An enterprise project differs from standard web or app development. The enterprise application becomes a core of the business with heightened security requirements, specific operational needs, thousands of internal users, and more.
Also, an enterprise usually stores tons of data, which requires specific approaches to storage, security, compliance, and using it for machine learning to build external or internal tools. That is why enterprises should seek tech vendors that also provide data analytics consulting services.
In this article, we shall discuss how an enterprise software development project differs from a typical one and which criteria to consider when looking for a tech vendor for an enterprise project.
Let’s get started!
What Makes Enterprise Web Development Different?
A vendor that develops an enterprise business application has to be ready to become a long-term partner for the company, understand its specific needs, be proficient in the niche or at least have an idea of the specific industry requirements, be aware of how to speak with investors and the board, and much more.
The very first difference lies in the technical complexity of the project. An enterprise system needs to handle multiple integrations and consist of numerous units.
Separately, we should mention AI integration, data pipelines, and machine learning. If an enterprise plans to implement any AI tool internally or externally, it requires a specific data architecture.
Unlike typical websites, these systems must be reliable under heavy traffic and unpredictable circumstances, and comply with much stricter industry regulations.
Additionally, an enterprise software development project requires substantial financial investment, and the vendor must be able to speak to the enterprise board to justify and explain spending, as well as the long-term business outcomes of each technological decision.
As we see, the differences are considerable, and not every technology company can handle enterprise software development as well as a typical software tool development.
Below, we describe how to speak with technology vendors to determine whether the team can run an enterprise software development project in your niche. Hopefully, this set of tips will be useful for business owners, top managers, and CTOs planning enterprise software development.
Tip#1: Speak Business, Not Technology
Although conversations about software development typically start with tech stacks, it is better to start with business goals.
The first point to discuss is which business processes such an application should improve, how it should look, what it should do, and how. Based on those needs, a tech vendor should advise on the choice of technology. Some technologies are better for streamlining and fast operations, while others are tuned for security, making the system almost impossible to hack.
A proficient vendor should be able to analyze your needs and handpick tech stacks that best fit them. They should be able to explain why this technology choice is the best and provide a clear vision of the trade-offs.
In other words, they should give you a comprehensive picture of the tech possibilities, so that you can make a weighted decision on which features to prioritize, and which are not so important.
Tip#2: Look For Enterprise Experience
Industry experience matters a lot. If the team has already done enterprise projects or similar work, they can be good advisors on which tech routes to follow to avoid issues, and if issues arise, they should be able to solve them faster.
Also, if the team has already worked on an enterprise project, they should develop the products more quickly.
Here’s what to ask about: whether the company had experience dealing with large customer databases, complex workflows, data infrastructure, API development, third-party integrations, security and compliance, and long-term product evolution.
Tip#3: Access Their Project Management Process
This is one of the most important points to discuss.
An enterprise tech development team should be able to speak with the board. If a typical website development communication is often spontaneous and happens in the form of frequent Zoom calls or Slack chats, enterprise communication should have more structure, discipline, and math.
A project manager or an executive on the enterprise side should report the project process to the board and other departments, so the tech team should create a schedule for reporting, chats, and calculations on the project’s completeness. They should speak numbers.
It is a good practice to ask your potential vendor to describe how they structure communication.
Tip#4: Evaluate Their Technical Expertise
Enterprise development requires knowledge across different technological disciplines. Your future tech partner should be proficient in the following areas:
- Scalable architecture: enterprise applications should be able to grow without requiring a complex rebuild.
- Cloud infrastructure: as many enterprises require moving part or all of their operations to the cloud, the development team should understand cloud-native deployment and infrastructure management, as well as deploying and building infrastructure on-premises.
- Security: enterprise applications manage a lot of confidential information, so it makes sense to ask the tech team about data encryption, secure coding practices, vulnerability management, and more.
Summing up
Since enterprise software development is a complex project that not every team can handle, it is very important to develop a clear vision for your future product and to check whether the vendor fully understands it.