Continuing on our "7 Deadly Myths of Software Procurement" series with today's Myth:
Myth number 2: “These guys are much more expensive – they must be better!”
More expensive does not mean better. Over the last 20 years I have competed directly against large development companies that have a multitude of developers and large office space, huge board rooms and impressive new gadgets that they used to showcase how amazing they are. Sometimes I have won these assignments, sometimes I have lost, but one thing remains: I still have a 100% client satisfaction ratio. So why did I lose? I lost simply because I don’t have a need to charge the same rates as others because I am smaller. My remote working team of 3-4 developers had nowhere near the cost associated with the 60+ team opposite me. (In fact, with Covid-19, my 4-person remote team would actually have been way ahead of anyone else who now had to setup the ‘work from home’ infrastructure that my team was born with).
The fact of the matter is simply that these guys have much bigger expenses and that the person who is paying for their 108” display monitor is you. So, if what you really want is for your service providers to have awesome toys, then go ahead!
A smaller team does not necessarily have these overhead costs, and that means that they will be able to provide you with much lower price. Also, dealing with smaller companies often gives you direct access to the developer staff without the hoops you usually have to jump through to get to them.
A word of warning… there is a line between cheap and less expensive. Cheap software is just that. Your challenge is to discover if the solutions presented are simply less expensive or if they are cheap.
Counter the myth
Evaluate for yourself if you think that the company will be able to offer a similar (or better) offering despite being less expensive. See if you can determine what the real cost of dealing with a larger enterprise vs the less expensive alternative.
