Outsourcing software development has become increasingly common nowadays. More and more companies are now turning to third-party vendors so that they can deliver fundamental solutions.

Define your project requirements

When outsourcing software development, it is essential that you get a detailed understanding of the work that you need. What are the areas of the project that are most crucial for you? Do you have a short-term project that you want to develop or a long-term one that you want to enhance? Or are you simply looking for support for what you have done? Once you’ve nailed down the scope, it will be easier for you to find a capable vendor that has the skills and competencies needed to fulfill your requirements. This is how you should define your project requirements: The skills you need to meet What business processes and/or systems would you like to automate? How would you like to integrate the solution with your existing enterprise technology?

Find a development company

One of the first questions you need to ask when looking for a development company is the kind of project that you want to develop. The best companies will provide you with a custom project; and so, you will not get compromised with regards to the level of quality and detail. If you are familiar with the industry, you should be able to identify such companies for a project. This means that you will be able to save money, and you will get a product that perfectly fits your needs. Obtain applications You should also check how your potential development company does business. Learn about the company, so that you can make an informed decision. This will help you obtain the best of the best.

Hire right experts and talents

If you’re struggling to find reliable professionals who possess the right skill sets that fit your company’s needs, outsourcing can be the answer. But what you need to be careful with in the process of outsourcing is finding experts who will be able to complete the work to the specified standards. A company that was once known for quality is today less likely to consider your product unless they feel like you are being satisfied with their work. Hiring from companies who have been certified by a high-ranking association, for instance, will definitely make the entire process more solid and complete. This is because they are more likely to have the skills and work ethics needed to come up with top-notch solutions for your company.

Keep up with the project management

This is very important in terms of managing an outsourcing project. In fact, getting out of control of a software development project is extremely problematic. The project manager is the closest link between the vendor and the client. That means that if the project manager is unsure about something, then there is a serious lack of reliability in the entire project. The project manager must be completely sure that he or she is not going to make the final mistake and let the project fail because they wanted to be a “mind reader” and see what the client wants or expect from the project. The project manager must be completely sure that they are in control of their own project and make sure that the project stays on schedule and stays on budget.

Conclusion

Outsourcing software development can be extremely effective in a variety of ways. It can be extremely lucrative and bring down costs significantly. It is also a time saver for companies that have been struggling to keep up with the demand for software solutions.

Do you want to know more? Get in touch with Omreon!

Information is the key to making better business decisions. Having a current, data-driven strategy is a vital part of success in today’s market.

How does BI help me make better decisions?

The biggest advantages of using BI solutions are the ability to visualize your data, understand trends, and make informed business decisions. BI solutions can: Show your data’s transformation over time (e.g., what your sales data looks like over time, or what your customer experience data looks like over time) Show how your data is correlated with historical data Remove irrelevant data so you can focus on what’s important Analyze historical trends in your business (e.g., customer metrics such as churn, customer acquisition costs, customer retention) Streamline your reporting with integrated dashboards and reports Get value from your data by capturing the metadata associated with it. What is data science and how does it help me?

Why is BI a good decision for me and my business?

Gain insights into what’s working and what’s not. Take action on what’s working so your business can continue to make moves that will keep it profitable. Discover the areas your company can improve so you can turn those problems into competitive advantages. Personalize the digital experience and deliver the right information, at the right time, in the right place. Why You Should Utilize Analytics Taking these basic principles into consideration, you can identify the right types of analytics to help you run your business in a better way. Meet customer expectations Make better decisions Act on information quicker Understand the market better and find new ways to make sales.

How do I choose the right BI solution?

First of all, there are a number of options in the marketplace. For example, you can hire a BI consultant to provide you with a deep-dive analysis of the application. Another option would be to buy an integrated solution from a data provider. In such cases, it is a good idea to get a thorough understanding of your BI requirements. This means that you must have: 

• Qualified specialists with strong expertise.
• One vendor that has installed BI solutions on hundreds of businesses, and offers installation and configuration support.
• Experience with the underlying platforms and the providers.
• Strong customer base and a reputation for quality. In our opinion, the best business intelligence solution would be something that offers everything you need for today’s data-driven market.

Conclusion

Business intelligence can help small business owners reduce costs and gain in the competition. Implementing this strategy is quick and requires little to no effort to increase efficiency. By creating a business intelligence strategy, you can get more revenue and make better decisions as well.

Get in touch with Omreon team to find out more about Business Intelligence Solutions.

PCI Compliance refers to compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards. Any business who takes credit and/or debit card payments should comply with the requirements set out by the PCI DSS, which protects the card payment information.

E-commerce websites and any other websites that allow card payment transactions must comply with the PCI DSS. The standard was developed by a group of major credit card companies, including Mastercard, American Express and Visa to help to protect their customers. This group is called the PCI SSC (Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council).

Overview Of PCI SSC Data Security Standards

The SSC promotes the PCI DSS and ensures that the standards are updated when required, to continue to keep customers protected when new challenges and potential threats are introduced. The SSC also supports merchants and service providers by offering training and assessment, as well as scanning qualifications.

PCI compliance must be validated and how this happens depends on the volume of transactions processed on an annual basis. PCI compliance is not a legal requirement, but companies that are not compliant are not able to process card transactions using the major card payment companies.

Requirements For PCI DSS Compliance

The PCI DDS has 12 requirements listed:

1. Use and Maintain Firewalls: Firewalls must be installed on the website that transactions are being made on to protect cardholder data.
2. Proper Password Protections: A proper system must be in place to protect passwords and vendor supplied defaults should not be used.
3. Protect Cardholder Data: If a business is storing any type of cardholder data, it must have adequate security measures in place to protect the cardholder data.
4.  Encrypt Transmitted Data: When data is transmitted across open, public networks, encryption software must be used to scramble data to ensure that it is not recognizable.
5. Use and Maintain Anti-Virus: Anti-virus software must be installed and maintained to help prevent malware attacks. The software or anti-virus programs must be updated when necessary to keep them effective.
6. Properly Updated Software: Businesses are required to ensure that software is updated whenever updates become available to ensure there are no security weaknesses due to updates not being implemented in time.
7. Restrict Data Access: A system should be in place to ensure that systems can only be accessed by authorized personnel, which would be people that require access to the data for essential business purposes.
8. Unique IDs for Access: Every individual who will access the payment systems and data must have a unique ID and there should be no shared or generic IDs used to access the systems.
9. Restrict Physical Access: As well as making sure that there is adequate protection from a system perspective, physical access to cardholder data must also be restricted.
10. Create and Maintain Access Logs: Whenever anyone accesses cardholder data, there must be a log of the access recorded.
11. Scan and Test for Vulnerabilities: Systems must be regularly tested for any vulnerabilities that could put data at risk and scans should be performed for any threats.
12. Document Policies: A security policy must be in place, addressing information security processes and requirements for employees and contractors.

One solution that is available to businesses is to use a comprehensive third-party data protection solution that will ensure all of these 12 requirements are met.

Advances in technology are presenting businesses with so many opportunities to implement efficiencies, reduce costs and make other improvements to deliver operational excellence. One very important type of technology solution that can give businesses an advantage over their competitors is business intelligence tools.

What Is Business Intelligence?

Business intelligence is a process where a business gathers a wide range of different types of information to help make informed decisions based on the insights that are available. The information collected is able to help with strategic decisions that will drive businesses forward

How to Use Business Intelligence

Operational data can be collected and sorted into dashboards and reports so that the information is easy to analyse and use to make decisions.

How to choose the right tool?

There are so many different types of business intelligence tools and you can use multiple tools to leverage the many benefits of gathering vital business data. The priorities will be different for each business and will depend on the type of data that is available to gather but these are the key factors to consider when choosing the right tool for your business:

• Ease of use.

 If it’s hard to use, you’re a lot less likely to use it. Tools that are difficult to use are time-consuming and frustrating and there is no need to opt for complicated tools when there are tools that are easy to use.

• Custom dashboards. 

Dashboards must be customized to your exact needs, rather than pulling information that your business does not need. Standard reports will just gather sets of information that other businesses might need but that is not important to yours.

• Predictive analysis.

 Tools that help you to plan for the future by predicting outcomes and results are invaluable in competitive markets. Being able to ask ‘what if’ will give you a better idea of what will happen in the future and what plans you need to make.

• Interactive reports. 

Once reports are generated, you should be able to drill down into specific details. You should be able to search for trends, sort report data into different sets using new parameters, and highlight data exceptions.

• Ranking reports. 

Within your reports functionality, you should be able to rank reports so that it is easy to sort data sets to reveal the best and worst-performing data sets. This feature can identify products that are not selling well, or highlight which employees are performing well, and all kinds of different rankings that will help you to make crucial business decisions or reward high-performing employees.

• Integrations. 

Another important detail to look for in business intelligence tools is the available integrations. The BI tool will be more useful to your business if it works with the systems that you already use, such as CRM, sales tools, supply chain, and financial software. Software integrations can save you lots of time and make processes work more efficiently.

With so many different types of BI solutions available, you might be struggling to decide on the right one for your business. It will help to speak to BI solution experts so that you can find the perfect BI tool for your business, based around your specific business objectives.

 Get in touch with Omreon to find the best BI solution for your business.

What do Slack, GitHub, WhatsApp, and Alibaba have in common? Aside from being startups that ended up being valued in the billions of dollars, that is.

The answer: they outsourced their initial product development to build the best, most cost-effective product they could.

Outsourcing is a valuable option for many startups, who may lack the capital, core technical competencies, or the time necessary to engage in full-on product development. 

In this article, we explore these types of challenges that startups may encounter on the road to launching their products, and see how other successful companies have overcome them by outsourcing product development.

What You Need to Consider to Get Product Development Started

Product development is one of the most important and difficult things for a new startup to get right. If you want to end up with an addictive solution that has product-market fit and can gain massive traction amongst your target audience, there’s a whole host of things you have to consider. 

From UI/UX design to prototyping and user testing, building your final product will take a lot of time and resources. For many startups, this phase is where lack of funding or technical know-how can prevent an idea from ever going to market. 

If you want to set yourself up for success with your product development and avoid these common pitfalls, there’s three basic things you need to consider first:

Development Cost

You should always have a firm idea of your product development cost before you begin. You need to balance this cost against your available capital and forecasted revenue, or else you may end up with a half-built product that you don’t have enough budget left to complete.

Core Technical Knowledge

You also need to understand your team’s core technical knowledge and how it aligns with what your product development needs. 

Whether you need front-end or back-end devs, network engineers, or deep learning experts, you have to take stock of your team’s abilities and where your deficiencies are, especially if you’re on a startup budget and lack significant manpower. Startup employees often wear several hats at once, but product development isn’t something one dev can do alone. 

Product Complexity

Finally, it’s important to determine if the product’s planned scope and scale are actually possible to achieve with your current team. 

Even if you can afford the cost and your team has the right skills, you could still end up with a project that’s too big to effectively manage or build within your target timeline.

The Benefits of Outsourcing Product Development 

These challenges are all part and parcel of working with a limited budget and workforce. 

That’s why startups like Uber and WhatsApp have commonly turned to outsourcing to make product development cheaper and faster, allowing them to bring a more full-featured product to market, even with a small team size and a startup’s budget. 

Here are just some of the other benefits of outsourcing your startup’s product development:

Reducing Risk Due To Regular Checks and Feedback

Smaller development teams tend to be pressed on time, so they struggle to check their work, as well as gather and implement user feedback. 

By outsourcing your work, you can have a larger portion of your in-house team assigned to testing and evaluating the product’s progress, reducing the chances of major errors. 

In-Depth Technical Knowledge And Experience

If your product requires a technical competency that you lack, recruiting and training a new developer might be too costly. 

Instead, you can outsource the relevant work to a freelancer or agency who already has the skills you require. This ensures you get a higher-quality product than you’d have by trying to build a solution beyond your team’s capabilities.

Save Costs

The costs of outsourcing may fluctuate widely depending on which country you outsource to, as well as whether you take on a solo freelancer or a development agency. 

This flexibility of choice, however, is what allows you to reduce your product development expenses and select the right team at the right price. WhatsApp, for example, went with a top development company in Russia to build the first version of their app, paying far less than they would have spent on a US-based team.

Walking Down the Outsourcing Road

For some startup founders, outsourcing product development might seem antithetical to the whole startup “thing.” After all, aren’t you “supposed” to be doing all the hard work for your idea, since your team knows how best to approach it?

However, outsourcing isn’t a crutch! Proper management of outsourcing still requires you to do a lot of R&D, and you need to sit down with your outsourcing partners to ensure that they’re on the same page as you are.

And more than that, outsourcing allows you to recenter your team’s efforts on growing your business and making strategic decisions. So, with the right combination of in-house skills and a strong outsourcing partner, you can make a robust product that’ll make waves in your target market, all within your budget.

Don’t just take our word for it – just look at Uber and Alibaba. Product development outsourcing certainly worked for them.