trivial advantage, but you would quickly learn just how important having such flexibility in communication is.
You know the language and culture, you understand the business and legal systems as well as how these guarantee the protection of your organization.
On-shoring enterprise software development also gives you access to some of the best developers in the world, in tune with the latest trends and some even pioneering them.
But, this comes at a price. Hiring an enterprise software development company in your home market will set you back for project costs of about $10,000-$50,000, depending on the scope.
Choosing A Foreign Enterprise Software Development Company
Offshoring, or outsourcing your enterprise software development abroad, comes with its own set of advantages and challenges as well.
The biggest advantage is cost. An increasing number of US startups and enterprises are offshoring their projects, mainly as a means of achieving business objectives at a lower cost.
Another big reason for offshoring is to bridge the talent gap. Software professionals are in great demand worldwide, and most markets operate with talent scarcity in certain specializations.
Offshoring is a great way around this as it opens the door to other talent pools.
However, the challenges of offshoring depend on the countries and enterprise software development companies themselves.
Here are a few key questions to consider when thinking about offshoring:
1. Which countries can I outsource to?
All offshoring hubs offer unique values to the market, so choosing one to outsource your project to will mainly depend on your business needs.
For instance, East and South Asia have the biggest talent pool where you can find bilingual developers and offer cost-effective services.
Eastern Europe offers great quality for investment but also convenient time zones that allow you to have a few hours of overlap.
To find the right offshoring location, make sure you clearly define your requirements first to find the right fit.
2. What is the time difference and how easy would it be to work around it?
When your software development team is a few hours ahead, you may find it difficult to communicate.
On the one hand, setting appointments can be difficult.
On the other, emails can go back and forth until a problem is finally resolved.
If a serious issue arises and it is not fixed in a timely manner, it may cost you both financially and in terms of your brand image.
So, before you make your choice, find out how the time zone difference can affect your collaboration and whether they offer 24/7 assistance.
3. How proficient is their staff in English?
While these offshore companies may be highly skilled in software development, the lack of English proficiency can affect the collaboration between the teams.
Proper communication is vital for your project’s success. And language barriers can make meetings difficult to hold, limit the necessary feedback, slow down task communication as well as hinder reporting.
4. How good are their communication skills?
Poor communication skills can affect the success of project delivery since it makes team collaboration harder.
It can lead to a misunderstanding around tasks and objectives, missed deadlines and decreased productivity.
This is why you need to pick a company that understands the importance of communication and proactively invests in team training.
5. How well do I understand the culture?
Cultural differences are one of the main reasons why outsourcing projects fail. Not having an understanding of your partner’s local and business culture can cause misunderstandings and hurt collaboration.
This may include everything from the simplest holiday calendar discrepancies to communication protocols surrounding manners and hierarchy.
6. What is the political climate like and how would it affect my project?
Outsourcing your project to a politically unstable country can lead to complications on many levels.
On the one hand, unpredictable policy changes may cause your project to fail.
On the other hand, politically unstable countries could face frequent strikes and labor curfews. These would result in fewer working days and delays in project delivery.
The security risk is another factor to consider since their IT regulations may not be of any use if your data is compromised during such times.
7. How reliable is their business environment?
An unreliable local business environment of outsourcing companies can have a negative impact on your brand.
For instance, if you invest in a software development firm based in a country that struggles with currency fluctuations you can lose on the initial cost-effectiveness benefit.
Some countries also have unregulated markets where companies unethically reduce their costs which can cause staff exploitation meaning that your organization would be profiting from this setup.
8. What protections would I enjoy under their legal system? What are their intellectual property (IP) laws like?
Local IP protection laws and foreign direct investment regulations offer many advantages.
Thanks to them you can turn your ideas into successful products, market them to your potential clients and make a profit through licensing.
They will also protect your business against infringement by making your product rights more visible to those who can violate them.
9. What are the payment terms? What are the limitations imposed by their banking system?
Consider how these companies price for their services and what are their payment terms.
Make sure they provide you with a contract where you will be able to read everything when it comes to cost and agree with it.
What’s more, find out whether there are any limitations imposed by their banking system and how to overcome them.
10. What do their other foreign clients have to say about working with them?
Go through these companies’ reviews and testimonials to understand what their past clients have to say about working with them.
Their feedback will help you to discover the agencies’ strengths and weaknesses as well as how satisfied they are from their services
10 Questions To Ask When Interviewing An Enterprise Software Development Firm
Deciding whether to on or offshore enterprise software development is only the first step in choosing the right development partner.
This would assume that you have answered all the relevant questions; That you have assessed the business validity of your plan and covered all the contingencies of on, i.e. offshoring.
Now what remains is to further narrow down your research to a few enterprise software development companies in your target geography.
These questions will help you choose among them:
- How do they deliver their services? Top enterprise software development companies will usually offer project-based or continuous collaboration. A lot of them will prefer the latter, i.e. staff augmentation services whereby they build a dedicated team that acts as an extension of the client’s (i.e. your) home team. If this is the case, make sure to clarify the minimum engagement period and other terms and conditions that would guide your long-term collaboration.
- Which technologies do they use and why? Enterprise software development companies tend to specialize in one or two technology stacks, however, most of them are open to adopting the client’s choice.
- Are they open to exploring other technologies that may be better suited to your requirements? This will tell you whether you’d be able to develop the solution on your preferred tech stack. The partner’s openness to exploring new avenues towards your common goal is a great sign of flexibility - the prerequisite for successful project completion.
- Do they follow trends? By incorporating the latest trends in enterprise software solutions, developers make sure that the products they create are up-to-date and meet the demands as businesses grow.
- What is their preferred development method? Most companies embrace Agile, but it is on you to decide which development methodology is best suited to your organization.
- What are their preferred project management tools? Project management tools are extremely helpful in keeping the teams on track, documenting changing requirements and giving overall transparency over the project.
- How diligent and transparent have they been in their communication with you? This is a sign of what is to come. If they are organized and effective in their communication, you can expect the trend to carry through the development of your project.
- Have they given you a sense of structure during your initial communication? This question will give you insight into their organizational dynamics which are inevitably going to come into play if you decide to collaborate. Try to assess how well each member has lived up to their role, how organized their communication practices have been, how prepared they have been during your meetings, etc.
- Have they had experience developing enterprise solutions in your sector? The past experience could potentially accelerate the development as they wouldn’t need as much time to build domain knowledge.
- Who are their references? Previous clients and their reviews will help you understand how reliable these companies are.
Takeaways
Enterprise software development companies can provide your brand with custom software that can meet your business needs.
Enterprise systems are beneficial because they boost productivity and contribute to a better workflow.
To choose the best enterprise software firm:
- Define your goals and ask yourself what you want to achieve by considering enterprise software services.
- Think about your preferences and consider the location of the top enterprise software development companies.
- Set a budget and ask the potential companies for a price estimate
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