The Business Benefits of Hiring a .NET Developer for IT Projects

As organizations continue to both expand their business systems and automate more of their processes on a regular basis, there is a significant amount of value to be found in performing that development using Microsoft’s well established ASP.NET web development platform.

This is true both because it is robust, and it has proven over the years to be extensible. It's not just a way to address the challenges of today - it's a way to better position your entire business to tackle the ones that you may face tomorrow, which is ultimately the most important benefit of all.

In an effort to both create and support these systems, companies can hire a .NET developer through a direct employee or partner. They need one that has the right experience to support not just their programs, but their very business as it continues to grow and evolve over time.

There Are Many Business Benefits of Hiring a .NET Developer

All told, the advantages of hiring a .NET developer are plentiful. For starters, the people with the right skills can enable a business to explore new opportunities in terms of automating business processes - thus saving a significant amount of time and money for organizational leaders.

Not only that, but they can make certain business systems accessible anywhere in the world at any time, on any device, all via a platform that is built with security in mind.

Businesses are continually refining and expanding their business systems, which is why the "off-the-shelf" legacy systems of the past just aren't suitable any longer. In many cases, the type of expansion under discussion requires close discussion with business teams. After all, new technology is supposed to support and empower the way they like to work - it shouldn't change their processes because of limitations that those IT solutions bring with them.

Therefore, having a solid relationship with such a team or third-party partner - and being proactive about what is possible - offers innovative new paths for automation. More than that, these types of systems can also reinforce business rules to guarantee that no matter who is using them, mission critical tasks get performed the right way with consistent results every single time.

Essentially, the major benefit to hiring a .NET developer is based on the productivity improvements that said systems offer. Not only does this go a long way towards reducing business expenses by increasing efficiency, but it also helps to improve the amount of profit a company is able to generate as well.

Hire a .NET Team Instead of an Individual .NET Developer to be More Effective

When you hire a single .NET developer, you're getting access to someone who can only perform one task at a time. That in and of itself is the biggest reason why you would want to hire a team instead - they can work on multiple tasks simultaneously, arriving at a higher quality end result far faster than any one person could do on their own.

That's not to say that a lone .NET developer isn't talented, because they very likely are. It's just that there are only so many hours in a day and so many things they can focus on in the moment. With a team of people, they can split their work accordingly to get to a finished solution as fast as possible.

Not only that, but it's unlikely that a single ASP.NET developer would possess all the skills needed to achieve that finished product. Everyone has their specialties, and development professionals are certainly no different. With a team of people, you're getting a chance to draw from all of their collective experiences - making it far more likely that you'll get the business application you need without having to bring in any additional help.

For a more comprehensive look as to why you should hire a .NET development team instead of a lone individual, click here to read the following article.

.NET Development Skills Required for a Successful Project

In general, there are a number of important capabilities that any ASP.NET development team should have. These include but are certainly not limited to ones like:

• Solid business analyst skills. The team should work hard to understand not only the unique processes of the business, but why they matter in terms of the bigger picture. That will allow them to map those processes to the eventual application as quickly as possible.
• An ability to create accurate project estimates. These estimates need to be based on fact with all of the elements of the project broken down. Additional time needs to be added for overhead, communication, QA testing, rework and a line item for unknowns. The development process is nothing if not iterative, but an ASP.NET development team still needs to be able to communicate when certain milestones happen and when deliverables can be expected to keep expectations in order.
• Good project management skills. These skills are a necessity in an effort to keep all key stakeholders on the same page at the same time.
• Complex problem-solving abilities. The team should also have the ability to solve complex process flow problems, because again: taking a manual business process and converting it into a digital one isn't necessarily a 1:1 translation. The way you do things in a digital medium is always different than you do them in a manual paper process. Adjustments will need to be made and key decisions will have to happen during the process, so they'll need to be comfortable evolving while on-the-job.
• Good database design skills. The team will also need the ability to translate business data needs into a well-structured, scalable database design. That database will be able to act as a "single source of truth" for the organization - something that all key intelligence flows through to guarantee that the people who need it to do their jobs actually have it. Poor database design leads to poor performance and difficulty in scaling a web application as the organization’s needs grow over time.
• Having a QA team. They should have independent testers that are different individuals than the programmers themselves. Sometimes, the programmers are too close to the project - meaning they can't see the forest for the trees, so to speak. Separate testers, that is, a second set of eyes, goes a long way in identifying problems and arriving at a better end result.
• Ability to set and meet deadlines. They should have the ability to stay on schedule for the project. This is one of the reasons why you'll want to ask for references and speak to past clients to get more information on what their experiences might have been.
• Agile development. The team must also work in an agile development methodology - one where the client's needs can be addressed and changed during the project. This is especially important when business needs are evolving all the time, and a solution - even one in active development - needs to be able to change with it.
• Scalability. You should also prioritize a scalable team that lets you tailor your development process to your unique time constraints, as well as any budgetary concerns you might have. Should they put 4 people on the project and get it done in a year or 8 people and get in 6 months if you monthly burn rate allows? In other words, they need to be willing to work with what structure you set out for them -they should be willing to work to meet your needs, not the other way around.
• Personnel redundancy. Additionally, you need to look for a team that has redundancy so that whenever someone is on vacation or out sick, on maternity leave, death in the family, etc., there are others to fill in. With a lone .NET developer, if that person is out for a couple of weeks , all work on the project stops.
• Good value for the price. The team should have competitive billing rates, meaning that you shouldn't have to worry about being overcharged based on the amount of value you're receiving.
• Exceptional communication skills. The team must have excellent communication skills to overcome situations where problems arise or expectations may change. This is especially true for project managers and business analysts. THE #1 REASON FOR SOFTWARE PROJECT FAILURE IS POOR COMMUNICATION.

In the end, every organization needs the ability to create, update and extend their business systems. Not only is this how they operate as efficiently as possible - it's a big part of what goes into the development of their competitive advantage in their marketplace.

Beyond that, they also need the business systems they rely on to be built on a modern web technology platform - with ASP.NET being perhaps the best example. If they're not, they should consider modernizing their legacy systems with this mature and robust platform.

Overall, what makes a company unique is the specific business processes their employees rely on. Using off-the-shelf software does not enable a business to leverage its unique business processes to its own advantage - those processes that are a big part of what made them successful in the first place. Remember: it's not about "leveling the playing field." It's about harnessing a quality that nobody else has to your advantage.

Creating custom software to manage their unique processes goes a long way towards accomplishing precisely that. ASP.NET developers by their nature can offer a significant amount of value to organizations to implement and maintain these unique systems, which is why this is one investment that is more than worth making.

To learn more about improving your business efficiency, please download the eBook titled "How to Automate Business Process in 7 Smart Steps."