Please introduce your company and give a brief about your role within the company?
Nord Clan is a young company that's growing at an accelerated pace. We deliver software development services and solutions for medium to large businesses to ensure their competitive edge in terms of digitalization of their services, customer communication, and business processes management. Our expertise is in custom software development and computer vision solutions. My role concerns strategy planning, investment in perspective ideas, and setting up the new domains to provide our business growth.
What was the idea behind starting this organization?
My partners and I have succeeded in the software development industry for over 16 years and have gained sufficient experience in building enterprise software, product design, project management, and customer care. We, as top managers, can carry over our successful experience in the management and development of an IT business to our own company. Making our customers happy with the services we provide is what brings us joy and enthusiasm to carry on our expertise.
What is your company’s business model–in house team or third party vendors/ outsourcing?
We are a software engineering company. In this regard, the majority of works is performed within our development offices. However, we do practice working on the Customer site when it comes to requirement gathering, demonstrations, solution deployments, and user immersion processes.
How is your business model beneficial from a value addition perspective to the clients compared to other companies' models?
Considering other things being equal, we bring Customer product to life faster than the rest of the field. This is possible due to the following factors:
- Focus on certain industries. We know the specifics and intricacies of a particular business. Catching the meaning at once allows us to offer viable solutions for the Customers within a short period and without silly questions being exchanged back and forth.
- Ready solutions or modules (know-how practices)
- Our workflow with vendors and contractors allows us to seamlessly scale the development in keeping with the pace of Customer’s growing/increasing demands.
Eventually, treating every single customer like one of a kind is what gets us the competitive edge. We listen to our clients; manage their expectations and requirements so that at the end of the day, they receive an outstanding result.
What industries do you generally cater to? Are your customers repetitive?
We focus on fintech, food tech, and health care industries. The company is still young, although we have been able to accumulate a large pool of loyal customers already successfully. We grow all together in long-term partnerships and deep collaboration. Every customer comes back to us with new tasks and projects.
Mention the objectives or the parameters critical in determining the time frame of developing software.
It is a challenging question. Many factors and parameters are having their effect on the timeframe of developing software. First of all, we need to hear our customers out, understand his/her requirements, expectations, and due dates. Once the product, scope of works, customer expectations, and budget are clear, we would elaborate on technologies to be used further and come up with an estimated delivery date. Also, sometimes, the scope of works could change as per customer vision that will also affect the delivery time. I would always cite an analogy to my colleagues that software product is like a baby; it is changing, growing, and evolving. Most importantly, it becomes mature, just like the human counterpart, but at a different pace. You can only estimate the delivery time since there are plenty of factors that have a direct influence on it, and some of them are hidden along the way of development.
How much effort in terms of time goes into developing the front end and back end of software?
It depends on the project itself, really, so the ratio is continually changing. But the best-case scenario will be a turnkey solution that we are creating for our customers from the ground up where, I would say, up to 25-30% is taken up by the requirement processing and communication with the client and internally. Consequently, 45%-50% of time and efforts go to development (both front and back end, and the ratio varies according to project specifics), and the rest is booked for quality assurance. Interestingly, there are cases where we can significantly increase development pace and shorten time to market the product if there are appropriate ready solutions or modules used for the backend. A unique front end that is adapted for customer’s design and user experience is always an integral part of any project.
What are the key parameters to be considered before selecting the right framework for developing software?
There are three significant aspects. First is infrastructure, technology stack that is already in use on the client-side, and the in-house team expertise. The second aspect is the search and validation of ready solutions used as an integral part of the entire product (such as CRM, TMS, BI, our modules, and algorithms). Also, Integration difficulty evaluation. The third aspect: the selection of the frameworks is determined by the pace and ease of development, available community that maintains and expands it.
Which languages & frameworks do you prefer to use in development of software?
Java Spring, NET Core, React, React Native, and QA expertise is what makes Nord Clan stand out in this highly competitive environment and covers pretty much any requirement of our customers.
What are the key factors that you consider before deciding the cost of software?
We always have a friendly and honest talk with Customer to find out their budget requirements and then proceed with elaborating on the solution. It is a well-known fact that clients aim for to be operating within their budget and feel comfortable. Once that budget is determined, we provide them with options as to what they can expect.
On the other hand, we are able to manage Customer’s expectations and shift their focus to costs that matter most and will benefit the product and business.
What kind of payment structure do you follow to bill your clients? Is it Pay per Feature, Fixed Cost, Pay per Milestone (could be in phases, months, versions etc.)
Payment structure varies from project to project and should be liaised with customers before the development begins. However, there are two significant approaches within Nord Clan:
1) Time and Material basis. It is a widely known and common practice for the industry. The customer gets billed for the actual time our development team spends on the project.
2) We break the entire project down to milestones, which, consequently, gets approved by the customer. Afterward, payment is projected for every milestone.
Do you take in projects which meet your basic budget requirement? If yes, what is the minimum requirement? If no, on what minimum budget you have worked for?
We are always open for any opportunities, so we process every request with care. However, we are focusing on projects within $35,000 - $ 1 000,000 USD range.
What is the price range (min and max) of the projects that you catered to in 2019?
The minimum and maximum price range for the projects of the past year was between $35,000 - $500,000.
