Continuing to discuss evolutionary processes in business, let’s look at a crucial driver of enterprise progress like workflow automation.

In general, it is a set of practices aimed at streamlining routine activities to improve business efficiency. The approach is implemented through various digital solutions and is considered essential across most industries and business domains.

Want to learn more about workflow automation?

Scroll down to get all the answers!

Why automate business processes?

Ever since industrialization, abandoning manual work in favor of streamlined production has helped to boost outputs, cut shift hours, and improve working conditions. Today, we are in the digital era, but automation is even more relevant to businesses of all shapes and forms.

Robotization of business processes aims at essential business goals like increased service quality, wider audience reach, and reduced spendings. And with over 45% of paid activities worldwide suitable for automation, this is a trillion-dollar question. 

I know what you’re thinking, but don’t rush to hire an IT development team just yet! First of all, you must understand the key advantages of business process automation and things it can improve. 

Advantages of business process automation

If you’ve never dealt with workflow automation, it may sound like yet another thing you didn’t want to do in the first place. Or, you may have heard that it’s expensive or troublesome to implement. 

In both cases, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. 

When it comes to complexity, automating business functions is not nearly as cumbersome as executing all of it in the “good old” manual way. Moreso, the average cost of automation systems is nothing compared to the monetary equivalent of the time, effort, and risks associated with abstaining from them. 

Digging deeper into the topic, there are 5 main reasons why you should automate business processes:

Cost reduction

You don’t need expert analysis to see how performing routine tasks quicker and better can positively impact your company’s budget.

Automation can save a fortune in the form of paid working hours and salaries, improved customer relationships, better order processing and inventory management, higher operational transparency, and much more. So, it’s no wonder that businesses spend a whopping $20 billion a year on automation.

Optimization of human resources

Delegating the grunt work to algorithms, you allow your employees to focus on purely human-related issues. We’re talking about direct customer assistance and care, creative business challenges, and the entire range of non-computer-related activities.

In most cases, these tasks also bring the highest value to the company.    

Employee satisfaction

Employee satisfaction is yet another thing automation can improve. Very few of us genuinely enjoy the menial tasks usually taken over by algorithms. At that, alleviating these responsibilities from your workers’ shoulders can boost their work satisfaction and loyalty, which is a key driver of business growth. 

Increased accuracy

Regardless of how brilliant, attentive, and responsible your staff is, we are all just human beings. Even if a team’s workflow is smooth like Swiss clockwork, something will go south now and then. Whether it’s a scheduling mishap, a missed customer’s question, or a misdirected email – you can never predict the human factor. 

On the other hand, machines have no bad days, never distract, and have nowhere to rush on a Friday evening. This makes one a poor buddy, but a perfect assistant to sort through the multitude of daily tasks.   

Better performance

Last but not least, a natural outcome of the four automation benefits mentioned above is better overall business performance.

Carefully tuned processes that empower your workers, bolster back-office operation and ultimately satisfy the clients – inevitably boost business performance. If that’s not your main goal at the moment – you can skip business workflow automation. Otherwise – think twice.

Business Workflow Automation Pitfalls

Naturally, nothing is perfect in the business world, and there are several nuances to workflow automation, just as well. So, if you do decide to streamline your company processes, try to avoid the following traps:

Wrong goals

While it may seem that more automation is always better, it’s important to carefully choose which business functions you improve. Some of your company activities may suffer from excess robotization (see next paragraph) or aren’t worth the investment.

To avoid this, ask yourself the following questions:

What are the most complex processes I can automate? Which of them is most time-consuming? And finally, which of them will have the greatest business impact?

These would be the processes you should automate first.

Dehumanization

Streamlining all of the processes can dehumanize your services, which is not nearly the goal of automation. Conversely, automation takes care of tasks to free the staff’s time, ultimately making your business even more humane.

Similar to a car, it’s not there to take walking away, but rather to take us to the best place to walk at.

Team resistance

Just like any innovation, automating business workflows can meet resistance from both executives and staff. The first may not see the point of additional investments in software, while employees may fear losing their jobs.

Overcoming such obstacles, you need to dispel people’s fears. Describe your goals and clarify how automation is beneficial for all parties involved – the owners, the clients, and the workers.

Overspenditure

Last but not least, expenses are a valid thing to consider whatever business initiative you undertake.

This goes in line with the aforementioned point about setting the right automation goals. Even if your budget allows streamlining virtually all of your company’s processes, it does not mean you should do it. Focus on essential, and go from there.

Business Process Automation Solutions

Now that we’ve covered the curses and blessings of workflow automation, let’s go over the processes that can be improved via algorithms.

As already mentioned, automation can aid almost half of the global paid activities, potentially saving $2 trillion in wages.

At that, there are 4 main types of business processes where automation can play a key role: 

Executive management

Automation can simplify managing large teams with multiple departments and decision-makers.

It allows you to track, manage, and supervise operational activities, see task progress, issues, and deadlines – all in one place. The decision-making process becomes much more simple, transparent, and quick, too. With automated approval from managers on each executive level, your business won’t stall whenever important questions arise. 

Time is money so you can waste none in the business world.        

Team communication

Those who have worked in teams without task management and communication tools will recognize the following picture: responsibilities mixed up, tasks fulfilled incompletely, deadlines missed, and an overall mess in the production process. Team communication established through Skype… 

Sounds familiar, huh?

We’ve all been there. Forget about efficiency, just having the tasks done is already a challenge under such conditions. 

A far better idea is to automate these processes with tech solutions like Slack or Trello. Such software allows teams and departments to stay on the same page when fulfilling complex tasks and continuous objectives. Plus, it ensures overall transparency of the working process.

Customer relationship

Customer relationship is crucial to businesses in the digital realm. It can be a win or lose strategy for your business by affecting your client’s loyalty big time.

Now, the more customers – the harder it is to address all the requests and issues manually. And while keeping your prospects on hold is a questionable option, relying on CRM solutions might do wonders.

These systems aggregate consumer data, analyze their behavior, and ensure smooth interaction. They help to resolve customer issues, meet their desires and needs, and generate beneficial deals and upsells. Like that you can acquire, convert, and retain more customers.

As for direct customer support, chatbots not only cover the gap in employee resources but even outperform people in resolving client issues. 

Inventory management

Speaking about efficiency, automation can improve inventory management, too.

If you are an active vendor or a retail store owner (or a drop shipping company) – a lot is going on in the warehouse. You’ve got to stock, sell, and monitor your inventories daily. This is a rather complicated task for a human being, especially for big marketplaces and product hubs.

Automation can help with inventory management. These systems keep track of stocked goods, update availability information, evaluate consumption, and remind about ending products. So, you never run out of or oversupply items.

Document turnover 

Very often, paperwork takes the time and attention it really shouldn’t. 

A smart document management solution like the one built by our team can save both your time and nerve cells. It enables you to view, share, and sign documents on the go, effortlessly, and without delays. 

Such tools are especially useful when dealing with extensive documentation to be shared or signed by multiple parties. Great for employee onboarding, budget approvals, contracting, legal issues – you name it. 

Social media

Last but not least – the automation of social media marketing activities. 

While you can hire a dedicated SMM specialist, sometimes there are better ways to invest a few thousand a year. That said, spending your employees’ precious time on posting to Facebook, Linked In, and Instagram may turn out even more costly.  

In this case, an SMM automation tool like Buffer seems more than legit. Kt allows scheduling and posting to all of your social media marketing channels simultaneously and hassle-free. 

Digital Transformation Across Industries

Business process automation solutions are a means to the wider notion of digital transformation. And although it is quite similar across industries, there still are distinctive features with each one.

For specific digital transformation insight, explore our niche-dedicated articles:

• Insurance
• eCommerce
• Healthcare
• Real Estate
• Education
• Logistics
• Banking
• Investments
• Fundraising
• Venture Capital

The bigger picture 

The points covered in the article are mere landmarks to navigate your digitization strategy.

Very probably, you’ll find it possible to automate most of your business’s specific processes. The rule of thumb here is that anything that’s recurrent and requires predictable actions – can be automated to your benefit. In any case, it will probably fit in with the bigger strategy of your business’s management or improvement. 

Need help automating your business activities? Our team is always here to help! 

The global IT industry evolves rapidly in size, shape, and form, and so do the software development practices applied all along. Like any evolutionary process, this one strives to maintain efficiency while gaining capabilities. To keep the progress going, the traditional ways of doing things have to be replaced. 

For IT development, this means there is a point along the journey of software enhancement where we cannot continue to add structures upon structures of ever-increasing complexity, without sacrificing performance. 

Historically, this point fell on the edge of 2011-2012, when software experts from a prominent workshop in Venice came up with the term Microservices to define a new architectural style they have been exploring at the time. Dubbed the fine-grained SOA (service-oriented architecture where app components connect via a network), it wasn’t an entirely new approach to product design, but rather a refined way of building service-oriented applications.

Strictly speaking, microservices divide the bulk of a product’s functionality into independent chunks of software, while preserving the cohesiveness of the system. 

Here’s a general idea of the architectural difference when it comes to comparing microservices vs monolithic software:

Microservice vs Monolithic: Which software architecture is best? 

With just above half of the enterprises out there adopting the loosely coupled services approach, it’s a tough one to crack. 

The short answer is – well, it depends. 

Microservices are much like government decentralization, which gives power and responsibility to the regions while maintaining essential relations to keep the state solid. The opposite of that is centralized governance – where the decision-making is concentrated.      

Now, the choice of a suitable model is dictated by your needs and setup. 

A small project will hardly see the advantages of using microservices, just like a small state does not need decentralization. Bigger and more complex projects, on the other hand, may very well benefit from a more advanced design approach. 

MintyMint has built several microservice-based products, and we consider it a convenient and productive software model. One of the bright examples is 4friends – a crowdfunding platform for generating recurring donations.

That said, it is not all that simple when you dig deeper. There are many factors to consider when comparing microservices and monolithic architecture.

In-detail comparison

Comparing Microservices and Monolithic software architecture is not an easy task. We have to remain scientifically objective, after all.

For that reason, a point system seems just right. 

1. Performance

When it comes to the inherent performance of application architecture, there are two key indicators – network latency and data throughput. Latency represents the amount of time data takes to travel between two destinations.

Here’s how it works: 

To pass information, bytes convert into an electromagnetic signal. It then travels via wires or air and is reassembled back into bytes by the receiving party. Now, we can cut down the decoding time. But since the signal takes time to travel, data transfer will always have a slight delay. It is a natural consequence of the basic laws of physics.

In this regard, having a localized, single-core system is superior to a network of interconnected clients operating with each other, often at long physical distances. While the latency of a microservice call is minuscule (around 25ms), the more calls – the higher the delay. 

There are, of course, solutions that can minimize this gap, like running all calls in parallel or using a so-called fan-out pattern. In this case, the difference tends to zero as the calls increase. And still, Monolithics turn out slightly quicker every time. 

The same is true for absolute data throughput (the amount of data processed over time).

A close call in the first standing, but still a point goes to the Monolithic architecture.  

Moving on.

2. Resource usage & scalability

Now that we’ve touched on performance, let’s examine resources usage.

This is a tricky one. 

At first glance, microservices calls use more resources than the monolith ones when doing the same amount of work.

However, since microservices can allocate resources as needed, they use them a lot smarter, decreasing the memory and CPU load. In addition, the more instances performed – the greater this difference is in favor of loosely coupled services. 

Monolithic software can come ahead in individual cases (when a call transfers large amounts of data) but falls behind in all other scenarios. 

The same principle works when you need to upgrade the computing capabilities as the requirements increase. By managing resources more efficiently, decentralized software easily scales the power up and down, adding or removing cloud computing servers as needed. 

Clearly, a win for Microservices. 

3. Development complexity

Speaking about the complexity of the development process. 

While the good old monolithic apps call for greater skillsets from individual developers, microservices projects can be spread into smaller tasks between highly specialized devs. 

Here’s an illustration to help you understand why:

At that, the overall amount of work is in often considerably greater with Microservices.

Unlike single-core projects, assembling multiple modules may involve several source codes, frameworks, and coding languages for that matter.

Data synchronization also adds up to the complexity of running dispersed software as opposed to its locally-contained rival. Once again, some tools tackle the issues. Nevertheless, a monolithic architecture is innately more clear and transparent.   

Another point in favor of Monolithics. 

Are you still there? Great!

4. Deployment & reliability

One of the main reasons why companies prefer microservices are the stunning deployment opportunities it provides. 

Compared to the bulky structure of monolithic software, its counterpart is simple and flexible enough to have updates as frequently as desired. In fact, you don’t have to roll out the entire system after changing some of the functionality. All you need to do is redeploy that particular service. 

More so, modifying a microservice does not affect the dependent services. Therefore, it won’t threaten the entire system’s work should there be a program malfunction. Whereas even a minor code error can stall the entirety of software built with a monolithic approach. 

This boosts the software’s reliability, eliminating a whole bunch of critical operational issues.

Something like having more engines on a plane…

In addition, microservices are a lot easier to test. A limited number of features dedicated to each of the services substantially decreases the number of dependencies involved. This makes it much more simple to write and run tests. Therefore, you can release the product a lot earlier. 

In this one, Microservices come out ahead. 

So far the score is 2 – 2. 

5. Technological flexibility

This is where things get interesting. 

There are countless development technologies on the market. Some of them are quick, some – are easier to build. A part of them is better for billing, others are a good suit for data processing, or have better security… You name it. 

Microservices empower you to add all of it to the arsenal, taking the best from each technology. 

It’s like having all of the superpowers at one’s disposal. 

Like that, a piece of software can be quick, rigid, capable, and secure all at the same time. It’s no wonder why the method is so popular among architects of complex IT projects like Netflix, Medium, and Uber.

This will, of course, require hiring a whole bunch of specialists to implement, as mentioned earlier. But hey, that development complexity point is already granted to Monolithics, so we can’t complain. 

Another win for microservices.

6. Team communication

Finally, team communication plays a key part in the process of IT product development, and it can be affected by software architecture choice.  

Here’s the thing: by dividing the software into smaller chunks, Microservices not only distribute the tasks but also the teams, decreasing the number of individual communication channels between devs. 

This goes in line with Amazon’s well-known “pizza rule”, which states that a team is too big and inefficient if it can’t be fed with two pizzas. 

You decide what’s right.

I sure wouldn’t be arguing with Amazon’s expertise in project management. 

So, the final round goes to the Microservices architecture, too, and the score is: Microservices – 4, Monolithics – 2

Monolithics, it was a fair battle…

Part 2: How do microservices work?

While it did seem like a logical conclusion, it wouldn’t be the ULTIMATE software architecture guide if we didn’t dig deeper into the subject.

So, let’s move on.

Now that we’ve explored how microservices are different from the traditional monolithic software, let’s examine the technology behind the revolutionary architecture.  

Just like monolithic apps, modular software can be built with a wide range of coding languages and frameworks. Therefore, most of the rules for choosing a tech stack apply here as well. That being the case, a microservices tech stack is effectively larger and much more versatile than that of traditional software. 

Loosely-coupled apps are very complex structure-wise. So, many aspects of the system’s cohesiveness have to be thought through before jumping into the whirlpool of the dev process. 

In our case, it is worthwhile to go over all of it gradually – one functionality at a time. So, let’s jump in!

Infrastructure

First of all, any software has to run somewhere. 

There are three main hosting options to consider for microservices: 

• Local server – a traditional enterprise computing model. Companies maintain equipment and software in a confined data center, having direct control over its operation. 
• Public cloud – a rather modern approach. Here, shared computing resources are provided over the internet and are managed on the side of the cloud provider. We’ve already written about on-demand software recently. 
• Private cloud – offers opportunities similar to the public cloud. In this case, though, companies own and manage remote server capacity in-house (for security or compliance reasons, mostly).

It should be noted that there are also hybrid cloud-hosting solutions, but that is a topic for another blog post…

In most cases, public cloud hardware is the go-to choice for running microservices. It offers virtually unlimited processing capabilities on rather flexible terms. 

And while there is an array of remote infrastructure providers, the most popular of them are represented by: 

• AWS (Amazon Web Services) 
• Microsoft Azure
• Google Cloud Platform 
• Oracle Cloud
• Pivotal   

VMs & container management 

Now, there are two principal ways of using cloud resources – virtual machines and containers (each containing individual functionality). 

Both use remote hardware to perform tasks. Now, VMs emulate entire systems along with the operational systems. Whereas containers share the OS and therefore have a lot of common functionality that needs not be executed separately. 

This saves a ton of resources, providing a tenfold launch-time difference and a major cut in RAM and CPU usage, in favor of containers, of course. Having less overhead and close to zero weight, it is a much more favorable environment for complex applications. 

However, while it’s very convenient to have individual containers for each of the services, it is another challenge to successfully manage it all. Crucial tasks like automation of deployment, scaling, and networking, add up to the complexity of running loosely coupled software. 

This is where container orchestration tools come in handy, effectively tackling these kinds of issues. 

In this regard, the most popular choices on the market are: 

• Kubernetes
• Docker 
• Apache
• Other solutions from major cloud providers like Amazon, Google, and Azure.   

Interaction

We have already learned that microservices allow using different tech for individual software components. 

On one hand, this gives the flexibility to assign the best-fitting technology for tackling different tasks within the system. On the other, however, it requires establishing effective interaction between those app components. 

This is exactly what a service mesh is there for.

A dedicated infrastructure layer, it enables the services to interact with each other via local “sidecar” proxies instead of calling each other directly over the network. In essence, it is an interpreter between services that often “speak” different programming languages.

Service mesh facilitates horizontal (service to service) communication, as opposed to the API gateways that control vertical (client to server) networking. It is also different from container orchestration tools, which are responsible for resource management only. 

Some of the widely-applied service mesh solutions include: 

• Istio
• Linkerd
• Consul
• App Mesh

Interface

When designing modular apps, it is crucial to determine how program components will communicate with the system. 

Typically, this task is executed via APIs. 

API stands for Application Programming Interface. It enables communication between two systems (for example – your laptop and an app), determining the data transfer protocol. Something like a moderator of the client-to-service conversation who ensures that the message “gets through”. 

APIs operate via ‘requests’ and ‘responses’. When a system receives a request it returns a response. The destination of that response represents an endpoint – essentially, one end of a communicational channel between a server and an external device. 

Now, what comes down to one communication channel in a monolithic app, may generate an array of those in microservices. This is because splitting software into multiple pieces implies that a single client request may call for separate responses from the services, resulting in multiple endpoints. An API gateway sorts it all up by providing a single point of entry into the system…

Ok, I know that just spilled over the sane limit of tech terms per paragraph. 

Let’s break it down. 

API gateways

Imagine a typical blog page like this one. It contains a text field, a list of recommended articles, a comment section, a login form, a sharing functionality, etc.

In microservices, a separate module owns each of the described components’ data sets. So, when you open up that page you actually communicate with a set of micro-apps. 

If these calls were direct, your browser would have to send separate requests at all of those services (each with an individual web address) in order to assemble the page. For a number of reasons that furtherly exceed this article’s threshold for heavy terminology, such an option is inefficient. You may read about network latency here. 

Another option is to have a distributing entity to sort through multiple client requests and return a single, “comprehensive” response. Kind of like the packing assistant in a grocery store. You know, the one gathering your stuff while you talk to the cashier and check out – to save everyone time. 

That’s API getaways. 

Some of the best API Gateway solutions are provided by Amazon, Ambassador, Kong, Microsoft, Akamai, Mulesoft, Google, and Express.

Security

Privacy issues accompany any IT product development process. 

At that, the nature of microservices poses an elevated threat of security breach, putting additional pressure on software architects.

More so, securing the containers in which microservices run joined the list of the industry’s main data-protection challenges in 2018. 

This is happening for two reasons. 

For first, it is a well-known fact that a system’s complexity is inversely proportional to its reliability. This is especially true when it comes to software vulnerabilities. Increased interaction between microservices comes hand in hand with additional communication channels – which means more points of potential penetration.  

To make things worse, microservice apps are often hosted along with third-party software, on the same physical server. Even the word combination “shared environments” does not sound too safe. Forget about the multitude of less obvious ways things can go wrong in a complex cloud infrastructure hosting disintegrated software.  

Luckily for IT enterprises, there are solutions for these issues, too: 

• Twistlock
• Tigeria
• Aopreto
• Aqua

Other middleware

Last but not least on the list of the main technologies behind microservices is the so-called middleware. These tools are responsible for additional coherence-related tasks like load-balancing, proxies, caching, and routing. While somewhat similar to the already mentioned gateways, it doesn’t expose microservices as an API does. 

In terms of microservices middleware, these are the market leaders: 

• NGINX 
• Envoy
• Zuul
• HA Proxy 

Final Word

Although there are no reasons for smaller teams and projects to give up the well-established and proven monolithic software architecture, Microservices are more progressive and seem to be staying around for the foreseeable future.

Yes, the approach is more resource-demanding and complex than traditional program development techniques. However, its benefits outweigh the cost, especially for big projects where software reliability and production speed play a key part. The array of technologies backing microservices-based apps is stunning. From design and implementation to deployment and maintenance – versatile program tools are there at one’s aid on every step of the microservices development process. 

Software outsourcing is gaining momentum in Europe and North America these days, and it is no wonder why. As more and more industries require digitalization or an update of the existing software solutions – the demand for IT expertise increases exponentially. 

IT development agencies are there to help companies shape their future in the digital realm. They analyze the client’s strengths and weak points and define an effective tech strategy. This, in turn, helps to automate data processing and manual everyday tasks like accounting and logistics, increasing the overall efficiency of the operation as a result.

Most of these goals are achieved through developing new and fine-tuning the existing software. 

At that, not every company can afford to hire and maintain a team of software experts usually required for executing such tasks. Of course, this doesn’t mean businesses should give up on the idea or eliminate their budget altogether. 

This is where outsourcing teams come in handy, providing the opportunity to cover the companies’ digital needs pain-free. 

Outsourcing is one of the fastest-growing trends in the IT world. Its global market size approached a $100BN mark in 2019, according to Statista. But, why is it so attractive to businesses of all shapes and forms? And what are the main benefits of shifting your digital tasks out of the state?

Let’s find out.

Benefits of outsourcing software development

When it comes to the benefits of IT talent oursourcing, there are 4 key points. 

Those are:

IT talent acquisition

The first and foremost advantage of leveraging developers from outside is the extensive pool of experts that becomes available to your business. 

The software world is vast and complex, so it makes no sense for businesses to try and fill all of their potential tech needs via in-house developers. You’d have to employ an entire state of IT experts to achieve that. Definitely unrealistic.

In such a situation, relying on third-party software production capabilities is a great and effective choice. 

This is why, even established enterprises like Microsoft resort to outsourcing to pump up their workforce, forget about smaller companies. 

Efficient workflow

Here’s another point in favor of delegating some of your coding work to external specialists. Even if you are willing to reserve extra space in your office and budget for a team of devs, the challenge remains to manage all of the working processes and people. 

Do you have the time and knowledge to oversee all of it? 

It’s a good question to ask yourself. 

Very often, it is more efficient for executives to focus on indispensable business activities like marketing and client acquisition – something they are experts in themselves, and leave the technical issues to the others.  

In fact, Harvard Business Review found that a lot of managers admit feeling incapable to understand, let alone – manage – the technical part of the IT development processes. Instead, they choose to maximize flexibility and control by finding a good outsourcer to rely on to solve these issues. 

Lower production costs

If balancing the budget is anywhere on your business’ agenda, then outsourcing is definitely a worthwhile option to consider. 

For a number of reasons, remote software production will usually cost fairly less than the same amount of intellectual work executed in-house. Not only the aforementioned management nuances and greater talent access play a part in this. The economical diversity between places and regions of the world is drastic. So, what costs a dollar in NYC may be sold for less than a fifth of that, just across the Atlantic ocean.  

Difficult to believe? 

Check out these stats from SalaryExpert, but take a comfortable position/seat first: 

This is how much devs earn (and thus – charge) on average in Manhatten: 

And here’s how much the same type of work costs in Eastern Europe, Ukraine: 

You may do the calculation yourself. 

When this article was written, this equaled $19,345.

Divide the two numbers and you get a stunning 6.58x difference in costs for the same type of service. And we’re not talking about rent prices – a piece of code surely doesn’t change in a fancy location. 

Are you on Upwork already? 

Don’t rush, there is another crucial factor when it comes to our topic… 

High-quality software services

Last but not least on our list of the outsourcing benefits, is consistent product quality provided by dedicated dev teams. 

Naturally, nobody can give a 100% cashback-if-you-don’t-like-it guarantee that the team you choose will satisfy all of your project’s needs exhaustively. Actually, it’s the same with in-house workers. You would have to do research and run through a few options before finding the best solution for your goals and setup.

That said, just like with air travel – the statistic is on your side in this one. Over 78% of business owners are fully satisfied with their outsourcing partner, according to Deloitte. 

Most of the remote teams out there consist of high-skilled professionals operated by seasoned PM’s. This ensures a smooth development process and above-average quality of the end-product – two of the clients’ most common pain points. 

IT outsourcing challenges

Looking for the drawbacks of hiring remote dev teams, one will have a rather hard time finding one.

Time difference? Perhaps.

Not meeting each other at corporate events? Possibly another benefit.

Most of the time, the working process with outsourced partners is virtually the same as with in-house ones. However, you need to consider the following when outsourcing IT services:

Remote communication

The first seeming issue with outsourcing contracts is communication. Talking to colleagues online is slightly different than in real-life meetings, but not nearly big enough to worry about. A time difference may shift daily/weekly calls slightly, but you can always negotiate a comfortable time.

In fact, we’ve got a short read that’ll help you make the most of online meetings. So go and check if you have any concerns about communication over distance.

Legal regulations

Another obvious issue with ordering products services from abroad is versatile legal regulations and taxes.

The laws are different everywhere, and it may be a lot more or less expensive to outsource depending on your partner’s location.

Moreover, the rules keep changing.

Like that, Britain’s controversial IR35 corporate tax law reforms have complicated a lot of things for businesses not only inside the country but also those working with British companies. Meanwhile over in Ukraine, on the other hand, the taxation scheme has been rather simple and beneficial for international partnerships lately.

So, you have to explore current laws for each particular location individually when looking for outsourced services.

Political situation

One more challenge in international talent sourcing is geopolitics.

Unfortunately, we have seen government tensions around the world harm the informational technology sphere here and there.

One of the biggest IT talent outsource pools, India is breaking records with nearly a hundred cases of nationwide internet outages this year. Another major player in the international outsourcing arena, China is known for radically limiting web access for its citizens, too. Now, the web access pandemic has reached a primary provider of outsourced talent in Eastern Europe – with the recent web access outages in Belarus.

In fact, you may find it interesting to check this up-to-date map of global internet restriction levels – just to have a vague image.

For the local IT businesses under such circumstances, this can mean anything from missed deadlines and postponed work to compromised production and lost contracts. And for their clients, it is clear that outsourcing to a politically unstable country may cost one a business, so they look elsewhere. 

Where to source IT services?

MintyMint’s extensive team of experts is always at your hand when it comes to IT services. Otherwise, it may be helpful to check out this list of the top eastern European software development companies to paint a better picture of what the market has to offer.

We’re on that list, too, in case you wonder.

Final word 

With international enterprises and leaders of software production investing more and more into the remote workforce, it is fair to say that the practice is approved by the giants of the industry. 

IT outsourcing can help to access great talent, improve management, and save the budget. It takes a lot of stress away and allows you to focus on high-impact work. 

You make the bet as what’s best for you and your business. If it’s quality, convenience, and efficiency – our team is here to help! 

Here’s a question: 

When was the last time you had to install a piece of software on your computer’s hard drive? Can you name more than two? 

The OS and Google Chrome don’t count! 

I bet that it’s hard to tell.

Most probably, a very tiny percentage of the digital products you have recently used required installation. At the very least, there must have been the option of running an online version of the service. 

The truth is that from data storage and communication to business management and finance solutions – the tools we depend on are relocating to the cloud, pulling industries worldwide in the same direction. In fact, companies have explored centralized computing since the mid-1980s, so the trend is not young.

Today, the reasons why over a third of all IT budgets are allocated to cloud technology lie on the surface: it is progressive, convenient, and cheap. 

Now, where does SaaS fit in all that?

SaaS stands for Software as a Service.

It can be considered a subcategory of the wider notion of cloud computing, which refers to a variety of web-based software. 

Yes, cloud solutions and SaaS are essentially two sides of the same coin. The tool and the method for executing the same task, they both aim at providing information technology products remotely. The difference is that with SaaS you no longer have to maintain neither the servers nor the service available online. 

At its core, SaaS is a subscription-based product distribution model that utilizes central hosting as opposed to the traditional on-premise software with a perpetual license.  

In simple terms, it is the software you can access via a web browser.

I know what you’re thinking – “Well, that’s a bombshell…”

However, SaaS is an industry-defining trend with over 73% of IT businesses worldwide expected to incorporate it this year. 

Why is it so?

Here’s an example to give you a better picture of why this is happening: 

Think back to the times when the locally-hosted MS Office was the primary document editing platform for your daily activities. 

The whole experience was kind of nightmarish. 

• First of all, it came with a limited number of devices you could run it on, at a relatively high price ( ~ $150 per license). 

• To use it you had to buy a disc or (later on) download and install it. 

• Switching to another computer meant you have to ensure that a relevant version of MS Office is installed there. Otherwise, it didn’t work. 

Once again, enjoying all of these “conveniences” did cost hundreds of dollars.

This is simply hard to imagine today. And few would argue that we are lucky to have things like Office 365 and Google Docs. 

I surely do not complain.

A closer look at Software as a Service

Now that we’ve looked at on-demand software from an average user’s point of view, let’s add the business variable into the equation. 

In general, SaaS solutions can be divided into two main categories – horizontal and vertical. The first group meets the needs of a particular industry like fintech, engineering, or healthcare. The second one is focused on a specific task like management or analytics.

Some of the big SaaS names you must have heard of include: 

• Slack – multi-featured business communication platform.
• Figma – web-based vector graphics editor and prototyping tool.
• Google Drive –  file storage and synchronization service.
• Netflix – media-services provider and production company.

…as well as more narrow-ranged tools like:

• Amazon Web Services – on-demand cloud computing platforms and APIs.
• Salesforce – popular CRM that can be accessed online.
• Quickbooks Online – accounting records available from any place in the world.
• Citrix GoToMeeting – web conferences via a web browser.

See? 

You could be using SaaS on a daily basis without ever noticing it.

A rare case in the business world, on-demand software is a win-for-all type of scenario. 

Just like your favorite food places, it is a mutually beneficial solution both for the service providers and their clients. While the first get an opportunity to do business at scale, the latter ones can enjoy the product hassle-free and quite often at a lesser expense.  

You choose what’s best for you and your business. 

That said, let’s move on to the perks clearly provided by SaaS technology.

Benefits of sticking with SaaS

When it comes to the advantages of sticking with SaaS over the good old packaged software – the list really goes on and on.

Here are the main points:

Accessibility

Easily accessing digital products is among the key factors driving the rapid growth and development of on-demand software. 

In this regard, SaaS offers an impressive degree of flexibility since you are no longer restricted to using a particular platform, device, or location. All you need to access the service is an internet connection and your login information. 

This is very convenient for users as it allows switching between places of work, simplifying the daily grind big time. 

At that, SaaS is even more fruitful businesses-wise. Bridging the technological gap between the service and its consumers, it expands the product’s potential audience beyond a particular platform or device family.

Budget

SaaS is great at cutting costs for all parties involved. 

First of all, enjoying a pay-as-you-go subscription model for your favorite service is very convenient and attractive to the users. 

However, remote hosting is even more profitable for entrepreneurs: 

By eliminating the need for complex hardware setup, it lifts the weight of server maintenance from businesses and places it onto the shoulders of the hosting provider, along with the electricity bills. 

This can radically lower the operational costs and allow you to invest in essential marketing activities or reduce the product price tags to attract clients.  

Quality

There is no such thing as a final product version in the IT industry. All software is constantly revised and improved in order to meet the ever-changing user demand.

SaaS makes it a thousand times easier to do. 

Сentrally-hosted products take much less effort to update and troubleshoot and help to avoid unexpected bugs or compatibility issues.

To the users, this means worry-free access to the latest version of the software they rely on, with no issues. 

Flexibility

Last but not least, flexibility is another item in the basket of SaaS strengths.

Unlike traditional software, on-demand solutions allow you to tweak the software to your favor. So you can change the parameters or even the design of the software at wish. 

Businesses using SaaS can always change the hosting size, processing load, or the very hosting provider to their favor. 

As for the clients of SaaS-based services – the choice is also there to upgrade the plan, get additional features, or roll back to the basic (often free) version of the software.  

Summary

Everything summed up, Software as a Service is not just an advanced product distribution model. It is also a convenient and cost-effective tool for both businesses and their clients alike. 

While there are similar technologies like IaaS and PaaS, they represent slightly different kinds of IT solutions. Meanwhile, software as a service provides access to a specific, ready application. 

What does the market say? 

With the public SaaS market exceeding $150B in 2020, numbers show that global enterprises are making a heavy bet on web-based digital products. 

So, there is no reason to exclude it from your own business strategy, too. Especially if you’re looking for long-term profits.   

They say that customer is always right. 

Indeed, it doesn’t take Gary Vaynerchuk to see that every business or service revolves around the client. The stumbling stone here is guessing exactly what the customers want, and while market analysis and research can surely contribute to that, nothing paints as accurate a picture as a field study would.

Now, how do you do it without wasting a fortune on running the show? The answer is a Minimum Viable Product, or simply – an MVP.

What is it and how to make a minimum viable product your most valuable player? Read on to find out!

What is an MVP product?

Defined in The Lean Startup by Eric Ries, MVP is a functional version of a product that enables gathering maximum customer feedback with the least effort. It can be a landing page, a promotional video, or even a Kickstarter campaign.

The idea is to produce a practical learning tool that’ll help to craft the best solution for a target audience’s issue. So, instead of assembling a complex business plan and relying on expert estimates, you introduce a ready solution using the least amount of resources possible and observe the actual user behavior. The insights gathered then suggest whether you are moving in the right direction or need to change course.

MVP development process typically consists of the following stages: 

1. Idea
2. Research
3. Conceptualization
4. Implementation
5. Feedback

In general, it looks something like this:

Before moving on, let’s get clear with the terminology. 

The word viable means capable of working successfully. This is something many entrepreneurs miss, yearning for perfection. A successful MVP resolves a key user issue and is neither fancy nor sophisticated. Moreso, it can be plain out boring (unless you’re making a game, of course), as long as it provides value.

Here’s an example: 

Say, you’re making a dating app. The perfect scenario here would be a responsive multi-platform app with ratings, interest-matching algorithms, and an in-built messenger. However, the minimum value of a dating app is for a user to find a date.

In this case, a possible MVP looks like a serverless web service with profiles that include a picture, location, and an email (or a public messenger link).

MVP vs final product

A minimum viable product is very different from the final product, mainly in its goals. It’s not there to sell, but rather to test the market. 

Here’s a real-life case in point everyone is familiar with:

McDonald’s founders jump-started the now-global chain of restaurants by combining two of their customers’ main values – top-demand food and low lead time. They reduced the menu to just 3 food positions (with a few choices of drinks) and managed to cut the order time down to under a minute.

Like that, their clients’ favorite meals were ready for takeaway in a blink of an eye. No friction, and ultimate efficiency. 

Years later, McDonald’s menu grew back to include dozens of positions and is available in every corner of the world. But they had to strike that MVP offer first, in order to take off.   

MVP benefits

Creating an MVP can help you to: 

• Cut costs.
• Save the production time and resources.
• Build up an initial client base.
• Get feedback from the market.
• Collect insights on focus features. 
• Attract early investments.

Doesn’t all that sound great?

Naturally, there is rarely a one-fits-all solution in the IT industry, even more so for startup MVP development. Different approaches to building a minimum viable product will fit better or worse depending on your main goals and project stage.

For that matter, MVPs are divided into low-fidelity and high-fidelity ones. 

The first approach is good when you need to:

• Get to know your target audience and their issues.
• See if your product satisfies the customers.
• Evaluate the overall market demand for your offer (smoke testing).
• Find the best solution to the clients’ need. 

Whereas high-fidelity MVPs are helpful to: 

• Assess the optimum price for your offer.
• Get early adopters that’ll recommend your product.
• Optimize your promotional strategy.
• Spot further business growth opportunities.

Before you start building a minimum viable product, consider your main goals and risks, the potential time to market, and your budget and/or funding sources. These questions will help you to paint a clear roadmap of the MVP development process, hopefully, the one to success. 

Types and examples of an MVP

Now that we’ve covered the definition and the main benefits of our subject today, let’s look into the common MVP types along with some notable examples from history to back up the point.

Landing page MVP

Unsurprisingly, a landing page MVP implies creating a simple landing page to present your product or service. The goal is to provide potential clients with a general image of what you offer along with a call to action, whether it’s to sign up or make a pre-order.

In this case, you don’t even need to have the business going on. The idea is to smoke test your offer. Once people discover your “website” and begin interacting, you can evaluate the numbers to learn whether the target audience likes the solution at all.

Like that, your spendings are down to the cost of a landing page plus your ad campaign budget. It is the strategy Joel Gascoigne applied when launching his two-page LP (description & pricing) for Buffer, with no actual functionality behind it.  

Video MVP

Another option of a minimum viable product comes down to recording a promo clip or an explanatory video, putting it up on YouTube, and watching if it gets the views and feedback. The good news is that engaging videos often get viral, automatically launching a word of a mouth promo campaign. The bad news is that few videos hit that mark, and it’s impossible to predict which one will. 

You have to climb a tree in order to get the fruit. After all, producing a video clip is not nearly as cumbersome as developing a complete product. It worked for DropBox, so why wouldn’t it do the same for you? 

Btw, here’s the award-winning video: 

Crowdfunding MVP

Another great way to get your project up and running without eliminating the family budget is to launch a crowdfunding campaign.

In this case, what you do is prepare a concise presentation of your idea, a prototype, or a visual design. Then, share it at either of the popular crowdfunding services like Kickstarter, SeedInvest Technology, or the one developed by our team – 4Friends.

A crowdfunding MVP is really a win-win option. If your idea gets the attention, you receive the funding to invest in something already favored by the market. If it doesn’t – you lose nothing. The only drawback here is that your idea can potentially be stolen and compromised. But hey, you don’t have to give away all the key ingredients. And plus, if the idea is that good – you’ll get the funding before the plagiarists jump out of bed. 

One of the most impressive crowdfunding MVP success stories is that of Pebble. Back in 2012, Eric Migicovsky decided to try his luck on Kickstarter after running out of the initial funding for his revolutionary smartwatch. Guess what followed? A $10M investment and almost half a million watches sold in two years.

Impressive, huh?

Actually, the brand repeated its success a couple of years later, scoring another eight-figure. 

And yes, it didn’t quite survive the competition as time passed, but that is the topic of a whole another discussion…

A Piecemeal MVP

A piecemeal MVP simply means using a free digital platform to provide your service. 

You can throw a promo campaign on social media, launch a special offer email campaign for existing contacts, or explore new audiences via mass-mailing. The key thing is to use a free platform to reach your customers. 

Uber is a great example of applying such a strategy, famously requiring the initial customers to email or SMS one of the founders in order to access the service.

As they say, all is fair in love and war… and business, of course. 

Similarly, you can leverage the power of social media platforms in the same way as Uber did with emails. With billions of users spending half of their free time on social media every day, who said a thoroughly worked out Instagram page can’t be your minimum viable product at the first stages?

Concierge & Wizard of Oz MVPs 

These two minimum viable product types imply using human resources to manage what should potentially be automated. 

With the concierge method, you act like a concierge – greeting guests in person and opening the doors on their way to the value provided. Meanwhile, you are able to collect direct feedback from working closely with the clients.

The Wizard of Oz scheme applies a similar approach. The main difference is that while using manual work to execute the task, it is visually indistinguishable from a complete, finished project. Therefore, users see it as an end product while it’s actually not so – behind the curtains. 

For example, you make a website with a catalog of products, without stocking it. Once an order comes in you get that item from the original supplier and ship it to your client. Believe it or not, this is how Jeff Bezos initiated Amazon back in the day. 

Single-Feature MVP

Last but not least, a single feature product can be your best bet type of MVP. The idea here is to offer a service with nothing but one key feature.

Say, you want to make an online photo editing tool with lots of cool filters, albums, crop tools, etc. Just to kick things off and prove there is potential, you choose one supreme filter and develop an app where users can process and share one pic at a time. 

This will require minimum investments, low server capacity, and overall production simplicity. If people love it, you can always scale up. 

A good example of a successful single-feature MVP is the way Richard Branson’s Virgin Airlines took off by flying just one plane en one route between two major airports in London and Newark, New Jersey. You know where it’s taken sir Branson since.

How to build a minimum viable product for my business?

Now that you know everything about the concept and types of minimum viable products, it’s time to dive into the process of startup MVP development for your own business.

On this path, there are 5 main steps:

1. Allocate the budget

Before launching any product development process, it is crucial to assess how much exactly you will need (1) and are willing (2) to spend on it.

Speaking of MVP, we naturally imply a constrained budget. That said, everyone has their own limitations, and what may be just enough for a mobile application or a web service is probably way above the line for a simple landing page or online business card.

Therefore, evaluate your possibilities and set out a realistic budget for the project first!

2. Determine the type of MVP that suits your purposes the best

As mentioned above, different projects require a different type of MVP to kick-start, no pun intended. Which one suits your purposes is, of course, for you to determine, but here are some general guidelines:

If you promote a product or service and just need to reach your customers and provide them with web space to explore your offering – then a landing page MVP is really all you need.

Looking to mass-produce a product you already have or can make a prototype within your budget to present to potential investors? Then a crowdfunding MVP is the perfect choice for you to amass the funds needed to scale up.

Have a great idea and want to see whether it’ll rock the market? Consider a video MVP where you present the concept in plain words or with minor graphic design to let the world know about your idea and evaluate whether it has the potential to blast.

Should you have the initial budget to invest in a simple mobile or web app to present your business and are willing to take care of the back office work manually – then a concierge or wizard of OZ MVP is your best bet.

Finally, if you’re just starting out a side-hustle like a small retail shop or some sort of beauty nail studio from home, and especially if you target youth and young adults for the most part, then a Social Media MVP is a great point to start from in order to present your service and try to gain the initial client base, without eliminating your budget.

3. Define your target audience

Once you get clear with the budget and the best MVP type to fit your needs, proceed to paint a vivid picture of your target audience. What is your typical customer like, what are his needs and desires, and most importantly – how can your product or service help him achieve it? What features would appeal to your clients the most?

Think about the key benefits you can hook your potential clients with and focus on delivering those. The rule of thumb here is that of space travel voyages – only take the very essential on board.

4. Hire a qualified team

Now that you know exactly what kind of product you need and what does the target audience looks for in it, it’s time to bring it about.

At this stage, it is extremely important to have a qualified team or seasoned individual experts in the field of your project backing you up on the technological (and creative) frontier. Whether it’s a graphic designer, a video editor, a voice-over narrator, or a professional software development team – you’re going to need that expertise to make your MVP stand out and win the hearts of the crowd.

5. Invest in marketing

Last but not least – marketing. They say that a good product will sell itself, which is entirely true. Just think about Apple, for example.

That said, unless you’re making a world-leading digital gadget in bulk or anything of that grade, your product or service will definitely need at least the initial push before the word of mouth picks it up and carries your name around the world.

So, PPC, SEO, SMM campaigns, or influencer marketing – any advertising tool valid in 2021 is at your service, once again, highly dependent on your budget and targeting audience.

Your Minimum Viable Journey

All in all, creating an MVP allows you to save time, cut spendings, understand potential customers, and build up the initial client base. This is an efficient marketing tool not only for startups but for existing companies introducing new services just as well. 

A common mistake to avoid here is confusing the idea with a minimum value solution, which is a totally different thing. By implying a minimum product, an MVP actually offers ultimate value.    

Contact our team if you need help with minimum viable product development!