A website has to deliver smooth performance across platforms, while also being easy to navigate and delivering the right “branding” message. It also needs to use the right software architecture, which is a major challenge in custom software development. An architect designs a custom home with various realities in mind, beyond the customer’s budget. What is the climate? What are the building codes? Will the buyer need room to grow or expand the home? Custom software is the same. Before you hire a custom software development company, you want to ask some questions about the architecture they can deliver and the software experience they have.
What Is Your Experience with Back-End Software?
For example, if you are a Salesforce user now, do they have experience with that marketing platform and tools commonly used with it. You want to know if, for example, the developer has worked with HubSpot before, if that’s what runs most of your digital marketing efforts now.
What Is Your Experience with Integrating Various Software Products?
Do they have experience working with an existing software ecosystem such as HubSpot Marketing Professional plus SquareSpace and PayPal, Salesforce, SurveyMonkey, EventBrite, PandaDoc, and many others? If you are getting a new custom site designed, be sure the developers have experience with the business tools you need to keep using together.
How Much Experience Do You Have with APIs?
In almost every case, a developer can rely on an application programming interface (API) to connect pieces of business software both to each other and to your website. Many of these integrations work through an API, probably most of them. Ask about their API experience because that’s often crucial in custom software development. Cloud computing experience is kind of important too.
How Much Experience Do You Have with Cloud Development?
Any modern site except the simplest is going to draw on cloud-based databases or apps to deliver at least part of the user experience. In that case, it comes down to the firm having experience with that API. Some custom development jobs will require custom work but either way, making multiple pieces of software work together seamlessly. The same questions could apply to BigCommerce, HubSpot, and so on. Unless your business is mostly analog now, you’ll have at least one or two pieces of software that need to be integrated with the website. If you want your site to integrate with the very popular HubSpot Marketing Professional tools, that adds more complexity to the site’s architecture. So, now is the time to get clear about what you really need and why.
Do You Know What You Need?
You know part of the answer because you’ve decided to get a new or redesigned site for your business. This brings up some architecture and design questions you might want to answer before looking for a developer. If you need a revamped site, you probably want to think about questions like:
• What is not working on our current site?
• What new software or apps do we need to integrate into the site?
• What’s working just as it should?
• What challenges or opportunities are we taking on with this redesign?
• How important is it to make this site accessible to people with hearing or visual impairments?
You might have recently upped your digital marketing game with HubSpot and BigCommerce or just one of them, for example. Designing a site with maximum accessibility in mind adds another layer of complexity to a standard website; in other words, it isn’t as easy as making a site look good on a smartphone.
Work with the Experts on Site Architecture and Custom Software
In brief, make sure the software architecture your developer uses will support your current and future growth needs with high performance and adequate security. Do you need a new site that plays well with BigCommerce and HubSpot Marketing Professional? You also want to be sure the architecture supports any apps or programs that your business would use with that custom software. The same is also true for customer-facing software. If you need custom software development done to meet your current or future business goals, get in touch with 245TECH to set up a 15-minute discovery call.
