Data-driven decision-making, insightful operations, remote monitoring, and a lot more is driving enterprises to partner with an IoT development company to digitize their operations. This is prominently why innovation has been leading the front, evolving it from theoretical concept into a mode of working.
However, to make sure the IoT development initiatives don’t lose speed and deliver the right value, organizations need to hire iot software development team. With every development studio claiming to be the best, choosing is daunting. Let’s help you figure out the factors that can help you find the best IoT development company for your project.
Let’s get started to discuss them one by one.
Table of Contents
1. Area of IoT Development Expertise and USP
The first thing to look for is the expertise and USP of the IoT development company. You might also want to look at the types of services they offer. Expertise doesn’t just include hardware and software development, but it goes beyond that. It also includes their ability to add value to your project. An expert IoT development company holds in-depth knowledge about various domains and industries challenges other businesses in your industry face and how they can help you address those challenges. They also know briefly about your target audience and what kind of investment in IoT development can help you. You can also see if their expertise is backed by the industry experts.
All this brings in the right mix of talent, expertise and practices that translates to value-addition for your project.
2. Portfolio of Past Projects to Understand the Quality They Deliver
Check the website of the IoT development company to analyze their past projects. Start with analyses of their customers’ common problems and how the IoT development company addressed them with their services. Ask for a demo of their current project to understand their focus on quality. Pay close attention to evaluate the experience delivered by the solution. Investing time in assessing these aspects helps you get insights into how well they understand their customers. Analyze if the technologies they have implemented make sense to the current industry trends and if they have a certified team in the advanced technology.
In a nutshell, you would want to rate them based on the following metrics:
- Types of the IoT development projects delivered by them
- The number and scale of clients they have served
- Complexity of the IoT projects handled by them
- User experience delivered by their applications
- IoT development tech stack they excel at
- Portfolio of the previous IoT projects specific to your niche
- What kind of value addition did they provide to the past project?
3. Testimonials and Reviews of Past Clients
You cannot just choose an IoT development company for its services. You also need good customer experience delivered by them. Everyone says they are the best- you need the one that offers the best client experience. Try finding their clients to ensure you don’t fall prey to the expensive market tactics. Check the recognition achieved by them on genuine review websites such as Clutch.co, Goodfirms, etc. To what their clients have to talk about them. You can also connect with some of these clients and find a way to know about their IoT development capabilities and how they can add value to your product. Ask them to rate the communication experience. After all, you must stay updated with the project’s progress every time.
4. IoT Development Process Followed by the Company
Companies follow different methodology for IoT development. While some IoT development companies are working on traditional waterfall models, others have switched to agile methodology, while some others leverage a mix of both these. There are benefits to each of them, but agile methodology has been proven to deliver a better long-term value. With an average failure rate of only 8%, agile helps brands make IoT development process smoother for the customers and ensure high satisfaction ratio. A survey also indicates that over 68% of the organizations believe that agile methodology makes the development process faster.
General steps of agile IoT development includes the following steps:
Step 1: IoT consulting to helps brands highlight the areas of focus they are missing
Step 2: Scope freezing with business analysts and project teams
Step 3: UI/ UX engineering
Step 4: Product design and development
Step 5: QA and testing
Step 6: Deployment
Step 7: Post-launch support
Make sure you communicate your requirements clearly in order to ensure that your expectations are met and the end result aligns with your goals.
Also Read- IoT Software Development: A Complete Guide
5. Range of Engagement Models You Can Choose From
Engagement models are the mode of operation between you and the company. Generally, an IoT development company offers a wide range of options to choose from. You can make a choice based on your requirements and the level of engagement you need. Let’s discuss the most popular options:
a. Turnkey Engagement Model
Also known as the fixed price engagement model, the turnkey model works in way that once you have stated the requirements, the company offers a fixed price for the same. This price is mutually agreed upon at the initial stage after scope freezing.
You can choose turnkey hiring solutions if you have one of the following requirements:
- Short-term project
- Projects with a well-defined scope
- For assigning test tasks to the developers
b. Time and Material Basis Model
The name mostly makes it clear. In this level of engagement, you pay the IoT development company based on the resources you hire. They generally charge you at the mutually agreed hourly rate. The service provider raises an invoice at regular intervals based on the contract and the resources you have chosen. Time and material model is the right choice if you have one of the following requirements:
- You are still unclear about the scope
- Have a long-term project with dynamic needs
- You need more flexibility
c. Dedicated Hiring Model
Dedicated hiring model is suitable if you want to hire a dedicated team for your IoT project. The payment is made on a time and material basis. You can choose the IoT development resources based on your needs and pay at the mutually agreed rate. Service provider raises and invoices at regular intervals. You can choose dedicated hiring model if you:
- are looking to extend the in-house development team
- having unclear project requirements
- want more flexibility
6. IoT Development Team Structure Offered
If you are looking for comprehensive IoT development experience, you need to understand if the company offers you a wide range of resources. Ask the company to share the CV of resources working on your project and choose the ones you like the most. Generally, team composition for an IoT development project includes:
- IoT consultants
- Project manager
- Product design experts
- Hardware developers
- Software developers
- QA tester and engineer
7. Ability to Help You Stay Relevant in Technological Industry
Launching an IoT product is not the final stage. It is in fact where you need to start with the value addition. You could want to use data for most insightful decision-making, or put it to more uses. Often products that are not regularly upgraded become obsolete quickly and lose their market grip. This often leads you to stay behind the competition curve and some one or the other takes over. The solution is to hire an IoT development company that helps you stay updated.
You need someone who stays abreast of the current industry trends and makes sure to keep you abreast as well. Make sure to consider this while hiring the IoT development company.
8. Post Launch Support and Value-Added Services
Although you may not pay much heed to it during product design and development, post-launch support and value-added IoT development services are equally important while assessing the IoT development company. Let’s discuss both aspects in detail.
a. Post-launch Support
Applications hit runtime snags even if they have been developed by the most efficient and expert IoT development company. These bugs not just impact the user experience in the long run, but also affect the company’s bottom line. To make sure that this doesn’t cause hiccups in your success journey.
This can be well eliminated if you hire an IoT development company with the best post-launch services in place. While some companies offer complementary post-launch support for over 30-60 days, other’s policies may be different. You can also hire the company on a contract basis to take care of techno as aspects of your IoT application in the long run.
b. Value-Added Services
IoT product launch is not the end- we said it once and we’ll say it again. You need someone to tell you what more you can do with your data and product. Make sure to hire an expert IoT development company who can go beyond by offering services such as AI/ ML development, legacy system modernization, etc.
Take-Home Message
The world has evolved so much. Organizations don’t just compete against each other- they are competing against the brands who are already leveraging advanced technologies like AI/ ML, IoT, IIoT, Blockchain, and more. Still being on the fence only causes your business to lose significant business. Having the right technology partner is critical to your success. They offer you the right expertise as well as direction you need. Rate the IoT development companies you shortlist based on the metrics we shared and choose the one which is evident to deliver long-term value for your project.
We, at Matellio, help you discover the right technology mixed with a process that’s proven to contribute to our customers’ growth. Our specialized IoT teams combine the best acumen in mobility, web and custom ERP systems development that helps you identify gaps in your processes and address them with cutting-edge technology. Our state-of-the-art product design and development labs are well equipped to develop IoT applications that optimize the workflow and bring long-term value to your organization.
We are proud of the IoT development capabilities we have that include:
- Infrastructural competence to create advanced IoT hardware and software applications
- Experience in IoT development for diverse industries
- Certified teams that excel in futuristic technology stack
- Secure data management policies
- Support for legacy and advanced devices
- High performing analytics and data collection
Reach out to our team to discuss your goals with IoT development and we’ll build the solution that will help you achieve those goals. Share your requirements right away!
