2021

March 9, 2021

In-the-Know: How to Distinguish Between Software Product Development and Outsourced Projects

Being on the edge of technology is no longer a luxury, but a necessity for most businesses that require innovation; be it accounting, e-commerce, property management or education sectors. And sooner than later any business that requires a software product is going to face the dilemma: Do it in-house or outsource it altogether. This guide serves as a way of helping you search and distinguish between software product development and outsourced projects. And help you decide which would fit better to your needs.

What is Better: In-House Development or Outsourcing?

This is not a case of one size fits all. Every business requirements and expectations are different. An experienced company is very likely to go through the same dilemma as a startup because, for both of them, everything boils down to the same thing.

At this point, you’re probably looking for your product to be developed within budget and without any compromise on quality and on-time with your schedule. If you have an in-house IT team in place that just needs expansion in expertise: that’s the best-case scenario. You need to seek out highly experienced professionals that fit your company culture.

However, for a startup or a company that does not have a strong in-house IT presence, the predicament is very different.

Sourced candidates are more than two times as efficient than candidates who apply for a job themselves –
Survey

The Case for IT Sourcing

IT outsourcing is a frequent choice for many organizations, with outsourcing growth expected to projected at 5.84% every year. Outsourcing software development is an excellent solution for companies looking to expand their business into digital products and services and for companies looking to scale existing in-house development teams.

If you’re a startup with a tight budget, your preference would gravitate towards outsourcing at a low cost while ensuring high performance and rapid results. For companies building proof-of-concept or Minimum Viable Products (MVPs), this path is preferred. Most important of all is high-quality software development services that can help businesses meet the exact need of their customers.

Possible Reservations over Outsourcing

Developer Quality
Communication Challenges
Possibility of IP Theft
Lack of Business or Domain Knowledge

But that does not mean IT sourcing itself is problematic. It means that it pays more to do your due diligence.

If you’re wondering how to find the right fit for your business in a way that minimizes these risks, it’s a good idea to sit down and agree on KPIs, expectations and proactively see what risks you might encounter.

Are There Big Success Stories Based on Outsourcing?

Ever thought to yourself: How did 2 guys attending a conference in Paris founder Uber, a $17 billion company? Or how 3 people went from renting out their mattresses in their homes to founding a $10 billion unicorn? Both had something in common: they outsourced their work with perfection.

What Factors Should You Consider When Outsourcing Projects?

Companies that want to outsource their software product development have to keep a couple of factors into account while making this decision. This includes

Cost of Outsourcing Vs In-House Development
Understanding the Core Competencies of Outsourced Resources
The complexity of Your Product

Startups that outsource product development have to keep in mind a variety of factors before taking the plunge. However, to distinguish between software product development and outsourced projects requires a fine eye.

What if I want to opt for In-House Product Development?

In-House refers to the development of a product within a company instead of relying on outsourcing. The company has its own dedicated team that works on business activities or keeps a team for software development needs, in-house. In this type of staffing, the client reaches out for the needed experts that they might lack in their local market. Executed correctly, this type of development offers a high level of productivity.

Advantages of In-house Development

In-house development is the core of every software company and has always been favorite among decision makers, CEOs and managers. You build a team of your own employees, and assign them projects based on their expertise. Sounds good enough, right?

And as indicated, there are tons of advantages to this business model as well. Let’s discuss them one by one.

Complete Control — If you go for in-house development, you’ll have a complete check on quality delivery of the product. Also, you’ll have full control over the software development process and direct access to any of the team members required for the project. You can use your own team’s whole strength to get the things done and grow a separate development domain.
Trained Employees — Company can ensure that their in-house team of developers are trained to the requisite level. They are capable of performing all sorts of difficult tasks that makes them a tough competition for other companies who offer similar services.
High Stability –If one has built an in-house team of developers, there are higher chances of software development project stability and low chances of quitting the project halfway or misinterpreting critical project requirements.

Tip & Tricks

Be Communicative

The more information you will give to your members, the more conveniently they will be able to work. Try to impart as much context as possible. Since you have smart software developers, you should tell them what they must do instead of what they have to do. This can help them to work more effectively.

Explain Your Policies Better

Sometimes, the employees get double-minded by the manager’s decisions. In order to tackle the pressure & stress, it is better to explain your verdicts and policies precisely. Moreover, sometimes a manager makes decisions that people don’t agree with. Instead of changing your verdicts, you should explain why you decided this and what will be the influence of it on software development.

Reward Good Work

Another crucial tip to follow is to recognize hard work. Look out for your team who is working hard with devotion, and giving its best for the sake of the company. Appreciate that member in front of everyone, and reward accordingly. The more you will do for your team, the more your squad will do for you.

Still, want to know more? VAIVAL Technologies has in-house developers that are more than capable of building MVPs. And if it’s a custom software development company you’re looking for, reach out to us here to talk to our experts.

Read More

Mobile Application Development

John Parker

March 9, 2021

Blockchain & Supply Chain — How Does One Work For The Other?

Looking at blockchain at its current state, it becomes pretty clear that at one point or the other, it is going to see a surge in its usage in the supply chain. Particularly for driving supply chain transparency up.

The supply chain has been that one area where opportunities present themselves time and time again for gradual improvement. Blockchain is no exception: it has the potential to improve traceability and transparency while reducing the administrative overhead at the same time.

A blockchain-based supply chain can help everyone that partakes in the process to record measurable analytics that can help manage the supply chain effectively:

Quality
Location
Certification
Price
Date
And much more

The ever-present nature of this information on a blockchain is a counter to many contemporary problems: traceability of material, counterfeiting, compliance problems, curbing grey market, and responsible manufacturing.

Source: Deloitte, blockchain & supply chain

Ever since the first implementation of blockchain, the Bitcoin, financial services have been experimenting right and left with blockchain. As early as 2015, Chain, a blockchain startup co-ventured by NASDAQ and OMX Inc was launched to test share trading on the private market. Meanwhile, Visa, Commonwealth Bank (Australia), Royal Bank of Scotland and a score of UK’s high street banks have all announced that they’re coming up with their own proof-of-concept based on blockchain.

Leverage our case studies to know more about how we can help your business utilize blockchain

So what are the main benefits of using blockchain in a supply-chain context?

Improve traceability of the supply chain to make sure set standards are met
Reduce losses from counterfeiting
Ensure compliance in case of overseas manufacturing
Decrease paperwork and administrative overhead.

Blockchain ledger is safe because each block of transactions links back to the previous annotated block, making tampering impossible.

Are there any secondary benefits to using blockchain in the supply chain?

Improve corporate reputation by only sourcing out the right materials used in production.
Provide the public with credible data sharing
Decrease chances of PR risk arising from malpractices.
Improve stakeholder confidence.

Blockchain & Supply chain can provide better end-to-end tracking in certain scenarios. Organizations can put the records of their assets on a digital ledger thereby creating decentralized (and most importantly immutable) transactions from production to receiving by end-user. This is only possible via the increased transparency that blockchain provides.

Worldwide Blockchain in the supply chain market is valued at $253 million (2020 figures)

Using blockchain can reduce fraud specifically in industries that are either critical or have had a track record of problems in supply chain: pharmaceuticals and diamonds. It could also help companies understand how materials go to every contractor and where the profit-margins can be increased.

Aside from increasing profits, blockchain puts spotlight over quality control as well. Businesses can now gain more control over outsourced manufacturing (which is more susceptible to quality laxation). With all the parties having access to same information, there is less chance of erroneous communication. In turn, less time is spent on validating data and more on the business side: performing services and delivering goods.

One added benefit is the streamlining the entire process and cost overheads by putting an effective audit of the supply chain data. The same data, if done by conventional methods, would take weeks to audit for compliance. This all is accelerated due to the digital ledger.

Nearly 90% of U.S. & European banks have started active development on blockchain by 2018.

Blockchain is gaining momentum day by day and corporations as well as grass roots startups have their eye on key industry players by now. There’s also a catch: there needs to be a critical mass gathering in a supply chain. After a certain point, it will be easier for everyone to jump abroad the blockchain for supply chain. Companies that are paying keen attention to the ongoing market trends to know when the time is ripe to develop their own blockchain prototype.

Still want to know more about how blockchain can help your business’ supply chain run better, efficiently and cut costs? Reach out to us here and we’ll get back to you shortly.

Get to know more about Blockchain by reading these easy-to-understand infographics.

John Parker

March 9, 2021

March 4, 2021

What Should You Look at While Reviewing Blockchain Developer Skills?

Are you looking to hire someone with the right blockchain developer skills? Is it a single person you require or a team of specialists to onboard for an on-going project? Either way, when you start looking, you’ll soon find out that to get the right talent, you have to filter your candidates using the right questions.

Where to find a good company with blockchain developer skills?

Blockchain is still in a relative infant stage, and a regular job portal or LinkedIn just won’t cut it sometimes. If you’ve got the requirements noted down, the best place to frequent them will be Reddit and Glitter. There’s another place that you might want to visit: startup days, hackathons (online and offline).

What if I am looking for a full-stack blockchain company instead of individual developers?

If you’re a large-scale company looking for an enterprise with a team of blockchain developers to build a blockchain-based solution, there are things you need to consider first before undertaking such an undertaking.

We’ve compiled a list of questions-to-be-asked to these enterprises when starting out on such a venture:

How long have they been in business and how they are incorporating blockchain developer skills?

When you’re looking for a technology partner at this scale, it is prudent to look at the accumulated years of experience the company has while building digital platforms. The amount of time they have been in the competitive market (domain registration date, company founding date et cetera) are things to be looked at.

And while you’re at it, this might be a good time to request industry awards, achievements, and milestones they’ve reached while being in business. Bonus: If they’ve got patents or licensed products launched in the market.

Who have they worked with?

A tech enterprise’s portfolio speaks a story in itself. A large and healthy portfolio indicates that the company has done a great deal of work before engaging with you, their clients were noteworthy and the company has built products that are life in the industry.

Ideally, your tech partner should be involved in projects that have gone from ideation to implementation and then maintenance. This will indicate that the company has done a good job while creating the products too.

Inquire if a Fortune 500 company has featured in their portfolio and to what extent their engagement was with the company. You can make a swift decision if this part holds true.

What is team composition?

A company’s size is an indicator of how well the company is doing. And it’s capacity to complete projects simultaneously within the given timeframe. Ask them their strengths and the domains they work the most in.

While every company may have some expertise, their ability to adapt to a tech stack of your liking may be limited.

Be sure to ask them where their team is located and what is the modus operandi for communication while being across different time zones. The ability to adapt to your time zone is a crucial part of the process.

And if the devs are not available in the same time zone, what will be the communication process and contact points?

Know the leaders, project managers, and individual developers that will be handling the project. This way you will know if they have sufficient technical experience or not.

You can do this by checking professional networks such as LinkedIn or reading customer reviews/experiences about the devs to spot talent.

Ask about how they work

There are many ways to go about your job. Your selection of the development process indicates how you approach it. Since there are a number of options on the table, you need to zone in on the development process that the development team is going to follow.

Terms to look out for are: agile, scrum, extreme programming. If a company talks about techniques such as the one mentioned, you’re likely dealing with a company that is innovative in design and implementation.

What tools do they deploy to keep track of projects?

It just isn’t how you work. It’s the tools of the trade that mark up the success of a project. You should know about the tools your tech partner should be deployed to manage its client’s portfolios. There are plenty of tools that facilitate project management.

Companies of good repute deploy enterprise-grade tools like:

Confluence
JIRA
Slack
Hubstaff
Trello
And many others

These tools are crucial when justifying man-hours and where the project currently stands on its commitments.

Blockchain Developer skills – Is the team of devs in-house or have they outsourced it?

Some software development companies outsource their work off-shore in a bid to lower prices. If outsourcing spans the entire development process, there are always possibilities of quality management concerns.

Can they build a blockchain-based solution or not?

Your tech partner needs to have experience in the tech stacks you’re looking to build a platform on. Many of the companies have started working on the blockchain a while ago but the company needs to have something solid on their portfolio before you sign them on.

For example: Has the company worked on a public blockchain or a permissioned blockchain? A sign of a seasoned development team is their portfolio.

Does the company provide end-to-end service?

It is important to recognize if the company provides end-to-end service. This means that the whole process from consultation to product design, development, deployment, and support is offered through a single company. You should always go for the best company for your money.

So before you make the decision of hiring a resource, make sure their blockchain developer skills are on the mark. Become well versed in market trends, and ask the questions posed above to sift through the crowd. They’ll help you in making the right decision.

Still, want to know more? VAIVAL Technologies has in-house blockchain developers that are more than capable of building blockchain-based applications. And if it’s a blockchain development company you’re looking for, reach out to us here, to talk to our experts.

Read More

HIRING 101: QUESTIONS TO ASK BEFORE HIRING BLOCKCHAIN DEVELOPERS

Hanzla Sajid

March 4, 2021

February 25, 2021

HIRING 101: QUESTIONS TO ASK BEFORE HIRING BLOCKCHAIN DEVELOPERS

The demand for blockchain developers is on an ever-high trend

Hanzla Sajid

February 25, 2021

February 16, 2021

How to Create a Cryptocurrency Coin

You might have heard of Bitcoin or Ethereum, and maybe even Ripple, but in fact, there are over a thousand different coins and tokens available. There are over 1,384 cryptocurrencies in use worldwide. That’s a lot of cryptos! So, why not learn how to create a cryptocurrency coin?

Before we get started though, there are three things you need to know:

1. You Need A Good Idea

Building a token/coin for the sake of building a token/coin is doomed to fail. It needs to have a purpose (it needs to add value to the world).

2. You Need to Earn People’s Trust

To do this you need to build a community. This is the following for your cryptocurrency. Maintaining a crypto community is a tough job, thus pay attention to this point.

3. You Need Working Knowledge of Crypto Security & Coding

You may hire talent or take tutorials on how to create a crypto currency coin. By the end of this article, you’ll understand the basics of how to create a cryptocurrency and the importance of building trust among the community.

How Does a Cryptocurrency Work?

A cryptocurrency is a digital commodity intended to act as a means of exchange throughout the world. In a cryptocurrency or a blockchain system, the coins are stored in a digital ledger or computerized database with the help of a secured and strong cryptography. This makes the transaction record fully secured and safe from hacking. Also, the data cannot be accessed until it is fully verified by the customer.

Source: mlsdev (How to Create a Cryptocurrency Coin)

Bitcoin, in 2009, was the first-ever decentralized cryptocurrency of the world. And today, there are many cryptocurrency coins available for trading i.e. Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.

There’s a big difference between building a coin and a token. A coin has its own blockchain, very expensive, and takes some time building. Whereas the token is built on an existing blockchain, isn’t much expensive, and doesn’t take much as much time relatively. Now, what’s the most important thing to understand here is how to build a blockchain. Here’s what you need to have to before you start working on building a blockchain.

Hiring The Development Team

Hiring the right developer for coin, token and smart contract development can make a big difference. Best practice is to become involved in the blockchain community. For this, you can join blockchain events, connecting with new people and building relationships within the industry.

Finding experienced blockchain developer can be a bit tricky because the demand for blockchain developers is through the roof.

Identify a Suitable Use-Case

There are three genuine things that a blockchain can do easily, i.e Data Authentication & Verification, Smart Asset Management, and Smart Contracts. And if you learn to identify a suitable use-case, you can hone on what you want your blockchain to do.

Source: MSLDEV (How To Create a Cryptocurrency Coin)

Identify Suitable Consensus Mechanism

The identification of suitable consensus must be based on a suitable use-case. Otherwise, it might get complex for you to build your blockchain

Identify Platform

Choosing a platform for building a blockchain is probably the most important step. The most common platforms include BigChainDB, Chain Core, Corda, Credits, Domus Tower Blockchain, Elements Blockchain Platform, Eris: DB, Ethereum, HydraChain, Multichain, Quorum, Stellar, and Open chain. Choose the most suitable platform according to your cryptocurrency coin.

Designing Nodes

The next step is designing the nodes. A blockchain can be permissioned, as well as, permission-less from the government. Its solution can be private, public, or hybrid. You need to consider whether nodes will run on the cloud or not, and decide on the base of the operating system you are using.

Design Blockchain Instance

One of the tougher things in building a blockchain is designing its instance. Following things need to be considered:

Permissions
Asset Issuance
Asset re-issuance
Permissions
Atomic Exchanges
Key Management
Multi Signatures
Parameters
Native Assets
Address Formats
Key Formats
Block Signatures
Steps to Create a Cryptocurrency Coin

Understanding everything steps by step makes learning easier for everyone. The same is the case to create a cryptocurrency coin.

Define Purpose to create a cryptocurrency coin

The first thing you need to do is to think about the actual reason for making a cryptocurrency and define its purpose thoroughly. In other words, there must be a strong reason for the existence of the cryptocurrency you are going to develop. And if you fail to give a strong reason, what will you answer your customers? For instance, Nano is a cryptocurrency coin and the reason to use it is its high speed and feeless digital payments. Exactly the same way, you need to describe the reason for people to use your cryptocurrency. Step 1 is Done!

Consider the Legal Implications

Following the first step, the next thing to do is to consider the legal implications well and strictly act upon it. As you know the blockchain globe has developed rapidly, so if you don’t follow the laws and regulations, it might cause serious issues for you and your cryptocurrency coin. In short, make sure that everything you’re doing is legal throughout the entire process by consulting with a legal professional.

Define a Budget

In step 3, the tip to follow is to define a budget. Remember, creating your cryptocurrency and developing is not as easy as you are thinking. It requires some financial resources, especially when you don’t have any support team members that can market, document, and create a cryptocurrency coin.

Did You Know?

More than $270 billion in assets have been distributed in Blockchain transactions to date.

Hire External Auditors

Only hiring a strong development team wouldn’t be enough for you. You need external auditors as well. An external auditor performs an audit, which exactly matches the laws and regulations of the cryptocurrency globe and financial statements of government entities. The main task of external auditors in cryptocurrency coin is to constantly conduct security audits. You can follow the MakerDAO external security audits if you’re new to this concept.

Promote Your Coin & Community

This is probably the most crucial and underrated. Without the promotion and marketing of your newly developed cryptocurrency coin, it’s not going to get any clout. Promote your newly started project is via Press releases, Social Media, Twitter, Telegram, Reddit, and Discord, and Blogs. If possible, get in touch and partner with a popular cryptocurrency exchange. Nurture and grow up in your community.

Following all these steps will build up a new blockchain, with the help of which, a new and own cryptocurrency coin can be created and developed.

Having read this far, you already have a fairly clear picture of what it takes to create a new blockchain. Before starting any new project, take a deep breath and evaluate twice if this is something you should be investing your time and money in. And if you are confident enough and actively looking for blockchain developers who can bring life to your ideas.

Explore how your business can benefit from its own cryptocurrency and blockchain – schedule your free 30-min consultation with VAIVAL Technologies blockchain professionals.