Why should you hire certified software support?

“Software is eating the world” Marc Andreessen

If we were to paraphrase these words to match today’s world shape, I think we could safely say that “Software is eating software” or more precisely “Large software is eating small software”.

Why is that? The possibilities delivered today by the largest software solutions, in connection with the no-code or low-code automation platforms are so vast that sometimes they completely eliminate the need for custom software solutions.

Who would imagine that setting up your own website or an e-commerce store together with integration with your mailing automation campaigns and logistics system would be a few click process 10 years ago? Today’s it’s not only a store, website, or even your own marketplace setup that has become simple. It’s also the integration between different software solutions we use every day in our businesses. Setting up a complete automation framework by large enterprise businesses in 10 years from now will likely become a no-code clicking and connection process.

Will this make software development/support and us humans redundant?

I don’t think so, that’s why in this article, I’m happy to tell you why your business needs a professional software support today and why it’s worth to hire one at SoftwareSupp.

Today’s technological (and not only) challenges

As a Pipedrive and sometimes Shopify consultant at SoftwareSupp, I talk to people a lot these days. I would say I’m a kind of a priest listening to our current and potential customers who confess their problems when it comes to their software solutions and connection between their technology and business processes.

Hence, I’m happy to share some of the most common issues I hear them saying:

• Sync issues: “This connection/zap doesn’t work, anymore”

One of the most common issues I hear is that something which was created by the company (internally or with consultant’s support) doesn’t work, anymore.

• Know-how issues: “I don’t know how to set it up”

Sometimes things just get too complicated and require specialized knowledge and experience (in workflow and integration).

• Custom dev issues: “That requires custom script”

Sometimes it’s just not possible to do something without a custom software/solution in place.

• Business issues: “I don’t know how this workflow should work”

Sometimes matching the technological solution with business processes inside the company is a major challenge.

• Time issues: “We’re spending tons of time doing this manually”

Some teams spend a lot of time doing things that can be easily automated.

• Objective view issue: “We’re not able to assess our performance objectively”

Working as an internal team, it’s difficult to maintain objectivity regarding the proper business, technology, or sometimes salary structure.

• Agency dependent issue: “We’re highly dependent on the software agency we started working with some time ago”

Sometimes, it’s just difficult to get out of the agency contract you’ve signed in the past.

• Just do the job for us: “We have so many work to do that we don’t have resources and time to take care of technology”

And finally, some of the teams are too busy working on their businesses that they’d rather outsource the technical part of the job to somebody else.

Some automation and tech stats

If you’re still wondering if the above tech challenges are true or just a temporary trend, below you can find just a few stats that might convince you:

• Companies use an average of 34 SaaS apps (Source: BetterCloud research)
• The annual growth rate of the SaaS market is 18% (Source: MarketsAndMarkets)
• Companies allocate approximately 26% of their IT budget for software and 21% for cloud apps (Source: The State of IT by Spiceworks)
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Zapier becomes a key tool for businesses’ automation these days, so it’s no surprise to see it growing like crazy in popularity (Google Trends), with +1m users worldwide and over 1,300 of different software integrations.
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And according to research by Markets and Markets, the market for low-code platforms was $4.3 billion in 2017. It is predicted to grow to more than $27 billion by 2022.
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And it’s not only startups and emerging companies participating in this trend. No wonder big players have launched their own automation platforms with Power Automate (previously Flow) gaining traction and new possibilities every month.

Why hire additional software support?

Most of the issues related to software can be solved internally by solving a specific issue with the right connection and automation of the technology.

But the more integrations, connections, and zaps you have in your business, the more challenges you’ll need to face every day.

Let me show you a few reasons why external software support might be of help for your business:

Expertise in the specific field

In SoftwareSupp we hire experts specialized in selected fields and check on their previous experience and certifications, e.g. whether they have already completed certifications with the selected software vendor, like Zoho, HubSpot, Pipedrive or Zapier. This helps us deliver high-quality work for customers. Not too many companies have access to this kind of expertise knowledge internally.
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Save time on running software setup

We spend more and more time on configuring software and building technology processes. And it’s not always the expert knowledge that’s the main obstacle. It’s just a lack of time that is the issue here as sometimes we just need more time to focus on actual business activities. Hiring an external expert will save your time on software integration and configuration.
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Outsourcing the task which is too tough to handle

Sometimes, when using the software we just hit the wall which is too difficult to overcome. Despite the knowledge in the field, it turns out that we’re simply not able to handle more difficult API integration, analytics setup, or trigger-based automation. This can be a perfect moment for hiring external software support for your and/or your employees.
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Train your team

Hiring external software support can also be used as training for your team, helping them become better in software setup and automation someday in the future. Use it to your advantage, work with your software support actively, and discover their methods of handling the most difficult development tasks.
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Grow your network

Working with other people creates great opportunities for collaboration, growing your network, and building potential distributions. Every time you hire certified software support, you get a chance to expand your potential customers/partners’ network. Some of our customers have actually been able to build great relationships when working with us or our experts through our platform.

How we work at SoftwareSupp

Let me show you how we deliver on the above value points at SoftwareSupp:

Expert assigning process

We assign a dedicated person with experience working on the projects in the selected technology. Experts we work with are already certified by software vendors or have been selected through a customer check/screening process.
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Project management process

All our projects are owned by a project manager on our side, introducing new customers to the project plan, planning on milestones, and collecting access to the proper solutions used in your business.
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Secured access submission

In the software world, data security is essential, that’s why we’ve designed a secured access sharing form allowing us to collect access from the customer in a secure way.
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Quality assurance

All of our projects are checked on the quality through a regular NPS questionnaire we deliver to customers, making sure they’re fully satisfied with the work we deliver their way.

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Quick and transparent estimate & deployment

A maximum time to estimate the project and to deploy the project with us is 24h. We strive to make it even shorter and we’re looking forward to seeing our customers start projects immediately once they decide to do so. For every project, we make sure that customers are aware of the costs upfront to not be surprised by the hourly rate billing.

With a growing number of software solutions, it has become challenging to manage them all and handle the interconnections/dependencies internally.

Also, the open API creates endless possibilities when it comes to custom software integration.

Use it to your advantage to grow your business and save your team’s time spent on manual and repetitive tasks or just help them go through the most pressing issue by hiring external software support.