5 Post-launch hidden software development costs you need to anticipate.
It’s been a success, your development is done, you’ve proudly launched your new software but you never anticipated that expenses would continue past the initial development cost associated with your build! Ongoing investment that is accompanied by certain expenses should be expected when launching your solution, planning for functionality additions, maintenance and potentially scaling up your technology but these are often overlooked as the focus is always centred on the project development costs.
Here are 5 post-launch hidden software development costs to factor into your planning.
#Maintain your solution
Successful tech projects will make your business more efficient, and potentially generate strong revenue streams, but unless you ensure you budget and plan to continually reinvest into your solution, or keep up with new market trends your tech products may lose their competitive edge. You will always need to maintain your software, enhance it with new features, scale it with growing customer demands and provide ongoing maintenance. It’s obvious – you need to retain your development team!
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Hosting expenses
Budget for the hosting on servers as these will continue post-launch, but also expect that these will rise as your company grows and scales.
For example, if your servers are hosted in the cloud, it might be prudent to pay these increased costs rather than employing a staff member, or two, for backup purposes to manage those servers alone. Rather leave this to be handled by the hosting company.
Ongoing maintenance, amendments and feature additions
Don’t let your technology regress – just as any product, a software solution also requires maintenance and updates.Additionally, you need to keep up with any new evolutions such as changes in international compliance levels or new legislations regarding the security, privacy or quality of your app or server and operating system enhancements etc. Maintenance is ongoing, and markets are always adapting, so be prepared for ongoing maintenance costs.
Training is essential
Make sure that all the technical expertise does not sit with one key person. Ensure knowledge is spread amongst a team, or that your outsourced developers do the same. Anticipate that personnel turnover may happen, and always ensure you have more than the one trained employee who can step in when a key employee is ill, incapacitated or resigns. Build a back-up team who can step in at any time. Accidents do happen unexpectedly, and you need to be prepared for these sorts of situations when they arise. It takes time to recruit a new employee and even more time to “onboard” them before they are fully au fait with your business model, technology, infrastructure and can be effectively functional. It is too risky to expose your business to this possibility. Training will develop your existing staff, keep them challenged, interested and happy and you will know that you have ready-made, reliable backup support.
Strategic costs
Strategic costs are important for business growth. You need to keep up-to-date with market trends so that you can anticipate the advent of a new market opportunity and potential pivots. This way you can plan and prepare ahead so you are ready to address this opportunity timeously to give your company the competitive edge. Strategic costs will be incurred when ensuring you capitalise on these opportunities – unforeseen development costs, adding additional staff members, platform upgrades etc.
Strategic partnerships
Never underestimate the value of a strategic partnership! Formulating a strategic partnership with a professional software consultancy will save you many headaches, and lots of money over time.
An expert software developer will analyse your needs and recommend the right solutions for you to achieve your technology goals. An expert will recommend a solution that is efficient and effective, can easily scale as your business requirements evolve, and where any new functionality or additional services can be seamlessly integrated with minimal disruption to your day-to-day business and processes.
Besides, you will have the advantage of a team of skilled developers to rely on post-launch for maintenance, hosting services support, backup and support, advice on new market trends and software developers who will upgrade your software speedily to capitalise on new market opportunities timeously. This is why we suggest utilising an outsourced development company such as us as we have the expertise and experience to manage and advise you on many of these unforeseen costs.
In the future when planning new technology, remember to anticipate these 5 post-launch hidden software development costs
For a professional solutions provider and software consultancy, contact us, R&RTech, at greetings@randrtechsa.co.za or visit our website https://randrtechsa.co.za/services.html