How can a SaaS company benefit from working with a software house?

You’ve read the title above and you probably thought: “well, outsourcing”. That’s true – software companies focused on maintenance of their SaaS products can outsource some of their work to software houses. But that’s not all. In my opinion, the most important benefit of working with a software house is not outsourcing itself – it’s making use of their know-how.

From establishing requirements to product development

When an IT team starts working on a new project, they face a fairly big challenge: collecting requirements. The quality and the outcome of this process often decides how successful the final project will be, and whether or not the client will end up working with you at all. Established software houses have hundreds of projects under their belt. They had to identify what needs to be done every time they started building something new – thus, perfecting the process. Collecting requirements will probably never become a walk in the park, but when a software house (having experience in establishing requirements) and a SaaS company (knowing their clients and processes) collaborate, it gets waaay easier.

One of the things which a good software house can help you with is user research. Collecting data about users is very crucial in the beginning of the process – especially if you know that there’ll be lots of them.

The next step is product development itself. It has to be cost-effective and guarantee the highest quality of the finished software. Plus, team members need to communicate well in order to prevent wasting time.

In our field, an extra hour equals higher project costs and this is why good software houses tend to maximise the efficiency of their processes.

Of course, SaaS companies have their own methods of product development, but the key difference is that we can improve this process with every new project. And, since we’re developing a great number of products, our know-how is constantly evolving.

Tech-savvy business partners

The industry never stands still and new tech solutions often have the potential to elevate your business. Unfortunately, you don’t always have time to be up-to-date with everything. In software houses, there are no excuses – we need to test every promising technology. Therefore, when you’re thinking about using new framework or tool, software house’s experience can help you decide which ones to use.

There are many tech decisions you’ll have to make at the very beginning of product development. Let’s say that you’re wondering which payment gateway to use. At TSH, we’ve already integrated many of them, so we have hands-on experience with their pros and cons. We’re also familiar with PCI compliance and which regulations will pass or not regarding credit card data storage. We know that in order to transfer money to someone using a payment gateway, you have to verify the recipient in accordance with the anti-money laundering act. Plus, we’re aware of the fact that, for example, Braintree sometimes withholds money to better verify the transaction, and Stripe has problems with AmEx cards.

We have vast experience with text and email systems – we know which messages we can write ourselves, and which require a paid tool. We also know that implementing a chat system is never as simple as they advertise it. Finally, we can tell you that it’s easier to find a ready solution for invoices rather than write one from scratch. The list goes on and on.

Some time ago, we’ve compared JavaScript frameworks to cats. Check it out. It’s fun, but it also shows how many tools there are to choose when developing software. An that’s just one language!

R&D and tech departments

Not all tech solutions will be right for you or universally applicable. As our CTO, Marek Gajda, wrote in his API Platform guide: “things tend to be a little more complicated than in the tutorial”. The number of new technologies keeps increasing, and software houses often have separate R&D departments researching them. We conduct in-depth tests of these solutions instead of relying on tutorials or trusting (often shady) marketing practices. SaaS companies usually lack R&D departments, so tech consulting could be beneficial to them.

In The Software House, we have separate departments that develop their own tech know-how. Each department works to improve its processes and find new solutions. We often perform highly specialized tasks, including niche services like DevOps. No matter if it’s frontend, backend or QA, we always strive to do the best work possible. Due to a high number of projects, we could expand each and every department.

What about outsourcing?

As I said before, advantages of working with a software house go far beyond outsourcing, but if you wish to simply hire programmers, you won’t be disappointed. Top software houses equal top programmers with years of experience working on many diverse projects. They’ll be able to provide you with all the technologies your SaaS company might lack. They’ll also instruct you on how to implement them. The same functionalities can be introduced in hundreds of ways depending on your circumstances.

To learn more, check out out free e-book on software development outsourcing.

Working with a software house: The best of two worlds

SaaS companies often face a dilemma whether to hire a candidate who had worked 5 years in the same company, or the one who had spent that time working in 5 different companies. With a software house, you can have the best of both worlds. Our employees have spent 5 years in one company, but they’ve been honing their skills working on multiple projects. In the end, it all comes down to building highest-quality products. And product development is what we do best.