Why Should You Hire Software Engineering Consultants?

But, in today’s fast-paced world, where we need to be not only first-to-market, but best-to-market, it’s common practice for companies of all sizes to seek out expertise from dedicated app developers. Case in point: HBO is planning to outsource the majority of the infrastructure development as it launches MLB Advanced Media, Major League Baseball's streaming service. Why? Speculation is that “management is undoubtedly hoping to minimize the margin for error."

Here are five reasons to consider an engaged consultant team:

Experience with cutting-edge technologies

Your development team may understand the basics of BLE from watching a webinar or two, but have they actually built anything that incorporates the technology? If you’re planning to launch a new digital product, and don’t want to make costly mistakes, you need to find people who are used to moving around in the experimental phases of tech—and that can mean looking outside of your own building. One thing companies find when they hire IoT experts: they’re engaging a team that is passionate about technology. Whether it’s Bluetooth low energy, Oculus Rift or the soon-to-be launched iWatch, a dedicated team of engineering consultants has immersed itself in hands-on education and product development involving these technologies, well before they reach the mainstream.

A cohesive team

You may be able to find individual freelance programmers to assist with your project on an ad-hoc basis, but when you’re about to launch a mission-critical application, the last thing you want is an unproven team. Engaging a software consulting agency means that the guesswork is removed: you know you will be working with a prebuilt team of best-in-class, highly vetted experts who have proven workflow processes in place and can demonstrate relevant case studies.

Familiarity with best practices

You know your industry -- and we know ours. Because we work in multiple industries, we can develop solutions that an internal team never would have thought of. Take our client, Weathermob. They are weather experts. Our goal was to take their need to freshen their user experience, and help them scale it to become the accurate and predictive modeling tool that they forecast. Our collaboration with our clients allows everyone to focus on doing what they do best.

Cost-effective implementation

When consulting with an external software engineering firm, clients receive access to a team of experts who can consult and implement the transition strategically in close collaboration with your internal team, beginning with a test phase. This eliminates the danger of making a company-wide move to a system that hasn’t been adequately tested, which can result in lost productivity among all staff.

Peace of mind

You want to know what the implementation will look like, and that’s where a team can demonstrate its expertise in a way that a freelance developer can’t. An individual can only demonstrate his or her own coding skills, whereas an agency can showcase how its employees collaborate to build products. Samples of our past work can provide the roadmap to what we can build together.

Bottom line? Hiring outside expertise can be critical to building a successful product and ensuring a smooth transition, while allowing your team to maintain its focus on day-to-day objectives. A pre-built external software engineering team with a proven track record can grasp the shared urgency, meet your individual needs and work collaboratively to achieve your goals—on time and on budget.