The 4 questions you should ask your external service provider before signing

Here are four questions we advise you to ask the agency or service provider before signing. This will allow you to better evaluate the seriousness, the quality and the compatibility with the agency in question.

#1 Where are your business experts/developers located?

This may sound like a silly question, but more and more service companies are outsourcing part or all of their teams. So you think you are getting a "Swiss made" service, local, but in the Swiss office you have only the founders and maybe some sales people. All the developers, designers and business experts are outsourced.

The advantages of working with complete teams that are based in Switzerland are numerous. Sharing the same culture, the same language, but also the same time zone ensures a better communication and understanding of your needs as well as reactivity on the part of the provider.

At Atipik, 100% of our teams are in Carouge! Because to develop Swiss Made apps, our developers have to be in Switzerland. We don't outsource our expertise and it's important to us that all the work takes place in our open space here! The work, the communication, but especially the team cohesion are much better this way. Feel free to come and have a coffee or tea with us if you want to meet the Atipik team.

#2 What will happen once the mobile or web application is delivered?

An application, a website or even an internal tool, must live and evolve. So, consider asking the agency how it accompanies, or what it proposes to accompany its customers after the delivery of the product. Any app or any site must have maintenance, because technologies evolve and your needs and your customers' expectations change too.

For our customers, every delivery is followed by a period of "hypercare", during which our teams monitor and oversee all activity on the product in detail. To ensure responsiveness to potential bugs, we have real-time monitoring of the apps displayed in our offices. This allows us to quickly identify and proactively correct any potential problem. Then comes the support phase during which we communicate on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, depending on our customers' needs. These meetings allow us to discuss improvements or solutions that can be implemented. Our collaboration with our customers is designed to ensure that the application not only meets expectations, but also evolves.

#3 What parts of the project will be outsourced?

It may happen that your provider has to outsource or subcontract some parts of a mission. The hosting of a website for example, the servers, etc. Don't forget to ask which parts of the project will be outsourced and by whom!

At Atipik, we do not outsource expertise, all human needs are handled by our teams here in Carouge. We can, however, call on trusted players with whom we have been working for a long time, who meet the same commitments (security, privacy, etc.) as we do and who are local (as far as possible). To give some examples, we outsource services such as hosting, servers, etc.

#4 Have you ever worked with clients in the same industry as my company?

Some industries can bring many challenges or difficulties for outsourcers, such as medical or financial. If your provider has worked with clients in the same industry as your company, this can have a significant impact on your collaboration: the provider will understand your jargon and issues, and you will be able to communicate more easily with them. The service provider will also be better able to propose an offer that will correspond more precisely to your needs and expectations.

In Atipik's portfolio, you will find clients in education, aviation, culture, real estate, perfumery and many others. Not to mention the expertise and knowledge we have in-house thanks to our teams and their past experiences. This gives us a wide range of knowledge that we make available to our clients without hesitation.

Asking these questions before choosing a definitive provider for your project or your digital needs will allow you to avoid wasting time and money for your company. Don't forget that the feeling plays a lot too, trust your instinct for the communication aspect, but be careful not to be fooled on the level of expertise or the real service that the provider will deliver. Working with an external company requires collaboration on both sides, as with any relationship, both parties must be involved in order for everything to run smoothly.

Too many companies are still being taken advantage of by agencies that are not serious, or regret not having taken more time beforehand to select a better provider.

If you want to know more about Atipik, its teams or how it can support your company's digital projects, please contact us!