Scalability, an essential criteria when selecting a software vendor

1 year ago - 2 minute(s) read

A software vendor's scalability refers to its ability to handle increasing demand and growth without compromising reliability, performance or quality of their products. If the vendor's base of customers expands, their products usage atterns change or new features are added to their products, then scalability might become a critical factor for their success. 

If their attrition rate is big or they have difficulties providing more staff in the long run, this could spell problems.

Let's have a look at some aspects of scalability below:

a) technical scalability
b) infrastructure scalability
c) performance optimization
d) data management
e) support and customer service
f) feature scalability
g) vendor's roadmap and innovation
h) partnerships and alliances

Now, the point a), b) and f) are essential and the vendor should be able to scale these areas as the project develops. This could translate into increased workload, additional features or evolving requirements, which further translate into more manpower, multiple technologies and management staaff. 

A varied tech stack and a strong HR dept. or another way to replenish/increase the workforce could be beneficial for the above situation.

At Zegasoftware, we set up a coding academy that can fulfill our needs on a long enough time frame, as our clients would scale from one initial team to many.

Our Academy program puts every year 20 people through a series of high-paced IT courses that will turn them into competent Junior-Mid Web Developers, over the course of seven months. At the end of the program, successful students get hired on some of Zega's most prominent projects.

The diverse tech stack consists of Java, JavaScript and SQL as the primary programming platforms of the Academy. Using this base, the students also get to dive into frontend technologies such as HTML, CSS with Bootstrap, React JS, TypeScript, and backend technologies like Spring Framework (with Spring Boot, Spring MVC, Spring Data JPA, Spring Security), Thymeleaf, JUnit, Mockito, Open API and relational dabases like PostgreSQL and Microsoft SQL Server.

We believe internal courses/coding schools are a strong asset when selling outsourcing services and a sign that the vendor will be able to scale succesfully in the long run. 

Do you ever check your vendor's capacity to scale?