According to a study, the healthcare IT market size is expected to grow by USD 95.98 billion during 2020-2024 with incredible momentum in the forecast period.
And why not? Technology has been proving incredibly transformative for the healthcare realm. Changing industry demands for better efficiency and automation combined with a worldwide focus on better patient care are the fundamental driving forces in this revolution.
If you are a healthcare brand that is keen on joining this revolution by building a healthcare software of your own, there’s no way you could get your plans in the right direction without hiring a healthcare software development company. But how do you find one?
Let’s identify the steps here in the following parts of the blog.
First of all, Why Do you Need a Healthcare Software Development Company?
The first question that most of us encounter are- why to choose a healthcare software development company rather than having your talented team or probably going for hiring freelance developers who get the job done at much lesser prices. Well, here are the reasons highlighted for you.
1. To Have Full Control on Your Work
2. Efficient Risk Handling
3. Extensive Expertise and Team of Professionals
4. Reliable Cooperation for Long-Term
1. To Have Full Control on Your Work
Working freelancers may fine initially, but once you kickoff, there are many shortfalls to look at. Lack of management and lose grip on your work are two of them. Most of these independent developers lack proper infrastructure in terms of software licenses, machines, and expertise. However, that’s not the case with healthcare software development companies.
With everything in place, they offer you cutting-edge software solutions backed by proper management. They assign dedicated project managers who act as your point of contact and ensure that you are updated on your project’s progress at all the time.
2. Efficient Risk Handling
With independent software developers (no matter how experienced and skilled they are), you are always under the risk. You could any day receive a message that they have better projects to work on, or informing about the extra workload that they may have. Worse, there could be goodbyes even without formal notice.
Thankfully, there’s no such case with a healthcare software development company. Whether it is that their resources are leaving or they have an extra workload to handle, they have a better backup plan available for you. They never run out of the resources and ensure that quality is delivered without any compromises.
3. Extensive Expertise and Team of Professionals
Hiring an individual only lets you appoint someone with limited skillset. No one can be master of all trades, after all. For example, if you hire a custom software developer and require IoT integration in the future, you might have to reinvent the wheel and start from scratch. That’s not the case with hiring a healthcare software development company. They offer a full-cycle software development experience while aligning the solution to your changing requirements. Moreover, your team comprises technology experts, including software developers, UI/ UX experts, QA engineers, and more.
4. Reliable Cooperation for Long-Term
For freelance software developers, finishing off one task is always to pick the next projects as soon as possible. However, that’s not an approach that healthcare software development company follows. They offer a full cycle of high-quality services that take care of everything. Best is, they focus on delivering quality rather than just finishing off the job.
And, How to Choose a Healthcare Software Development Company?
Once you have made up your mind to work with a healthcare software development company, here’s how you can do it.
1. Analyze their Area of Expertise and their Experience as a Healthcare Software Developer
No matter how complex your demands are, quality can never be compromised. Not to forget, there are many standards and compliance requirements like HIPPA, HIS, and more that need to be catered to. However, hiring a naive healthcare solution provider doesn’t solve the problem for you.
You need to dig deeper into their experience and area of expertise. An experienced team offering you healthcare technology consulting services can deliver your project with in-depth expertise and knowledge in their domain. Moreover, they understand the critical needs of customers in the healthcare domain and would ensure a product that closely meets their demands.
However, that doesn’t sideline the value of their overall experience and expertise as a company. Once you have made sure of their knowledge as a healthcare solution developer, it’s time to glance through their certifications and similar aspects to take a more in-depth look at their professionalism. The technical management in software development companies has a series of past achievements, the best in class technical talent, and internationally experienced management.
2. Go Through Their Healthcare Software Development Portfolio to Get a Better Idea of Projects and Quality
At the initial stage, carefully delve into the portfolio of the potential healthcare software development company. Go through their samples of past projects into the healthcare realm and check if it matches your requirements. Find about their market reputation and reach, or do they even serve the organizations in your niche.
Here are the key takeaways from the portfolio for you:
- Types of healthcare software they have delivered in the past
- Clients they have served- names, strength, and value
- Complexity of projects they’ve handled
- The kind of experience they provide to the users
- Technologies they excel in
Experience and expertise mix can prove to be a big game-changer. Consider their portfolio and find out their industrial experience. How quickly can they understand your needs and requirements? What tools and technologies do they use? If standard tools are what they use- consider yourself one step closer to the goal.
3. Reviews and Ratings Could Be Helpful
Talk to the customers of the healthcare software development company and find out what they have to say. Understand how they deal with clients and if they can cater to the demands. Go through the reviews and ratings about them and analyze them.
4. Carefully Understand their Process
There could be multiple methods that a healthcare technology service provider could implement to build custom software for you. Most prominent steps include:
Step 1: Requirement analysis
Step 2: Scope freezing
Step 3: Product prototyping
Step 4: Product development
Step 5: QA and testing
Step 6: Deployment
Step 7: Post-launch support
However, this necessary process could be on agile or waterfall principles. Make sure you have got the healthcare software development company explained each part of the process to you. Understand how it aligns with your goals in the long run, and don’t hesitate from clearing your doubts.
Also Read- AI Healthcare Software Development: Benefits, Features and Development Process
5. Know the Cost to Develop a Healthcare Software
Cost- is essential.
Every client has a budget in mind before they approach software development, and so you must. Make sure you have communicated your budget to the software development company and talk to them about the cost to build the software. See what charges shall be borne by you and what would be the cost to quality ratio.
Make an informed decision only after you have received all the information that you needed.
6. Understand the Engagement Models to Choose the Best
Generally speaking, engagement models are the modes of cooperation that you need to choose before you commit to a corporate relationship. There are multiple engagement models a company follows. You could possibly choose from:
i. Turnkey Engagement Model
The turnkey engagement model or the fixed price model says that you need to share your business requirements, and you would get a fixed quote for your work.
The model is perfect for:
- Short-term projects
- Projects with a well-defined scope
- For assigning test tasks to the developers
ii. Time and Material Basis Model
The model facilitates hiring based on time and material. That is, the client agrees to hire a web development company based on the time spent by the service provider in various tasks and pays according to the mutually agreed hourly rate.
The model suits you when:
- Unclear requirements or specifications,
- A long-term project with dynamic pricing
- Client needs more flexibility
iii. Dedicated Hiring Model
As the name suggests, it enables you to hire dedicated developers from the web development company. One can hire a web development company for your project, depending on the number of hours spent by the developers on your project. This model is best suited for:
- Clients who are looking for an extension to their in-house team
- Those who have unclear project requirements
- The hirer is looking for more flexibility
7. Find out What Does the Web Development Company Has to Offer Post-launch
You are genuinely mistaken if you feel that the launch of your software product is the end of the healthcare software development cycle. Talking as an expert- it is just the beginning.
There are chances of hitting runtime snags anytime. And not to forget, the changes in market paradigms in terms of technology and user demands. What else? You could want more features in the software anytime, and software upgrades are simply inevitable.
For all such needs, you would need a healthcare software development company by your side. There could be brands that offer 1 or 2 months of complimentary support and maintenance services, and there could also be the ones who provide it on specific terms and conditions.
Before you decide on hiring the custom healthcare software development company, make sure you know the support and maintenance services offered by them. What price it comes at and what other aspects need to be taken care of.
8. What is the Team Structure that They Would Provide You?
Make sure you know what team structure they would assign to your project. Interview the potential team and understand well if they are capable of doing justice to your project.
Generally, you would need:
- Requirement analyst
- Project manager
- UI/UX designer
- Software developer
- QA tester and engineer
But that’s not just it. Have your requirements stated clearly and make sure the healthcare software development company can do justice with your project.
9. Healthcare Software Development Company’s Ability to Assist You For Expanding Your Software’s Features
Arguably, the ultimate goal of having a dedicated software for your healthcare brand is to enhance your operations, automate them, make them more efficient, and of course, to renew the patient experience you offer.
Therefore, it is a MUST for you to check whether the healthcare software development company can expand the software based on your requirements.
Also Read- How is IoT Revolutionizing the Healthcare Industry?
Matellio- Your Reliable Healthcare Software Development Friend
No matter what quality metrics you use to assess a healthcare software development company, we are sure to make a mark on the same. With a highly efficient team, the right mix of experience, streamlined processes, healthcare software development expertise, and much more, Matellio is one of the most reliable development partners. Having build various categories of healthcare software, we understand the needs and requirements of your healthcare brands in and out to ensure the best customer experience. Find out why more than 1000 businesses trust us by booking a consultation call with us right away.
