10 Myths about Nearshore Software Development

“Offshore and Nearshore are two contradicting concepts being highly used in 21st century and become one of the most gossiped terms in the cyber world. There are lots of theories, blogs and articles describing their advantages and disadvantages. You can find them from World Wide Web effortlessly. Today, we will discuss 10 myths about Nearshore software development process”.

Nearshore software development is better for small projects: Often offshore software development processes are treated as a cost cutting procedure. Due to currency difference, it is possible to hire low wage software developers from developing countries like India, Indonesia etc and this result in a good buck of savings. But we find many software firms hesitate to outsource small projects; because they believe that, the processing cost will be more to establish a successful business with a foreign party with a small project. Hence they like to do the business with a Nearshore software firm to avoid this issue; but this is nothing but, a wrong notion. You can also hire an offshore software firm from India and save a good amount of investment both in terms of development cost as well as processing cost.

Nearshore software firms can provide better service than offshore software firms: Many believe that, Nearshore software firms can understand your requirement in a more precise manner and hence they can provide you better and to-the-point solution for your requirement. But, when you choose an offshore software firm having a good track record and experience, you can get even better service that too at lower cost and their expert team can help you in every possible manner starting from development process to even marketing!!

Nearshore software firms are more reliable: Reliability matters a lot in software industry and often we find many conflicting statements for the same with respect to Nearshore and offshore software firms. Some say, Nearshore software firms are more reliable than offshore; but, we would like to say that, there is nothing to do with geographic location with the reliability. In fact, the firm having reliable developers and management is more reliable than others; as simple as it is.

Your intellectual property is highly secure with Nearshore software firms: Software is a form of Intellectual property and we must protect it from others through safeguards. Since it is an intangible asset, it can remain confidential through some intangible shields like loyalty, work-ethics and principles; and it can’t be developed by any physical building material. Hence its value and importance is determined by the work ethics of the software firm and it does not depend on any geographic location. So it is unwise to say that your intellectual property is safe with your local software firms and not with a reliable offshore software firm.

You can get better communication from Nearshore software firms: At the age of globalization, communication skill has extremely important impacts on the success of any business. Now, a successful businessman not only needs to learn how to communicate with his local customers but also he should learn how to develop successful cross-cultural relations through vocal languages, speaking manner and body languages etc. Fortunately, Indian offshore software firms are extremely serious for this and hence they are highly successful in their business with European, North American and other developed countries.

Productivity is more with Nearshore software development process: Geographic location has no direct or indirect effect on the productivity of any software firm. We must accept that the productivity of a software company depends on the quality of professionals and the work ethics of that organization. If you want better productivity, you can choose a reliable offshore software firm from India that will not only give you better quality of end product but also a good savings on your next invoice.

Your issues can be handled quickly due to same time zone: This is often misinterpreted by some people in the IT industry that, if your partner has its development centre in your locality, you will get better service due to same time zone; but, at the period of globalization, every offshore software firm strives to get the faith and popularity in the industry with quality service. Some of them are having multiple shifts of developers working round the clock to provide quality service as if an onsite service provider.

You can get better legal protection from Nearshore software firms: We can’t ignore the importance of difference in laws and regulations with geographic location. But if we are preparing a strong and detailed agreement with our business partner and that too with the consultation of lawyers of both locations, then can’t it be avoided? There are millions of examples of successful business operations in IT industry that runs between two different locations and without any threat of IP loss. In fact, those reliable offshore firms are highly serious in understanding the importance of the Non-disclosure agreement for an honest business operation over time. They will provide you enough protection for your intellectual property not only during the development period but also after the production phase.

Though you are supposed to spend little more; but you will gain a lot in terms of quality of end product: As we discussed, quality of service does not depend on the geographic location rather it depends on the quality and skills of the developer and most importantly the work ethics of the software firm. So, you can get better quality of end product from an Indian software company having expertise in the domain or technology on which your project will be developed that too at lower cost of development.

Nearshore software firms provide better post production support: For post production support, there is a trademark of Indian IT companies in the world. They are extremely reliable and faithful in the industry when it comes about the post production support. They will treat all your dynamic requirements and bugs as superior as when it was during the development process. So you can trust over them for quality support service.

Last but not the least, we must admit that, No software company can produce quality end product without quality assets i.e. the developers of the organization. Companies don’t produce quality output; it’s the developers who make it possible. So it is always advisable to hire a firm which has better track record, having senior and certified developers with good experience in their technology and domain.

At Mindfire Solutions, we are experts in offshore small team software development and we have been serving our 300+ esteemed clients more than 15 years now and have executed over 1000 projects in various technologies and domains. If you have any custom application ideas in mind and need our expertise, please feel free to write to us at sales at mindfiresolutions dot com and we will revert back within a business day. You can also avail our limited period risk-free trial offer now.

Why do businesses consider services of a good web development company?

With internet marketing ruling the roost these days, a professional-looking as well as user-friendly website is the need of the hour for any business. To help concentrate on the business aspect better, most people these days are transferring the job of web development to the professionals who have both experience and skill in this field. A fraction of the crowd still hesitates about hiring an outsider to portray a business that they are most familiar with. But there are lots of reasons which have made it mandatory for businesses to hire professional services.

Skill, expertise and experience- It is true that a business owner will know various facets of the industry which will never be properly ascertained by third party. But they do have a huge advantage; they are experts in what they do. They design websites day in and day out which makes them totally familiar with the all the idiosyncrasies of the related work. They are in constant touch with the user-base, so they know what that crowd is expecting and what will satiate their expectations. This leads them to incorporate only the elements which they know will benefit the users; all needless stuff is trimmed out to make the content fresh, crisp as well as precise.

Planning- Being engrossed with the various aspects of a company can often hamper the marketing view, especially if it is online. So it is best that the owner focuses on the production along with other related aspects and let the professional web development company focus on the online marketing aspect. A plan or strategy is especially important since buyers first gather plenty of information through online research before doing anything. Being familiar with everything, the professionals will plan out a good strategy; having a good plan makes it easy to chalk out several possibilities and then carry them out accordingly.

Features combined with usability- These days, just a simple good-looking website is not enough to attract the crowd. It should be engaging enough so that the visitors are retained. As a consequence they incorporate a lot of features to make it attractive. Several interactive elements like forums, videos, etc are added as well. At the same time, they also ensure that all the elements are working properly along with providing a smooth usability factor.

Search Engine Optimization- A great website is must but another must is promotion to target audience. The best possible way of achieving high online visibility is through good rankings on search engines like Yahoo, MSN, Google, etc. This can be done successfully through implementation of various SEO strategies. The professional companies have SEO experts who can do this very easily so that the business can get good rankings in the search engines.

Social media marketing- With the increasing dependency of the youth brigade on social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc it is essential to tap the social media platforms as well. By virtue of a good web design company, it is easy for a business to conduct social media campaigns regularly to help in viral marketing as well as branding.

One step ahead of competitors- Doing business is not just about promoting your business but to always keep your eyes open to what your competition is up to. The specialized companies help you do that by staying in sync with recent technologies as well as trends; these are implemented in the business so that they always stay ahead of the game.

It has become necessary for businesses to not only cater to the users but also to stand out from the crowd. A professional help allows them to do just that. With many tools, tips and tricks they help a business achieve its maximum potential to attract most number of customers to the web page so that revenues can be boosted. To get maximum benefits of web development, you may consider hiring services of a custom software development India company.

We provide offshore web development services. To hire offshore developers from us, please reach out to Mindfire Solutions.

Offshore Web Development And The Challenges Faced

With increasing software demands, the competition in the IT industry is on the rise. High quality results are expected as well as demanded by most customers at a cost that can be as low as possible. However, most often there are shortages of highly skilled and good quality programmers. To handle such issues one way that has been discovered is combining the work of remotely located as well as locally based project developers. Project developers are hired who can focus on the tasks that need direct interactions with people on site. The rest of development team members located remotely can handle the other tasks.

The trend of offshore web development is booming since the last decade. Majority of the businesses around the globe are outsourcing the section of web development to various offshore centres located at Brazil, China, India, etc. Both big as well as small companies have benefitted a lot from this by leveraging themselves. While planning to outsource software projects to such centres there are a few things that must be kept in mind- some of the challenges that the model has. These must be overcome otherwise they might prove to be a hamper for your success.

Quality of communication- The amount as well as quality needed for management of offshore projects along with relationships is underestimated by most companies. Resource availability and timing are major issues; the relationship can work only by proper commitment as well as their ability of being available when the need arises. Sometimes there are language barriers as well. Plenty of communication as well as coordination skills are required otherwise it might lead to wastage of money as well as valuable time.

Project details- Some of the companies simply want to complete the job without going into the depth of the matter; sometimes the project’s details are not even grasped. This results in them underestimating the time that will take for completion of the projects; it will lead to simply increased costs. The deadlines are not met as well.

Lacking advanced programming skills- Often at some particular centres the focus is on mass production. As a consequence there are very few truly advanced programmers. Thus advanced coding often becomes heavy, sloppy and not really functioning in the manner it should be. For example codes which should ideally be implemented within 20 lines, are done in 100.

No or limited legal recourse- Since the location of both the parties are in different countries there is limited control over the data or information that you have given to the offshore company; it may be repurposed or resold without your knowledge. Since the legal system is completely different, the understanding is lacking. There is no sense in doing anything legally due to the associated costs and distance.

More difficult testing- In a general case, the testing phase of outsourced projects is really more difficult when compared to an in-house project. If a problem is found during in-house testing of a software piece developed offshore, then communication needs to be done with offshore vendors. There might be problems with that since the problem may not be reproduced with the offshore vendor. The problem may be fixed easily by looking at the machine where it happened. Or perhaps the problem has not been communicated properly.

Time difference- Generally, there is quite a time difference between offshore vendors and clients, making communication difficult. A question asked on a day gets answered on the next day only. However, this may be solved through scheduling of weekly meetings. Extra meetings may be scheduled to discuss more difficult problems.

Hiring efficient offshore development companies which know what they are doing is a really critical business decision to be undertaken. If the correct partner can be found then some of the problems mentioned here can actually be avoided. The correct partner allows you to capitalize on the multiple benefits that come when you work with offshore companies. To get maximum benefits of web development, you may consider hiring services of a certified software development company India.

We provide offshore web development services. If you would like to hire offshore developers from us, we would be glad to assist you at Mindfire Solutions.

Discover Easy yet Powerful Development Capabilities with ColdFusion

Adobe has released the updated version of ColdFusion with a set of advanced features to meet the latest trends in rapid web application development. Some of these features enable web application developers to embrace futuristic technologies like HTML5 WebSockets, HTML5 video player, RESTful web services support and HTML5 enhancements. ColdFusion 10 also offers a set of features that makes it easier for programmers to build dynamic and interactive internet applications.

Along with saving the time required for writing longer lines of code, the features like strong encryption libraries, database enhancements, enhanced caching and security enhancements further make it easier for the developers to deploy the application in a hassle-free way. If you are planning to migrate to the latest version of ColdFusion, it is time to have a look at some of the key features that makes it easier to develop and deploy a variety of web applications. That will help you evaluate ColdFusion development services providers better.

Some of the Easy yet Powerful Development Capabilities provided by ColdFusion 10

1. Advantages of Java Libraries: The updated version of the rapid web application development platform is designed by integrating Java and ColdFusion. So you can load the Java libraries directly from custom paths without restarting the server. At the same time, you also have options to enhance your productivity by invoking ColdFusion components (CFCs) from Java. Also, you can create dynamic proxies from individual CFCs, and use these as Java objects.

2. Easy to Work with PDF Documents: Most web applications, nowadays, use PDF documents to share relevant information with users. But developers often have to write lengthy code to integrate PDF documents in their application. ColdFusion 10 allows you to work with PDF files efficiently without writing any extra code. You can also use the feature to easily add headers, footers, images and watermarks to the documents. Further, the data can be populated and retrieved from PDF forms, and also be shared with user by avoiding all types of security threats.

3. Enhanced Object Relational Mapping: Most developers find it a daunting task to develop and manage applications that are not dependent on databases. ColdFusion 10 supports enhanced object relational mapping that enables you to built and manage database-independent application without writing SQL queries. You can use named SQL queries and stored procedure to run the database-independent applications in a smooth and flexible way. Also, you can use the SQL logging options to obtain improved debug information.

4. Language and Script Enhancements: ColdFusion 10 further makes it easier for developers to build robust web application through script and language enhancements. A programmer can easily learn, and use tag-based CFML to build comprehensive web applications within a short span of time. The updated version also comes with enhanced support for CFSCRIPT. It also offers language enhancement to optimize the quality and readability of your code. At the same time, the language enhancements also enable you to use auto-constructor to initialize CFC properties, closures to have better control on your code, and CFC method chaining to boost your coding efficiency.

5. Rich Ajax User Interface Controls: Ajax UI controls are commonly used by web application developers to boost the user experience. So you may be looking for faster and convenient ways to use advanced Ajax user interface controls. ColdFusion 10 allows you to use a wide variety of these controls through CFML tags and attributes. At the same time, the client-side Ajax applications can be smoothly associated with ColdFusion components on the web server. These controls enable developers to make their internet applications more intuitive and compelling without putting any extra time and effort.

6. Adobe ColdFusion Builder Integration: Adobe has further included ColdFusion Builder, an IDE designed based on Eclipse to boost the experience of ColdFusion application developers. You can avail the integrated server management and enhanced functionality as CMFL extensions. With the ColdFusion Builder, you can accelerate the internet application development using a set of functions like code assist, code formatting, code insight, color coding, code snippets and quick fix.

7. Improved File System and Navigation: Most programmers look for advanced virtual file system to develop websites without frequent input/output calls. ColdFusion 10 allows generating dynamic virtual files, and getting these executed directly from FTP, memory, and ZIP or JAR files. At the same time, the XPath integration makes it easier for you to native through XML documents quickly. The built-in XSLT integration can also be used to convert your XML documents into XHTML and Xforms.

A developer can further choose the features and functionalities to meet the specific needs of his web applications. But the advanced features will make it easier for programmers to easily develop applications for clients belonging to different industries and regions.

We provide ColdFusion application development services. If you would like to talk to one of our certified ColdFusion programmers, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.