What criteria are important for a large client when choosing an agency for web development?

Hello, Habr! I propose today to discuss what key criteria a large customer should look at first (several large functional sites for different products or groups of CAs, a number of promotional sites, a pool of development tasks, a lot of support work) when choosing a contractor for design, development and support.

For seed, we took the leaders of the five leading web production in Russia (based on the unified rating of web developers of 2016 that we just published ) and asked them a simple question:



“What are the most important points / criteria that a large customer should pay attention to in the process of selecting potential candidate agencies (tenderers) for comprehensive production support of their entire fleet of Internet projects (design, development, integration, development, support, etc.)? "

And that's what they think on this subject:

Michael Tokovinin , co-founder and managing partner of AIC + QSOFT

“The most important criterion when choosing a contractor is the ability to work with it for a long time and productively. The customer should make sure that the contractor is able to work with long projects, that you are comfortable working together and it turns out to seek a compromise (this is already clear in the first stages). You should not chase a large list of potential services, it will most likely turn out that the contractor is able to do something well, and that he is doing something frankly bad. It’s better to immediately choose those who are not proud of the long price list, but are able to work in conjunction with other specialists ”

Alex Persianov , CEO of ADV

“Experience in required competencies and implementation. The presence of a team allocated to the project is exclusive. Processes and reserves that compensate for the human factor. Focus on the business goals of the customer "

Alla Alexandrova , DEFA CEO

“Ratings are a good tool for finding a partner for the implementation of Internet projects. This is a list of really working companies in the market that produce worthy projects. It is necessary to pay attention to the experience in implementing projects of a similar scale and complexity. It is also worth taking into account the recommendations and reviews of real clients of agencies.

Then comes the <cost / reliability> choice. That is, an understanding of how much you are willing to pay for confidence in meeting deadlines and in the quality of implementation. It must be remembered that high cost is most often justified by factors guaranteeing reliability: professionalism and size of staff, tax and legal purity ”

Yaroslav Popov , CEO of Actis Wunderman

“The main criteria by which it is necessary to select possible agencies to perform comprehensive services in the field of Internet projects can be divided into two categories - these are qualitative criteria and quantitative.

Qualitative indicators include such parameters as the agency’s history, experience in similar projects and in the industry, the agency’s entry into a large network, the agency’s rating level and, of course, the agency’s desire to work with a client. It is also necessary to pay attention to the capabilities and abilities of the agency to develop a client’s business in terms of strategy, understanding of business and business tasks - does the agency have international experience and understanding and experience in using the best cases.

Quantitative indicators include the size of the agency, the cost of services, the number of professionals in a particular profile, the number of employees in the state and in the production department, how many people-hours the agency will need to perform certain works and services, the cost of a person-hour, the agency’s certification of the quality of the services provided and processes.

However, it must be understood that in order to make a final decision, it is necessary to consider a set of these factors and make an informed decision based not only on price ”

Olesya Kucheryavtseva , Development Director Notamedia

“I, as a former representative of the client, can highlight three main points:

1. The composition of the work.
2. Cost and terms of work for each stage and for the entire project.
3. The range of services that the agency provides.

The priority has always been, is and will be with full-cycle agencies that understand that product development is followed by promotion and development. ”

What do you think? What criteria should be decisive when choosing a potential contractor by a large client?