What Every Business Needs to Know About Managed Development Services

• Working with managed development service providers gives you the ability to scale up or down based on your needs, helping reduce costs while alleviating the time crunch involved with delivering high-quality, innovative, customized apps.
• If you want to be a successful founder — and not flounder — consider how these services can reduce the stress of creating and delivering apps by outsourcing an entire team of highly skilled, affordable, and curated remote global talent.
• Businesses can attract investors and accelerate their time-to-market by creating Minimum Viable Products (MVPs). Uber, Dropbox, and Airbnb all started out as an MVP.

One of the most common phrases in project management is “good, fast and cheap – pick two.” However, when it comes to developing new software apps, if you modify that expression slightly to “good, fast, and most affordable,” you can achieve all three objectives at once. To make that happen for projects or even longer-term initiatives, be sure to consider the many advantages available when outsourcing managed development services that use skilled, global, remote teams tailored to your requirements.

Let’s do the math and begin with most affordable

It’s obvious how today’s economic conditions are causing businesses to struggle with cost control while trying to develop new products. In March 2022, according to Forbes, the federal funds interest rates ranged from a mere .25 to .5%, and by March 2023, it soared as high as 5%. This huge jump in rates is making it even more challenging to get bank loans or attract investors. And when you think about inflation (have you noticed the high price of cars and groceries lately?) this situation intensifies the need to find ways to deliver products and services with tight budgets and timelines. 

If your organization has a small staff, it’s much more cost effective to bring on skilled, experienced, and vetted global, remote freelancers to manage an entire project so that the business owners can focus on what they do well, instead of getting bogged down with the technology. With outsourcing, you only pay for services when you need them. In addition, you don’t have all the overhead and training associated with hiring in-house employees. Outsourcing can reduce the overall project development cost by 25% or even much more, while also having the potential to cut the time to delivery in half.

How many developers you need can vary based on the scope and complexity of a project. You might need three developers for a simple application, while a larger team of developers, designers, and a project manager might be required for a much more complex one.

The labor rates for highly skilled global talent are also significantly more affordable than in the US. Hourly rates for software developers in Europe, for example, can range from about $30 to $50+ per hour, depending on their experience and location.

High-quality talent and experience = good 

When you use a company that provides managed development talent for your project, especially if it involves Web3 technologies, you should be able to have a fully trained, qualified, and vetted team in place much faster than if you try to recruit people on your own. Team members should have experience working on a variety of projects and provide the specialized skills you need that aren’t available in-house.

Working with managed development service providers gives you the ability to scale up or down based on your needs. And, because they’re outsourced, you don’t need to worry about rising employee resignation rates or where they are geographically located. 

Whether you’re at the beginning of a development process or a bit further along, managed development services can play a key role in discovery, planning, development, and even ongoing maintenance. They can also help reduce risk by guaranteeing quality and ensuring compliance. 

Creating a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Quickly and Accelerating Recruitment = Fast

There are so many new apps on the market competing for limited investor resources. And the more features you add, the more time and money it requires to get a product to market. Creating a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) with just the necessary features reduces development costs. It allows businesses to be more agile and test it with a smaller group of customers (early adopters) to help ensure savings before launching a full-scale product. Sometimes creating an MVP may only require a few months from start to finish.

Companies that offer managed development services should be in a great position to provide the expertise, processes, and technologies to meet business demands, and give a competitive edge while getting your products to market much faster. It’s interesting to note that although startups have adopted the MVP approach for testing and validating apps, larger companies are also embracing it. 

In fact, many popular businesses today began as an MVP. Examples include Dropbox, the cloud storage and file sharing service, along with Airbnb, which first tested out its services with a website and some listings in San Francisco. Even Uber began as an MVP by creating an app that allowed users to request a ride by tapping a button. They tested it, gathered feedback, and expanded to other cities. 

The Future of Managed Development

Good, fast, and most affordable could become the new mantra for managed development services, especially for businesses seeking to outsource an entire development team. This approach gives businesses the chance to maximize the advantages of outsourcing by accessing specialized experts, reducing costs, and scaling as needed. They can achieve these results quickly and effectively, attract investors, and bring a product to market without having to create and closely manage internal teams.