The trend of offshore services or nearshore services has provided financial respite to many businesses situated in expensive locations reeling under the stress of escalating costs. Software development processes are also being distributed to offshore teams located in cheap economic zones. However this is creating challenges in collaboration amongst the distributed teams and hindering the culmination of a successful project.

The difference in time, distance and cultures are the main reasons for collaboration issues that plague the nearshore and offshore development services. Incompatibility between the distributed teams affects communication adversely and all controls on the project are lost resulting in a poor performance. High levels of collaboration, coordination and awareness is required to ensure that the software developed is proficiently developed, tested and delivered to the customers without any reasons for complaints.

It is imperative that you hire a competent team for distributed software development projects irrespective of your choice of offshore or nearshore development services. The team that displays convincing capabilities at every stage can be trusted wholly to turn your visions into reality. They must ensure that the best and experienced project execution engineers are on board so that their industry expertise can be utilized productively for developing high quality software products cost-effectively.

The distributed software development team leverages real-time collaboration and provides you with enhanced visibility on the status of the project. They deploy integrated business intelligence tools that have the capability to detect factors that hinder a smooth application lifecycle management, and address the issues effectively.

They provide you with real-time end-to-end traceability reports through intuitive dashboards that facilitate you to view the entire process and support you to make critical business decisions. The professionals provide you with valuable customer research services so that you can understand the needs of your customers correctly, plan your strategies based on these priorities and raise the customer satisfaction levels with your performances.

The distributed software development operation entails a lot more complexities in comparison to the normal operations. Thus you have to make your decisions with a clear and practical perspective. You cannot risk any situations that may either cause delays or poor deliveries. You need the assistance of professionals that can help develop credible products without raising your costs or causing any distasteful aftereffects. Professional teams have the knowledge, experience and skills to provide you with the best solutions that give you a competitive edge in the market and elevate your position.



Also read on - business intelligence tools, Application lifecycle management
 
 
In this competitive and aggressive market, where every brand is working hard and smart to outshine other market players customer research plays a very important role in helping brands securing their position. At the same time, this helps to gain high returns and retain a positive brand image. A thorough customer research that is conducted on service, loyalty and customer satisfaction can make a great difference in the business.

Furthermore, in this fast paced world is it very important to concentrate on initiatives that help to find out relevant and essential news about clients, their buying habits, demands, potential customers and the like. If an enterprise is able to understand the thinking procedure that makes a probable buyers think whether to buy or not buy a product, then it can effectively manage its sales effectiveness methods. Therefore, customer mindset and behavior is of paramount importance.

When it comes to business customers, you need to have a clear idea about on the size and success of the business and the sectors that are frequently dealt with. This will further let you know the audience who would purchase your product. When it comes to individual customers, it is important to have a customer research program for being able to find out essential details such as age, gender, preferences and attitudes, income bracket, lifestyle, occupation and the like.

Eminent companies specializing in Product R& D Services today have introduced innovative customer research solutions. These solutions enable organizations to have a better understanding of the audience mindset. The innovative techniques used provide the customers with the very foundation for an ongoing collaboration when used on a daily basis. Furthermore, other integrated techniques allow clients to involve their respective stakeholders in product planning and trace new product features via the development lifecycle. The core focus areas are as follows:-
  • Customer Requirements
  • Product Requirements
  • Product Usage / Features
  • Future Products
  • Pricing Models

Though product companies are aware that they have to be always connected with their target audience and other prospective clients, so that they can be ahead of their competitors and other requirements, there are few who lacks efficient procedures in making frequent, unfiltered, high-value customer research interactions with the purchasing sections. This continuous collaboration helps the enterprises to develop a clear idea about the user needs and is further able to keep a tab on the customer trends. This becomes even more important for the ecommerce enterprises if they are planning to resort to innovative ecommerce solutions.



Read on - Agile lifecycle management, Application lifecycle management
 
 
Globalization and business requirements in an aggressively competitive world demands for the development of a number of technologically enabled services and software. To cater for such requirements, organizations either need to increase the strength of professionals in their workforce or need to outsource the work to external organizations with the expertise in the field. However, the development and vast use of Internet has led to the integration of web applications in the business process paving way for the organizations to make use of virtual teams.

A virtual or a geographically distributed team is made up of members who work across organizational and geographical boundaries and different time zones. For these distributed software development teams, communication is the key and needs to be well connected through corporate networks or the Internet. The team members though distantly located work on the same project or product. For the organizations, involved in product R&D services, the distributed development teams are reason for proximity to customers, work clusters or cost advantages.

The array of software development projects undertaken by organizations for various web development services also requires deep expertise and understanding of the market trends and latest technologies. One way of acquiring this is through the use of offshore development services. Web development services like mobile application development services, customized application development and payment gateway integration are taken up by the offshore development services teams.

These geographically distributed teams irrespective of being part of offshore or nearshore development services, offer the organizations advantages such as improved productivity, knowledge transfer and greater market position. Nevertheless, these teams are not away from challenges such as lack of communication and poor leadership besides n incompetent team member.  However, with technological evolution, the networked teams can stay connected through threaded discussions, web conferencing, instant messages and blogs besides sharing the repositories.

The leaders in the field of application lifecycle management have designed and developed agile methods for a faster product R&D service at a global level irrespective of the type of application With the teams distributed around the globe, combining the agile methodology with the top of the line PLM tools helps distributed software development teams deliver quality products.  The collaborative platform and its framework facilitate a quicker product lifecycle completion, while bringing around a 30% reduction in overhead costs.

The distributed software development becoming the trend in the globalized environment, it becomes necessary to ensure that every team member is equally responsible to achieve the project goal. With the help of scrum-based distributed R&D software and a platform of integrated open source tools for collaboration, tracking and end-to-end visibility of the product life cycle, it is possible to provide the developers real-time access to the developmental process.


Also read on - Application lifecycle management, Product lifecycle management
 
 
Technology is something that is always moving forward. There are numerous developments taking place in every sphere of technology. Mobiles are the widely used next generation device and its applications include the innovative technological advancement in this field. It is the popular surge of the demand for mobile applications that motivates the technical professionals to strategize the future of mobile application development.

Going by a study conducted by Global Intelligence Alliance recently the top three reasons why enterprises still prefer the native mobile applications are :-
  • Being able to set up high quality user interface
  • Being able to leverage well known established application store distribution channels
  • The requirement to access device hardware


This apart, the top three reasons why businesses go on with certain web technologies in case of mobile application development are:-
  • To be able to build high quality user interface
  • Cost benefits of offering one interface available on numerous environments
  • Having direct control over the distribution having no requirement to have a third party approval


Eminent companies specializing in software product development are today equipped with the apt procedures, tools and other level of expertise and experience to create mobile applications faster and in a cost-efficient manner. Some of their focus areas are as follows:-
  • Presence & Social Networking
  • Mobile VoIP
  • Gaming
  • Location-Based Services (LBS)
  • Messaging & Syncing
  • Mobile Media Streaming
  • Mobile Advertisement & Ad Engines


These companies also have the experience and skill for working with Level A enterprises and have been supporting them with valuable product lifecycle management solutions.

Selected mobile application development facilities are as follows:-
  • Developing mobile applications in J2ME, BREW, Android, iPhone, Symbian, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry
  • Conceptualizing mobile applications and eliciting requirements, for instance UI design, prototype, wireframes, user stories
  • Designing, developing and testing applications
  • Porting mobile applications between platforms and devices
  • Developing server-side and infrastructure, including for location & mapping services
  • Integrating third-party components on the server side, for instance SMS/MMS, billing, feeds, ads, content and many others
  • Integrating carrier, SMSC and billing systems, for instance LBS platform for location determination
  • Coordinating with carriers and device manufacturers for mobile application testing and certification, for instance NSTL, Java Verified
  • Launching and distributing mobile applications
  • Carrier Catalogs and Storefronts
  • Providing maintenance and support services


Click here to read more on - Mainframe services, Application lifecycle management
 
 
With successful SaaS applications becoming increasingly popular, many companies are experiencing lower front-end costs and no longer have to struggle with the time associated with implementing and managing licensed software. New technologies especially those that work with “cloud” computing are continuously providing companies with new ways to solve business problems.   Software as a Service application, also known on-demand software," does bring significant never-before-offered advantages for organizations looking for new financial, delivery and staffing alternatives related to business systems operations.

The owner of the system provides the IT support and all the hardware to host the enterprise wide application.  As a user, your business only needs to have a web browser and an internet connection to use the portion of the application relevant to your business. By implementing a SaaS application development a can enjoy a lot of benefits that include
  • Decrease in Costs


There is an overall reduction in the operational costs as choosing a SaaS model for your business removes the system licensing fees. Application or usage fees can be calculated on a periodic basis or by the actual amount of processing used. There is a decrease in the costs associated with maintenance charges and licensing fees.
  • Instant Deployment


This software is available wherever there is access to the internet. With the implementation not requiring any software installation, it can be used instantly with minimal involvement from IT.
  • Automated Upgrades


SaaS vendors are responsible for administering new releases as they also manage the entire upgrade process. With automatic upgrades happening, users are ensured of the latest versions of the software product development.
  • Built-In Support


The network comes with support services and disaster recovery, and therefore the time spent on managing the system is significantly reduced. Consequently there is a reduction in the time as well as a decrease in the fees associated with support.
  • Scalability Made Simple


With a SaaS model there is tremendous flexibility to change the number of users on demand as it is also very scalable. In a company that is developing there is the liberty of enhancing the number of users at any time as the software is being delivered as a service.

While SaaS information systems exist among all types of business applications, they have improved overall efficiencies associated with traditional software installation and maintenance. The SaaS model is becoming a very valuable component for today’s businesses, both large and small. Choose an efficient and trusted service provider who has the industry expertise to help your company design, architect and implement enterprise, consumer and carrier-scale cloud products.


Read more on - Advisory services, Application lifecycle management