Choosing A Web System Development Partner

In this article we will discuss in more detail what you should look for in your development partner and the questions you need to ask to ensure you are making the correct choice.

What tech are they using?

Choosing the right platform for your web system can have a real and direct impact on the success of a project. And although we generally recommend leaving this in the hands of the experts, it is worth doing some of your own research and making sure you ask and interrogate why they are choosing to use the platform they are. We use a bespoke platform to develop all business systems we build and are extremely clear and confident with what we can do within our platform.

Not every agency has their own platform and some have nowhere near as much experience in building web systems as we do so it is always worth asking the question that they are recommending the right solution as opposed to just the solution they know.

One quick tip – our experience tells us that it is a good idea to steer clear of WordPress for any large development projects. Aside from the significant security threats that exist with WordPress, we do not believe it is a viable solution for web systems with a high level of functionality because of a general over reliance on plugins and the minefield of ensuring plugins are compatible with one another. And just to caveat this is based on our many experiences with WordPress over the years.

So make sure you at least question your shortlisted development partners to make sure they are recommending a solution that is fit for purpose both for the first phase of development, and equally as importantly in future phases as the platform evolves.

What experience have they got with this type of project?

Every agency has to start somewhere and every developer working within an agency had their first project at some point. You just do not want that guinea pig to be you! With one of our founders, Larry having been in the development game for over 20 years, and Technical Director James (who builds our most technical platforms) with more than 13 years of experience, we have been round the block when it comes to building large, complex web systems and web applications.

So do ask the question about what similar projects your chosen development partner has worked on in the past, and if possible ask for demonstrations of their work, case studies and in an ideal world, the opportunity to speak to clients they have worked with before. This is important in giving you the reassurance that you are dealing with an agency who have handled this type of development.

This is especially important if you are transitioning from an existing system (or multiple systems if you are consolidating into one) as an experienced development team will be able to help you manage the migration of data as efficiently as possible. A less experienced team, however could just end up giving you a significant admin headache if data is not migrated seamlessly or efficiently.

Who will be working on the project?

There is a caveat to just going off the experience of the agency in choosing your development partner. And that is, who within the agency will actually be working on your project? It is no use selecting an agency on the basis of a similar project done the year before if all the development team who worked on that project are no longer with the agency.

So when checking who will be working on the project, make sure the team you will be working with have experience both in similar projects to yours, and in general development terms.

Will there be an account manager?

Every agency works differently and the importance of an account manager is a bit more subjective than most other points in the article but it’s worth asking the question and knowing how the agency operates. Here at Studio44, our choice is not to have Account Managers. We find projects work most efficiently when clients liaise directly with the team working on their project, but then we are lucky to have team members who have great communication skills and are happy speaking to clients directly. This tends to mean nothing gets lost in translation and projects can move faster as there is nobody in the middle to stop any flow of communication.

Some agencies swear by the account manager model, however which could be for a number of reasons. Their team members may be working on a very large number of projects at any one time and they want a central point of contact for all of them, or they may have team members who do not enjoy or work their best when liaising directly with clients.

Whichever set-up the agency has, it is well worth asking the question in the first place so you can be prepared whatever the account management approach, and you may have a preference with how you have worked in the past. I have dealt with clients who prefer an Account Manager overseeing, and others who are determined to liaise directly with the developers working on their project.

Do they understand the volume of data involved?

We have mentioned the before, but as this is a biggie to get right and make sure your development partner understand we are going to mention it again. If you have any kind of volume of data on your current platform, or you are migrating from multiple different systems into one system, then it is imperative to make sure your development team understands this and has done this sort of data migration before.

How and where will the platform be hosted?

Understanding the hosting environment that will be used is another important question to ask. So make sure you know:

• Where the platform will be hosted geographically
• How much bandwidth are you allowed
• How much scalability there is to increase capacity. This may be important if you are going to have all of your users trying to access the system at the same time
• What level of security is in place on the server that is being used
• That an SSL security certificate will be in place

How do they work in terms of scoping the project?

Scoping this kind of business system is not easy and takes a great deal of experience to understand not only what you as a business feel are your requirements, but to also ask the sort of questions that will help understand how your business operates and therefore what can be done within the system to make your business as efficient as possible.

This is an area where we really stand out as with nearly 50 years of experience between my co-directors and me in scoping out these systems, and experience running businesses, we understand how to develop a scope that will make the system both technically sound and commercially effective.

Next steps

So if you have a requirement for a web system and are looking for a development partner, make sure that you are asking all the right question to find someone who can support your system requirements as they stand now, and as your business evolves and your requirements change.

Studio44 have been developing bespoke web systems and web applications for many years and have worked on many successful projects in that time. If you are looking at a new bespoke web system or web application for your business and don’t quite know where to start then get in touch, we would love to talk through options with you and see if we can help!