How to Choose the Right SaaS Development Company

Do you plan to choose the right SaaS development company to launch a SaaS product?

Let’s see how you can choose one. We at DevTeam.Space can guide you since we have considerable custom software development experience.

Let’s dive deeper.

Why should you choose the right SaaS development company?

Start-ups planning to launch a SaaS product already have a lot on their plate. E.g., they need to choose the right SaaS pricing model for their business. They also need to decide on the right SaaS pricing strategy.

Beyond strategizing about the SaaS model, SaaS businesses have a lot to manage. E.g., they need to monitor various product management KPIs.

In summary, SaaS businesses need to have capable human resources to strategize and manage the business aspects. That already stretches the talented people in the company.

What if a capable and trustworthy software development company can take care of the SaaS software development? Start-ups can then focus on the business model and management.

How to choose the right SaaS development services provider?

Take the following steps to choose a suitable SaaS development company:

1. Decide the SaaS application development services that you need

Several models for software development exist. You need to choose the model that works best for you. Analyze your organizational requirements for that, e.g.:

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• End-to-end software development: You specify the functionality of the proposed SaaS product. Your software development partner does the rest. You need a highly matured software development company for this.
• Software development based on requirements: In this case, you have gathered the functional requirements. You have decided about the non-functional requirements too. A software development company needs to develop a SaaS product. You need a mature service provider for this.
• Developers and testers only: You have planned the entire project including the architecture and technology stack. You need a software development company to provide SaaS developers and testers.

Determine the kind of development services you need. This helps you to identify the right kind of software development company.

2. Review software development companies using online resources

You can find plenty of information online about prominent software development companies. Review them to get an idea of their capabilities.

You need to start from the website of a software development company. Most of these companies provide client testimonials on their website. They also publish a portfolio of projects, and you should look for SaaS projects.

Check out the sectors where they have worked like real estate, eCommerce, etc. Review the kinds of SaaS products that they developed, e.g., ERP, CRM, etc. Read about their expertise in various technologies like web development, AI (Artificial Intelligence), IoT (Internet of Things), etc.

You need to read reviews about a software development company. Look for reviews on websites like Glassdoor.

Note 1: Evaluating online resources about a software development company can help, however, you can’t depend on that alone. 

3. Evaluate the technical expertise of a SaaS application development company

Note 2: You have now gone beyond reviewing online resources. Starting from this step, you need to evaluate a company by interacting directly. This interaction might take various forms like video conferences, site visits, and meetings as parts of the RFP (Request for Proposal) process.

Developing a SaaS software solution might need different technologies. You need to evaluate the expertise of a prospective development partner on all of these technologies, e.g.:

A. Web application development technologies

These include programming languages like Java, Python, JavaScript, etc. Evaluate the expertise in front-end web frameworks like Angular and React. Check out the expertise in popular JavaScript libraries like jQuery.

Assess the expertise in Node.js, a popular JavaScript-based runtime environment. It helps with backend development. Evaluate the expertise in popular technology stacks like MEAN (MongoDB-Express.js-Angular-Node.js) and MERN (MongoDB-Express.js-React-Node.js).

B. Mobile app development technologies

Offering a mobile application? You need to find a development partner with mobile development expertise.

That would be native mobile development expertise if you plan to offer native Android and iOS apps. The prospective development partner should have expertise in programming languages like Java and Kotlin for native Android development. It needs Swift or Objective-C expertise for native iOS development.

Do you plan to offer a cross-platform mobile application? While cross-platform apps can’t match the native user experience, they keep the SaaS development cost and maintenance cost down. You need a software development partner with expertise in React Native, a popular mobile framework.         

C. Cloud computing platforms: Important while developing SaaS platforms

Cloud computing platforms can significantly help to expedite SaaS development. Top SaaS development companies should have in-depth familiarity with cloud platforms, e.g.:

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• AWS (Amazon Web Service);
• Microsoft Azure;
• GCP (Google Cloud Platform);
• IBM Cloud.

Does your SaaS platform project need only cloud infrastructure like servers, networking, and storage? You can then use an IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) platform.

Do you want to focus only on coding, testing, and data while developing web apps? You need a PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service) platform.

Do you need a cloud platform to host your mobile back-end? You should use an MBaaS (Mobile-Backend-as-a-Service) platform.

A SaaS development company should know how to use the different kinds of cloud platforms we talked about. The company should know about the public cloud and its multi-tenant architecture. Your prospective development partner should know about the private cloud and hybrid cloud too. 

D. Developing APIs, an important aspect of SaaS app development

You will likely need APIs when developing a SaaS solution. Evaluate whether a SaaS application development services provider has sufficient expertise in this area.

You can look for RESTful API development expertise. REST (Representational State Transfer) is the de-facto standard for API development.

Development teams need robust database skills. They need to know popular SQL databases like MySQL and PostgreSQL. They should know how to host APIs on a cloud computing platform.

Many SaaS development projects require NoSQL databases, therefore, developers need to know NoSQL databases like MongoDB and Apache Cassandra. A capable SaaS development company needs data management skills.

SaaS development companies need the expertise to design rules for API requests and responses. They should know how to secure APIs using encryption, secure API gateways, quotas, and throttling.  

E. Other technologies with relevance to your SaaS product development project

Depending on the planned features, your SaaS product might require other technologies. You need to assess whether a software development company has the required skills.

E.g., you might need to offer “intelligent automation” powered by AI and ML (Machine Learning). Your prospective development partner needs skills in programming languages like Python or Julia.

To take another example, assume your SaaS product needs analytics capabilities. A SaaS development company needs experience in an analytics technology stack. This could include the following:

• Python;
• SQL databases like MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc.;
• NoSQL databases like MongoDB, Apache Cassandra, etc.;
• Power BI/Tableau;
• Data warehousing tools like Snowflake;
• ETL tools like Spark.

4. Assess the expertise in software development processes before choosing a SaaS development company

Apart from the expertise in various technology stacks, a software development company needs the following:

• In-depth expertise in methodology-processes-tools for SaaS platform development;
• Proven track record of using popular software development methodologies like Agile, Waterfall, etc.;
• Great track record of using quality management processes, metrics, etc.;
• Demonstrable expertise in creating high-quality documentation, e.g., functional requirements, non-functional requirements, test plans, technical solutions, etc.;
• Robust understanding of software development lifecycle (SDLC) phases;
• In-depth expertise in software architecture.

You need to use a tailored approach for this evaluation. Have deep conversations with a prospective development partner. Discuss various scenarios to gauge the expertise of the company, e.g.:

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• How should a software development company approach the development of your proposed MVP (Minimum Viable Product)?
• What steps a SaaS development company would take to address the customization of requirements?
• How does the company handle regression testing when developing new features?
• What steps should the company take to offer an excellent user experience even when the proposed product has complex features?
• What steps does a software development company take for performance optimization?
• Which metrics can a development team monitor for delivering high scalability?
• How does the company approach code review? Which tools does it use? How does it document defects and ensure closure?

5. Evaluate the software architecture-related capabilities of an app development company

Launching a SaaS product involves much more than just catering to the business needs of customers. You need to keep in mind the following aspects:

• Usability;
• Scalability;
• Performance;
• Maintainability;
• Integration of different components.

Choosing the right software architecture pattern can help. Your prospective software development partner needs sufficient expertise in different architecture patterns. It needs an in-depth understanding of different architecture patterns like layered architecture, microservices architecture, etc.   

You need detailed discussions with the company to evaluate its expertise in this area. Find out how they implemented different architecture patterns in different software development projects. Ask them about the trade-offs involved in the decision-making.

6. Assess the information security-related expertise when choosing a SaaS solutions development company

Your proposed SaaS product will likely process sensitive data. This could include personal data, e.g., name, address, social security number, credit card, etc.

Your company will need to meet several regulatory requirements concerning information security. A data breach puts your customers at risk, and it hurts the reputation of your company.

Your proposed SaaS product needs a robust security solution. Choose a software development company that knows how to design and implement such a solution.

You need detailed discussions to evaluate these capabilities. Assess the following:

• Does the software development firm know how to implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) solutions?
• Is the company familiar with technologies like encryption, digital signatures, antivirus solutions, and next-generation firewall?
• Does the development company know how to proactively mitigate SaaS applications’ security vulnerabilities?
• Has the company used modern techniques like compliance-as-code to ensure security testing is part of the CI/CD environment?

7. Evaluate the project management capabilities of a SaaS development company

You need to evaluate the project management capabilities before choosing a development company. Take sufficient time and have a meaningful conversation with the SaaS product development company. Assess the following aspects:

• Can the company provide high-quality software developers?
• What steps does the company take to ensure that developers remain motivated?
• How does the company ensure that developers regularly upgrade their skills?
• What happens if a developer leaves a project mid-way? Can the company provide a replacement quickly enough?
• Does the company provide management oversight for the work done by its developers?
• How mature is the software development company as far as project management processes,  methods, and tools are concerned?
• Does the company use a data-driven approach to manage projects?
• How does the company organize its software development teams?
• Does the company use modern frameworks like Scrum to organize teams? The Scrum framework focuses on delivering sustained value to customers by fostering teamwork and collaboration. Companies following this framework have a better chance of delivering your project successfully.
• How does the company secure the sensitive data in your project? Does it use comprehensive safeguards to protect sensitive personal data?

Final thoughts

We talked about the importance of choosing the right SaaS solution development company. Furthermore, we talked about how to choose one for developing a successful SaaS solution. We at DevTeam.Space can help with your SaaS project.

Contact us, and a dedicated account manager will explain the advantages we offer for the SaaS application development process through our experienced SaaS development team.

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