Introduction

Technology is the driving force of every business model today. It doesn’t matter what industry you belong to, you need technology-enabled solutions for the growth of your company, whether it’s product development, marketing, sales, accounting, HR, or customer support. There are various tools and technologies available in the market that bring a product idea to life by solving your business problems. 

Microsoft.NET is one of those technology frameworks that businesses depend on to develop quality, reliable, and scalable applications of the web, desktop, and mobile platforms. The .NET framework plays an important role in creating a wide range of applications ranging from accounting applications, inventory, CRMs, and warehouse applications to websites, mobile apps, and XML web development services. 

However, searching for a skilled and professional .NET development partner can be a challenging task. A .NET development partner who can help you create remarkable software products and deliver a high return on your investments is the most difficult part.  There are ‘n’ number of .NET solution providers in the industry that provide varying levels of expertise in .NET application development. To help you solve this challenge, we have made a list of key factors that should be considered before hiring a .NET development company.

1. The credibility of the company

The first and the utmost thing to look for is the credibility of a software development company. Apart from proof of their expertise and experience, longevity is an important factor that makes the company credible. Usually, companies who have been in the business for a longer period of time are believed to be more reliable. 

The primary behind the long stay of companies is their delivery results and long term relationship with their customers. So, if a company has survived for, let’s say 10 years, that probably must be doing something valuable and offering quality services to its customers. 

Another mandatory thing to verify is the quality of work they’ve delivered to their previous clients. Have a look at their testimonials and contact their customers for feedback on the projects they’ve delivered to have a deep knowledge of their reputation in the market. 

Also make sure that the company you are hiring has a strong team of .NET experts, who can assist if the resource working on your project is not available. It’s a kind of backup plan you should always keep in mind.

Make sure that the company has a real office and professional infrastructure. Also, look for quality certifications such as ISO 9000 or CMMI, which ensure the quality and maturity of their software development processes and methodologies.

All these key factors add to the credibility of the company offering you technology solutions in .NET or any other technology.

2. Quality of Developers

Besides longevity, an important parameter of a company’s credibility is the amount of experience its developers have. The developers who have the required technical skills and certifications to work on .NET projects should be preferred.

As far as experience is concerned, confirm that the developer has a minimum of 2 years’ experience and an IT Director or CTO has 10-15 years’ experience to ensure that your project is in good hands.

Furthermore, the development team should also have a great experience right from creating applications from the very beginning to migrating legacy applications to the current .NET platform.

3. Expertise in Microsoft technologies

It’s too much to say that the company you are planning to hire for your .NET project should have expertise in various Microsoft technologies, such as ASP.NET, C#, VB.NET, and ASP.NET MVC.

Also, it’s essential to see if the development company has used .NET in conjunction with other technologies like Windows Azure, Kentico, Microsoft SQL Server, and SharePoint to build, deploy, and maintain web applications and services.

The development team must have deep expertise in Microsoft technologies to solve problems like interoperability and integration.

The bottom line is that the developers should have thorough knowledge about each aspect of .NET development, such as using the interoperability features, cross-platform integration, code reuse, security features, deployment, maintenance, and creating service-oriented architectures.

4. Experience of delivering the complex .NET project

Other than technical certifications, the development company should have a wide experience in delivering complex .NET projects. No matter how many certificates are added to the name of a .NET developer, it’s the projects he has worked on which makes him a skilled and professional developer.

Go for a company that has worked on complex .NET based product development, not just a few .NET based websites.

5. Development support for Mobility 

There are some software products today which do not oblige to mobility requirements. Even if a company has expertise in .NET technology there will be a lot of other requirements related to projects where the applications need a mobile arm to reach out to a maximum number of users. For this,  integration with technologies such as iOS, Android, and HTML5 is required.

Also, the .NET development company you go for should have in-house development support for mobile app development technologies so that you don’t have to find another vendor to develop apps for mobile platforms.

Therefore, the .NET development company you choose should be well aware of working with the following:

• Working with mobile features in an ASP.NET MVC 4 application
• Adding mobile pages to ASP.NET WebForms/ MVC application
• Building mobile websites with ASP.NET MVC
• Developing iPhone & Android apps with ASP.NET

These are some of the capabilities a .NET development company should have to provide cross-device, cross-platform experience for ASP.NET based web applications.

6. Awards and Partnerships

Last, but not least is the industry validation of the company within the .NET industry has a vital role to play. Find out the awards, partnerships, and other such industry-specific recognitions the company has achieved so far. 

It’s good to verify the company’s experience from the certifying bodies/vendors who have licensed them for the technologies they use. For hiring a .NET development company, ensure that the company is a Microsoft Certified Partner.

The Bottom Line

While it is always tempting to outsource application development projects, you should keep in mind that a lot is at risk when you go for remote software development. There’s a lot of important and confidential information that you pass on to your development partner, in addition to the cost and time you are putting in the project.

Therefore, it’s best to choose your development partner scientifically based on facts and figures rather than hiring them only on a gut feeling. I hope the key measures mentioned above will help you in hiring the right .NET development company that meets your requirements and adds value to your business.