The initial challenges which a company looking to outsource product development for the first time faces and tries to put to rest some of the myths associated with these challenges.
Longevity of the product team with the development partner
Myth:It is difficult to motivate and retain crucial team members for long in the team. They tend to move out by the time they acquire enough expertise to contribute effectively.
Reality: Yes, and No. No if you choose the right product development partner. Offshore companies focused on product engineering services have realized that longevity of team members in the team is a very crucial factor in making any relationship successful. In contrast to companies doing traditional outsourced software; these companies understand that the onus for a long term commitment lies with them and not the customer. They understand the fact that a team member who has spent 2 years with the product becomes nearly inseparable with it. For this reason, they have their compensation and bonus policies focused on retaining key team members for long in the same project. Moreover, with employees in different cultures being driven and motivated by different factors, it might also help to retain a project/people manager offshore so that he/she can take the right actions to motivate the team and keep it intact.
Processes used for development and project management
Myth: The software engineering vendor would have separate set of processes than we have, and we would have to embrace them to effectively work with the vendor.
Reality: It is the software engineering vendor who aligns it with the partner's processes so that the partner does not
feel any difference while working with them Outsourced Product engineering companies make it possible by create mini organizations inside called VODCs (Virtual Offshore Development Centers), one for each partner that they work with. The processes and functioning of this VODC is exactly similar as the vendor would have done onsite on its own, including processes for development, project and people management and time and expense reporting.
Visibility in product roadmap
Myth: Vendor teams are better managed by providing work on daily basis
Reality: Providing a long term visibility in the product roadmap helps the vendor teams to focus on work effectively and utilize resources better. Moreover, this reduces the overhead of the management team member at the partner's location.
Communication
Myth: With the product visionary team onsite and the implementation team with the Ecommerce solutions vendor, it is difficult to communicate and share product ideas and vision. Day to Day project related communication may not be interpreted or captured correctly.
Reality: Product Engineering vendors realize the challenges that exist in doing distributed product development. To ensure quick and accurate communication, they are geared up with the state of the art facilities when it comes to E-mail, IM, phone, VOIP, fax, integrated development environments and Video/Audio conferencing. Product Engineering teams are available most of the time on published hours on Email/IM and Phone. All project related unstructured discussion (on phone/IM) is always followed up with a more formal and structured manner on email, so that the teams are in sync with each other.
Know more - Best product development companies ,
Software as a service (SaaS) is a revolutionary approach for building web applications. As organizations today want to focus on their core business, they usually outsource other work to specialized organizations. Besides being a cost effective option, companies expect their business portals to be handled by a specialized third party IT firm who can take complete responsibility and ownership. SaaS redefines the software deployment model from packaged applications with upfront licensing fees and lengthy implementations to one subscription based internet delivered service relationship.
The benefits of SaaS for any company are numerous. Some of them are:
Expensive infrastructure is not required as the application is hosted by the service provider. All large initial investments on hardware, licenses and databases, ongoing overhead of employing and training IT staff, software and hardware maintenance and upgrades are managed by the IT Team. Aging technology does not have to be upgraded as there is no local infrastructure, and there is also total protection from unforeseen expenses.
Most licensed software models incur huge costs in deployments. The total cost to operate in SaaS is fixed and known in advance. SaaS vendors typically will bundle all of the necessary hardware, software and support advisory services, such as implementation, training, help desk, troubleshooting, upgrades, security, and business continuity, into a single fee.
IT organizations generally overestimate the actual software utilization by the end user community. With SaaS, corporate buyers only pay for the active users of the system and not the forecasted user community.
The corporate buyer has significantly more power and control with SaaS as these applications are sold on a subscription basis for a monthly recurring fee. Clients that are not satisfied have the option of cancelling their subscriptions and transferring to different applications without purchasing and licensing costs.
As SaaS vendors manage the upgrade process, they are responsible for administering any new releases and future enhancements. Users of SaaS-based applications can always be certain that they are using the latest version of the software provided by the vendor.
As SaaS application provides uninterrupted and reliable services, vendors understand that data must be backed up religiously and that information security is of top-most priority. Skilled resources, network redundancies, stand-by power, up-to-date security and intrusion detection are mandatory infrastructure required to provide an enterprise class service.
SaaS has the potential to totally change the way in which companies run their IT infrastructures. Mobile application development also allows companies to streamline and simplify their IT infrastructures, improve application deployment in geographically dispersed locations and realize significant cost savings that are traditionally used by larger organizations.
Know more - open source software deployment, product lifecycle management
A variety of software solutions exist to automate lease pricing and management processes. Since this industry is highly regulated, leasing software is subject to frequent upgrades and changes. Additionally, there is a huge need for a software product to be flexible enough to accommodate the requirements and processes of multiple lessors.
Some of the major challenges in distributed software development for the leasing industry are discussed below.
Software Customization
The leasing industry today is saturated with software vendors who provide a single line of leasing products to all of their customers. Although in some cases software vendors are creating specialized versions of products for individual customers, this customization can itself become a problem when vendors are forced to maintain multiple software releases and variations for each of their customers. If they choose not to maintain these customized software versions, then their customers are “stuck” with that version and cannot take advantage of any ongoing upgrades that are made to the general product.
Ever Changing Business Requirements
Customers must have a software product that is flexible enough to handle the changing requirements of the market, as well as the growing competition within the overall business environment. One such need is that of internationalization and localization. With the concept of a global enterprise quickly becoming commonplace, there is an enhanced need to internationalize software products. A world‐ready product offers many benefits, including increased revenue, reduced international development costs and lower support costs.
Integration with Other Software or Products
A leasing product almost always needs to integrate with enterprise backend and pricing applications. These integration requirements demand a software product that has been build accordingly from the ground up.
Proposed Solutions
Only a few years ago, lessors faced the choice of building a custom solution or purchasing an “off‐the‐shelf” system, possibly with a few modifications. Custom solutions were more expensive and riskier but had the potential to produce a solution that more exactly matched the company’s operational requirements. “Off‐the‐shelf” solutions were more affordable and proven but required the lessor to accept the limits of the system or pay the vendor to modify the software.
This decision is no longer black or white. Innovative software providers are now creating a “middle ground” by developing systems that use components and flexible configurations. Although these systems are not 100% user‐definable, they are much more flexible than traditional systems and are available at a fraction of the cost of a fully customized solution.
Configurable systems accomplish this flexibility by writing callable components and by using definable screens, report writers and a workflow language to link everything together. Below we discuss how software vendors are delivering customized, adaptable products faster and more cost‐effectively.
Software Product Customization
While the core system remains the same for every customer, the data capture, user interface requirements and processes are manipulated from customer to customer without running into version control issues. Workflow software and Rules Engine are used for customizing the product for different customers. Moreover, a Rules Engine solves the problem of making products flexible enough to handle changes in the customer’s business requirements.
Software Product Integration
Lenders and lessors need a solution that provides end‐to‐end integration for dealer portal, proposal management, business account management, credit management, automatic decision making, contract administration, data acquisition and management, payments collection and several automated functions Software control over processes enables the re‐design of these processes in line with changing business needs. Business processes can be automated in whole or in part using a workflow software and Rules Engine. These tools set procedural rules to pass documents, information or tasks from one resource (human or machine) to another for an action. Moreover, a leasing product that uses XML at its core and performs most functions through web services can be integrated easily with legacy systems in a structured manner. This type of leasing product blends sea
Also read more about - Mobile application development ,Saas application development,Medical device software development ,Ecommerce solutions
Meeting the software needs of the leasing industry is no easy task, as every change in legal requirements, market forces and strategy gives rise to a number of challenges.
Finance companies are demanding innovative software products that are ahead of the market, such as solutions that enable users to change their business processes without time or financial constraints. Although these demands are part of a greater paradigm shift in the leasing industry, using workflow and Rules Engine can help software vendors meet some of these needs.
He we discusses how leasing software can be made flexible and adaptable to constantly changing market needs by using workflow and a Rules Engine in conjunction.
Leasing Process
Together, a Rules Engine and workflow can be used to automate the conditional workflow processes of the system, as well as the movement of items between different nodes. This setup can help in managing the life cycle of leasing deals. It can also isolate the bulk of the application code from changes in the life cycle of deals.
Approval Process
The approval process for leasing deals involves approval at various levels. The type and number of levels can vary from time to time and from customer to customer. A combination of Rules Engine and workflow can be used to define the approval process for the deals so that the sequence of approvals can be governed.
Leasing Documents
The importance of tracking documents cannot be undermined in leasing. Required documents for a lease may vary based on entities like vendor, equipment and approval level. In such cases, Rules Engine can be configured and used to specify the required and optional documents for various entities.
Escalation and Notifications
User actions in leasing software might trigger a notification or even lead to an escalation in certain cases. Workflow provides a convenient way of sending notifications to the users based on different actions.
Dynamic User Interface and Authorization
It is typical for applications to have different categories of users and thus a different user interface for each of them. For example, due to security reasons, some information may be hidden from one category of users and available to another. Such dynamic user interfaces can be dynamically configured through rules.
Pricing Calculations
In almost all financial applications (including leasing), it is common that calculations
(e.g., EMI calculations, subsidy calculations, tax calculations, etc.) may be different for different vendors, dealers and locales. Rules provide an easy mechanism to implement
such scenarios.
Also read on: Ecommerce solutions, Mobile application development, Product engineering services, Saas application development
