The biggest question when starting to look for a development team is: “Will we be a good match?”. You want to be confident we can deliver what you need. In return, we want to deliver that excellent work - and enjoy the project!
This page will help you figure out the answer to that key “match” question.
A typical client
There are two typical types of clients we work with - let’s call them The Outsourcer and The Director.
The Outsourcer
As The Outsourcer, you have a tech or project lead responsibility within an organisation. You could be selling internationally. You might work in insurance or e-commerce or in a business that's highly regulated. You might have a complicated supply chain.
In this case, Switchplane acts as your outsourced development team. We can help your business grow when you don’t have the internal capacity. We have the developers and the experience to support you.
The Director
As The Director, you head up a company in a traditional industry like construction or manufacturing. You have a lot of competition and your time is tight - you want to free that time up and stay ahead of your competitors.
You’re looking to delegate to a software system or application so you can get your time back to focus on what matters most. We build that software to help you.
Do either of these personas resonate with you? Keep reading.
Industry sector doesn’t matter
We have plenty of experience working with businesses and organisations in:
- Insurance
- Construction
- Manufacturing
- Travel
- Logistics
- Distribution
- E-commerce
- Social good
But we’ve found that industry type doesn’t really matter. The most common issues tend to span different industries.
Whilst we love solving any kind of problem you may throw at us, there's a trend in what clients approach us with. Problems like:
- Complex business processes that are difficult to co-ordinate
- A lot of manual processes that leave lots of room for error
- Turning away work because you're too busy
- Working in a growing or niche sector
- Losing control of spreadsheets
- Legacy or inefficient processes affecting the ability to scale up
- Different system not communicating with one another
- Poor access to data and reporting for making business decisions
Do these problems sound familiar to you? We relish fixing these kinds of issues - it’s our bread and butter.
It’s a mindset thing
Switchplane has many attributes that show we're the software development firm for you.
- Are you adaptable?
- Do you like to delegate to others?
- Are you looking for an ongoing relationship rather than a one-off project or purchase?
- Do you want to scale up, but not sure how?
- Are you financially savvy, but a little unsure on tech?
If you answered “yes” to most of the above questions, then we’ll most likely get on very well. These are traits that our clients share. They help us to achieve great things together.
Let’s be upfront
There are some companies we struggle working with. That’s not anyone’s fault - sometimes we’re just not a good match.
Some of those ‘red flags’ for us include:
- You don’t want to work Agile
- You want to fix all three of scope, time, and cost
- You won’t pay for discovery, architecture, or documentation
- You’re an ideas person without any business experience
- You’re a start-up and you’re missing either funding or a technical background
- It’s not your main job
- You can’t commit to meeting at least every two weeks
From our experience, neither of us will be happy in the business relationship, and that’s not what we want.
Want to find out more about our current partners?
Take a look at some of our case studies to see how we’ve built custom software to suit their needs.
