Choosing the company that will develop your SaaS (Software as a Service) is no trivial matter; it’s a decision that must be made wisely after careful consideration of all candidates.

Whether you choose to work with us or not, we want to assist you, which is why we’ve compiled this post with helpful points to guide you in selecting the right partners for your journey.

Let’s dive in together.

Atomistic approach vs holistic approach

This refers to whether it’s strictly a software development company or if it’s a company that can also design, assist with content strategy, run marketing campaigns, and more.

Software isn’t just built; it’s first designed, iterated upon, and ultimately sold.

A holistic approach to software product development involves:

• UX/UI Design
• Software Development
• Marketing

Therefore, it’s crucial that the company you hire can handle all three aspects, demonstrating a holistic approach and a multidisciplinary team.

Otherwise, you’ll end up working with multiple companies and teams, making coordination and work more complex.

Guarantees

Guarantees form the foundation of any contract between parties.

You guarantee payment, and the company guarantees specific outcomes.

It’s important to verify what guarantees a company offers in case of missed deadlines or delivering a product that doesn’t meet agreed-upon quality or requirements.

The more stringent their measures in such cases, the more secure the client will be against potential failures.

Common guarantees that companies offer include:

• Performance guarantee: Ensuring that software will perform specified functions as expected. If the software fails to meet these functions, the company may provide fixes, updates, or even refunds.
• Security guarantee: Companies often offer guarantees regarding the security of their products, protecting against vulnerabilities and security breaches. In case of a security breach related to the software, the company may offer quick solutions and compensations.
• Service Level Agreement (SLA): In the case of Software as a Service (SaaS) or cloud solutions, SLAs are established to guarantee certain levels of availability, uptime, and performance. If these levels are not met, corrective or compensatory measures can be applied.
• Code quality guarantee: For companies developing custom software, guarantees on code quality may be offered. This includes bug fixes and post-launch maintenance.
• Penalties for missed deadlines: In software development projects, companies may include clauses imposing fines or financial penalties for failing to meet agreed-upon delivery deadlines.
• Intellectual property protection: Guarantees regarding the intellectual property of the software ensure that the company holds appropriate rights over the code and associated assets. This protects the client from legal disputes and licensing issues.

Our advice is to contract with companies that guarantee results and take responsibility when they don’t deliver.

In case you’re wondering, yes, you’re covered with us. We’re so confident in the quality and timeliness of our work that we stand accountable if we don’t meet expectations.

Who’s in charge?

This is one of the most critical points to investigate.

This point boils down to one question:

Who runs the company and who works in it?

Followed by a few more questions:

• What experience do the company’s employees have as professionals?
• Have they worked on projects similar to mine?
• How have they treated other clients?

Obviously, you should ask these questions to ensure that you’re working with serious, capable professionals with extensive demonstrable experience.

Our advice is to ask other clients, request references, and take an interest in the team’s track record, even at a very superficial level.

Work with people you “would be willing to hug”

This is a phrase that my clinical psychology professor kept repeating, and time has proven him right.

(👋 yes, it’s me, Carlos, I studied psychology before engineering, you can read about me here).

Have a couple of video calls with different teams, talk a bit with those people, not just about work but in general, and trust your intuition:

• Who has given you a good feeling?
• Who hasn’t?
• Who inspires confidence?

It may sound esoteric, but it’s a good indicator of whom you feel comfortable working with and whom you don’t.

Conclusion

Feeling more confident about making this decision now?

These are just some of the many possible criteria you can consider. We’ve found success by following them in the business jungle, and we hope you do too.

Best of luck!