The Benefits of Hiring a Mobile App Development Company

How complex is Mobile App Development?

Building an app isn't as complicated as it used to be for businesses. Plenty of technologies are out there, and skilled professionals are easy to find. But simultaneously, the market is getting more competitive every day. You have the chance to reach millions of customers, but at the same time, you need to build a product that stays ahead of the competition.

It can be done in two ways; set up an in-house team or hire a mobile development company. The second option is more common among newbies.

App development outsourcing is a common practice for more than 60% of IT professionals.

 We'll get into why outsourcing is popular among IT professionals. But before that, let's talk about whether you can build an app on your own and what you'll need if you can.

There are tons of technologies out there. Low-code No-code tools are getting a lot of attention, especially with AI pushing them forward. Many say these tools let non-technical users build apps without writing code. With all this buzz, it's easy to think you can build an app yourself, but that's not entirely true.

It takes technical expertise to build a mobile app. You will need a team that knows OS-specific languages and expert(s) who can correctly pick the right tech stack for mobile app development. It is crucial because the technology you pick affects the app's cost both upfront and in the long run. Building an app means choosing the right technology and having expertise in different areas. For someone without a technical background, it wouldn't be easy to do.

You could also set up an in-house team. But again, you have to be sure about the technology you choose. If you're unsure about mobile app development technologies, you might end up spending more than planned and still struggle to build a scalable application. Then, there is a straightforward option -- outsourcing software development.

There are plenty of benefits to working with an expert mobile app development company or bringing in outside expertise.

Why is outsourcing so common? However, it's not always about developing a full application. Sometimes, companies bring in another team to build a specific part of the app.  Companies often mix different technologies to build mobile apps, but they might not have expertise in all of them. When that happens, they often bring in a third-party service provider to handle development. This way, they can build the app faster without setting up everything themselves.

Big names like Canva and Netflix depend on plenty of third-party services, whether cloud providers or other tools. Take React Native, for example. Many well-known companies have built specific parts of their applications using React Native, such as Facebook, Instagram, and many others.

Global App Development Outsourcing Trends

• 64% of IT leaders globally outsource their software development, making it the most common IT function outsourced by businesses.

• 60% of organizations outsource app development, with financial services leading at 72%, followed by retail/wholesale at 60%, and healthcare at 31%.

Industry-Specific Outsourcing

• In the financial services sector, 72% of app development is outsourced, while in healthcare, the rate is lower at 31%.

• 84.7% of software development projects are for enterprise applications, with business automation and eCommerce being the most common.

Small Businesses and Startups

• 37% of small businesses outsource at least one business process, with IT services being the most commonly outsourced function.

• 74% of tech startups outsource some of their operations, compared to 62% of non-tech startups.

Regional Insights

• India is the leading destination for IT outsourcing, with 59% of American companies choosing India for outsourcing.

• Eastern Europe, particularly Ukraine and Poland, is emerging as a significant hub for IT outsourcing, with rapid growth in software development services.

Cost and Efficiency

• Outsourcing app development can reduce time-to-market by 25%, as highlighted in a McKinsey report.

• Companies report average cost savings of 15-30% through outsourcing, making it a compelling strategy for businesses of all sizes.

There are plenty of good reasons why outsourcing is so popular across industries. And now, let's talk about what you actually get when you hire a mobile app development company. How can they help you?

Benefits of Hiring a Mobile App Development Company

1. Specialized Expertise

Building an iOS app generally involves using either Swift or Objective-C, while Android apps are created using Java or Kotlin. There are also required design guidelines suitable for the different platforms. An experienced developer gets to know these languages and modern mobile app development frameworks like the back of their hands. Quality assurance (QA) is another element of development.

Professional mobile app developers test the applications for functionality, usability, performance, and security to ensure the reliability and stability of an app. Otherwise, it will be a Swiss-cheese buggy app that will push its users away.

In case you don't have enough time to manage the project, project managers are the ones keeping everything on track. They handle everything from initial planning to the final launch, setting timelines, managing budgets, coordinating the team, and making sure the project stays on schedule. They also act as your main point of contact, giving you updates and addressing any concerns.

They organize the development process using structured methods such as Agile or Waterfall to facilitate smooth collaboration among team members. Their role is crucial in ensuring that your app is delivered on time, within budget, and as intended. This collaboration decreases the chances of miscommunication, reduces errors, and increases the overall quality of the app.

Skill is not enough; a workgroup is. A professional development firm has the experience of forming and maintaining these workgroup(s) and making them collaborate while optimizing their workflows.

They have set up communication channels, project management tools, and QA processes that ensure a seamless and smooth development experience. Everything in that organization scheme and know-how is very hard to develop from scratch while building an in-house team.

Essential Checks When Choosing a Mobile App Development Company

Engaging the right mobile app development partner can either make or break your project. Here is a small checklist to consider while choosing.

• Portfolio: Do their projects match your vision and showcase the technology to do it?

• Client's review: What do previous clients have to say? Check out testimonials on Clutch and maybe GoodFirms as well.

• Process: Is their development process clear and well-defined (Agile is preferred)?

• Technical expertise: Are they able to keep up with current technologies and trends?

2. Faster Development

Experienced teams have seen it all: they have worked on similar projects and understand common mobile app development pitfalls and the complexities of mobile app development. An experienced mobile app development company knows when to expend time and effort and where not. This is how a mobile app gets developed faster. Furthermore, with efficiency often comes cost savings. Wasted time and resources hurt costly projects; a well-experienced team can deliver a very good product within an acceptable budget. 

They can provide accurate mobile app development cost estimates before starting work, sticking to these budgets to avoid surprises. Having done that, estimating the time and resources for each stage of the development, from design to development to testing and, finally, deployment, is a breeze. 

This predictability is invaluable to the business, which can then manage its budgeting and schedule effectively. In the end, experience and efficiency go a long way to delivering a quality product. Because the team is working efficiently, they have more time to focus on the details of making an app that is polished and bug-free and matches your specifications exactly.

They can dedicate the necessary time to rigorous testing for a smooth, reliable user experience. To sum up, placing yourself in the hands of an experienced team means your app gets developed quicker, cheaper, and better.

3. Cost-Effectiveness

By first minimizing costly mistakes, a professional development company saves you money, most significantly in the long run. Experienced developers generally have a comprehensive knowledge of all the subtleties surrounding mobile app development, including platform-specific requirements, best practices in coding, and all potential traps and pitfalls.

They have possibly dealt with similar issues in prior projects and have efficient strategies for handling them. This kind of expertise turns out to be critical in keeping the risk of errors, bugs, and technical problems to a minimum. However, the other side of that will be preventing you from going over budget. They can also manage project risks that can delay the project and drive costs upwards.

Tips to reduce app development cost

• Outline your app's purpose, target audience, and essential features (a detailed scope document is crucial). 

• Focus on core functionalities first. Avoid unnecessary additions

• Use frameworks like React Native or Flutter.

• Use Low code No code tools for simpler apps.

• Hire a dedicated development team in a region with lower labor costs.

• Visualize your app's layout and flow before development

• Leverage open-source libraries and frameworks for pre-built components.

• Launch a Minimum Viable Product with core features to test the market before full development.

4. High-Quality Product

The most important thing in making a successful mobile application is the perfect merger of design, functionality, and quality assurance. Not just a good idea but also an excellent production team that would realize the idea completely. Users should not have a tough time understanding how to use your app; guides should be made visible through designs. Professional designers know the principles of user-centered design that are both visually beautiful and functional.

What does it mean to be a high-quality app?

• The app should work as intended without crashing 

• It should include all the necessary features to fulfill its purpose.

• The app should be using minimal resources (battery, data, storage).

• It should be easy to use and navigate. 

• The app's design should be visually appealing, clean, and consistent. 

• It should load quickly and respond promptly to user actions.

• The app should run smoothly without lags or delays

• The app should protect user data and privacy

• If the app involves transactions, they should be secure and protected from fraud.

5. Scalability

Scalability means your app needs to support a sudden surge of users, and at the same time, it must allow data that tends to grow without performance degradation. It should also allow your app to constantly adapt and develop new features and functionalities as your business expands. Scalability is certainly one of the pillars on which companies can keep their customers happy and reduce churn.

The mobile world keeps changing as new technologies and trends evolve in a short time. Scalable apps can meet such changes better, thus keeping your app current and creating future competition. Flexibility becomes the determining factor between an organization and the whole market and how much the company can recover from its investment.

How do they do it? Development companies come up with a lot of things that include cloud-based infrastructure, coding smartly, and database management efficiency, and choose technologies and frameworks that speak for scaling.

Here are some important features to consider when building a scalable app. 

• Break down the app into smaller, independent services that can be scaled individually.

• Designing components that don't store session data. 

• Handle tasks in the background to prevent blocking the main flow.

• Store frequently accessed data to reduce database load.

• Distribute traffic across multiple servers to prevent overload.

• Use cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud. 

• Using technologies like Docker and Kubernetes. 

• Consider NoSQL databases for handling large volumes of unstructured data. 

• Write well-structured and optimized code to minimize resource consumption.

• Conduct regular code reviews to identify and address potential performance issues.

• Performing load testing and stress testing to identify bottlenecks and ensure scalability.

6. Ongoing Maintenance and Support

Launching your mobile app is just one of those milestone activities; it is not the end. With continuous changes in the mobile space, new operating systems, devices, and user expectations are prevalent. Therefore, maintain and support it continuously so that your app remains relevant, functional, and secure. 

Your app needs maintenance to keep it running smoothly. The maintenance routines include the fixing of bugs, glitches, and performance issues that may come up. Users will quickly abandon buggy apps; prompt action to fix bugs after the report from the users goes a long way in enhancing user experience and saving bad reviews. 

Besides, the different operating systems, such as iOS and Android, tend to release updates at regular intervals that promise new features, security patches, and new looks. Your app needs to keep abreast of these changes to maintain uninterrupted functionality and avert complications. 

A development company will manage these updates for you so that your app remains compatible and can benefit from the new features of the operating system. 

Effective App maintenance encompasses far more than merely helping things run; it also helps them improve and develop. 

7. Access to Latest Technologies

A major benefit of partnering with a mobile app development company is that it offers access to emerging and latest technologies. These companies spend considerably on being the lead in mobile. The development companies are good at choosing appropriate tools for the job. They know what mobile app development programming languages offer strengths and weaknesses and the most effective combination that satisfies your requirements and specific project needs.

For instance, they understand when to go for native development (iOS or Android) for optimum performance and where, in some cases, cross-platform would do better regarding cost-effectiveness. Staying up-to-date with the latest mobile app development technologies is crucial for creating innovative and competitive apps. 

Here are some effective ways to find the latest technologies:  

• Follow industry blogs and publications, mobile development blogs

• Attend developer conferences (events like Google I/O, WWDC, and Mobile World Congress) 

• Connect with other developers in your area to share knowledge and learn about new technologies.  

• Explore online learning platforms like Coursera, edX, and Udacity.

• Explore open-source projects to see how developers are using new technologies.

8. Innovation and Creativity

One of the main benefits to a development company working on a project is the large variety of projects and industries they work on. This broad knowledge gives them an accurate view of what works, what doesn't, and what is trending in the mobile world. They have witnessed the successes and failures of other apps; now, they can use that information to help you avoid pitfalls and find opportunities for innovations. 

Moreover, the entire collaborative ethos of working with a development company will stimulate innovation. They'll guarantee open communication and feedback so that you can put your own ideas and insights into the development process. Working like this ensures that what will eventually get delivered is a product in which you played a part in the vision, augmented by the development team with their experience and creativity.

They'll smooth the path for you to take your very abstract thinking and begin to identify concrete features and functions. They will be able to guide you through feasibility, usability, and technical aspects.

9. Reduced Risk

One of the primary risks in app development is the complexity involved with the technology itself. Mobile app development includes a multitude of technical considerations, such as choosing the right programming languages and frameworks and ensuring compatibility with various devices and operating systems.

Well-experienced mobile app development companies know about this technical nitty-gritty. Having worked on innumerable projects with quite a lot of challenges, they can put best practices in place to pull through. This reduces the chance of technical hiccups really disturbing your project. They must be capable of foreseeing any potential problems, selecting appropriate tools and technologies, and carrying out the solution, thereby significantly minimizing any risk of costly delays and rework.

Besides technical risks, being delayed is a common risk in app development. The process of building a successful app involves planning, execution, and wise management of the project. Established development companies have project management processes to keep them on track and under budget. 

They develop realistic time frames, manage resources diligently, and keep you in the loop with constant communication that ensures openness and minimizes the risk of unexpected delays. They understand the importance of delivering on time and readily tackle any hurdles that may arise. All this drastically reduces the risk of your project lagging behind, which could mean a heavy financial consequence. 

Budget overruns are another major concern in the world of app development, making it really vital for all their stakeholders to consider. Of course, making an app is costly, and costs can climb higher and higher if the app is not properly managed. 

Experienced development companies can provide upfront accurate estimations for costs based on a developed understanding of the work scope and their experience with similar projects. Priority features and functionalities are proposed to be developed while still keeping you in the budget scope.

In addition, their development cycle works in such a manner that there is very little wasted time and resources, giving you maximum value for your investment. They can also advise on some more affordable alternatives, thereby assisting you in making informed budgetary decisions.

Here are some quick tips on how to reduce risk in mobile app development:

• Define your goals and scope clearly.

• Understand your target audience, the market, and your competitors.

• Create a detailed project plan with timelines, milestones, and budgets.

• Use agile development methodologies

• Gather feedback from users and make necessary changes.  

10. Focus on Core Business

Today, it's easy for a company to get stuck pursuing some high-priority and important project- which will ultimately not form a core of their focus- such as mobile app development. It requires specialized skills, quite a huge time investment, and constant maintenance. This may stretch your internal team pretty thin and distract them from the strategic initiatives that directly impact your bottom line.

Your sales team is an expert in closing deals, while your marketing team creates compelling campaigns. Moreover, your product development team is focused on innovating and improving the core offerings. These are the areas where your internal teams add the most value and create the highest return on investment.

So, pretty much, app development outsourcing means assigning a technical task to experts and freeing your in-house team to concentrate on these core competencies. Here, it makes them free their time and energy on tasks that have a more direct impact on revenue generation, customer acquisition, and overall business growth.

It will increase productivity and efficiency and ultimately create a higher competitive edge in the marketplace. This might improve employee morale as well because you will be letting in-house employees focus more on their expertise; hence, they will do what they do best at their job, and they will generally be more satisfied with and engage more in their work. 

They can focus on those activities to which they are naturally suited and have an interest rather than being forced to take on projects outside of their field because of the shortage of resources.

How does Brilworks make app development faster without compromising on quality? 

At Brilworks, we work speedily without compromising the quality of any app development. Here is how we find the right equilibrium: 

1. Agile Iteration

By agile iteration, we can say that our approach is iterative; working prototypes are delivered in very short cycles (sprints) through the means of agile working methodology. Flexibility to changes, in turn, ensures that projects remain on course, with the final product following your vision. 

2. Low-Fidelity Wireframes

Brilworks uses low-fidelity wireframes, or rather simple schematics, that sketch out the app's structure. Through this approach, developers and designers align quickly, doing away with long documentation that delays the initial design phase. 

3. Strategically Using Outsourcing

The design or testing is often outsourced to teams specializing in those areas, leaving our team of pros concentrated on programming. This gives app development velocity and efficiency. 

4. Automated Testing

Through automated testing, we achieve quality at speed. Our automated testing tools, like Appium, execute tests concurrently, helping to identify bugs early and in an efficient manner.

5. Thorough QA

While speed is critical, quality is even more critical. We allow a generous amount of time for thorough testing and fixes to ensure a hiccup-free and enjoyable experience for the users.

6. Short Release Cycles

We believe in constant improvement. Frequent updates are released with new features based on user feedback, keeping the app alive, interesting, and in touch with ever-evolving needs.

7. Component-Based UI

In the UI design, we leverage the ability to reuse components, which saves development time and guarantees consistency throughout the app. This approach also allows for easier app updates and modifications in the future. 

8. Cross-Platform Development (Hybrid)

For cases where both Android and iOS are targeted, we use cross-platform technologies such as React Native or Flutter. By building for both platforms at the same time, we can bring the overall development timeline down by quite a lot. 

9. Adding Value Through DevOps

Automation and streamlining of development, testing, and deployment are enabled through DevOps practices. This leads to quicker releases and quicker responses to user feedback, all while maximizing efficiency.

Final Words

The reasons to collaborate with the mobile app development company are obvious. A successful application does not only require coding work; it requires something more than this: expertise, experience, and above all, strategic thinking. The decision to outsource the app development services does take a while; however, the benefits, which include specialized expertise, time efficiency, better quality products, and concentration on the core business, are unquestionable. 

Choosing the right development partner is important, though. Don't do it just because of the lowest price; do your homework and look at proven companies that have a successful portfolio and will understand the goals of your company. You want a team with not only skills but also the willingness to communicate, collaborate, and deeply understand user experience. 

Investing in professional mobile apps is an investment in the future of your business. In a highly mobile-first environment, a well-designed, functional, and user-friendly app can be the game changer for customer engagement, increasing brand visibility and, ultimately, more revenue. 

Now that you have partnered with better professionals, you have pitted your business against the competitive mobile landscape and freed your team to do what they do best: grow your core business. Take the plunge, choose wisely, and unleash all that mobile can do for your business.