Why it is Safe to sign a Non-Disclosure agreement with an Offshore Software Development Company?

“The most valuable business commodity is Trust! For any successful business, there must be a higher level of trust between the two parties. But it is next to impossible to trust over someone when the business will run over a unique idea or intellectual property instead of any tangible property. Isn’t? There are many burning examples where the business man has reached to a great level with the help of other’s idea being stolen. Even one of the top IT giants in the industry had made its presence in the industry with the virtue of someone else’s idea. In IT industry there is a terrific threat of loss of business idea or we can say Intellectual property during the transaction, so it is always recommended to take all possible measures to avoid any such unpleasant experience”.

What is Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)? The best way to keep something under your control is through a legal agreement. Similarly, to keep your idea secret from others, you can make an agreement with your business partner for the future of your hard earned money. When you choose to outsource your application development work to an offshore software development company, you must process an agreement with them about the secrecy of your intellectual property otherwise your idea may be executed by them in their name and they will get all benefits of yours and you will end up with a huge financial loss. To avoid this issue, you can take the help of NDA i.e. Non Disclosure Agreement. NDA is a legal entity or legally enforceable contract that prohibits the leak of your information in the industry from the offshore software firm. It keeps every aspect into consideration like no leak of intellectual property during and after the development process by anybody who are associated with your project development. There are many other things to consider as well for a good business. We will consider them latter.

Safety and NDA: IT industry is driven by an intangible idea or we can say intellectual property. A good concept can make you billionaire if get executed properly. Facebook, Twitter or Orkut all are nothing but a concept or simply idea; but their execution was so beautiful that they become a one website industry. This hints the importance of new concept or idea for a successful business. If their idea would have stolen before the launch of these products, then what would happen? They could never turn out as a successful business model. So, while developing any application or product, we must make sure that our idea is safe with the offshore company otherwise we cannot achieve what we are dreaming for. Non-Disclosure Agreement can definitely help you as a strong safety measure.

Should you sign a NDA with an Offshore Software Development Company? This is the biggest question regarding NDA. Yes, there is definitely need of NDA for the success of your business; but the NDA should be comprehensive enough. If you have not focused on every aspect of security threats for your application or product then, NDA is simply worthless. Make sure that the Non Disclosure Agreement that you are going to sign with your offshore software firm is really beneficial for you. Because sometimes, some unreliable software companies hide some terms and conditions in the NDA and that might create a big problem for you in future. Imagine they have prepared a Non Disclosure Agreement for you regarding keeping secrecy of your idea during the development process. But if you disconnect your relation with them for some reason during the process then what would happen? Will they still continue to keep your idea secret or not? If they will start a new product with your idea and launch it in the market before yours then what will happen? It can create heavy loss for you. So you should read each and every terms and conditions of the agreement before you sign it with your partner. You should check every detail of the NDA and if something is missing you should ask for modification before you sign up.

Make sure you have taken all possible steps before preparing a NDA: Signing a Non Disclosure Agreement with your partner is a good idea; but again it should be compressive enough to keep your intellectual property safe for longer. It is always recommended to prepare your NDA with the consultation of legal advisors from both parties. Sometimes, some rules are followed strictly in a country while it has no significance in a different country. So, it will create problem in future. For a secure business, you should consult legal advocates from both locations i.e. from yours and from the land of developing country so that you can prepare a strong NDA for your concept. There should not be any loophole in your NDA. For the same; you can take help of any other businessman who have experience in outsourcing project to a remote location. His experiences will definitely help you lot while preparing the NDA. He can inform you all possible threats associated and accordingly you can access and prepare a better and stronger NDA.

It can avoid all possible threats in your business: With NDA, you can avoid all possible threats of loss of information about your concept only if it is really detailed enough. Once you able to prepare it properly with all possible consideration it will help you a lot till the end of your project. Few important considerations are: must include all members of the development team of the offshore software firm in your NDA; because they may disclose it to someone else or even on the social networking sites. So, you must enforce them in prohibiting from these types of behaviour. 2ndly, what would be the time period? Usually, people keep it up to the end of the project, but that is not at all wise!! You should keep some extra time beyond the project duration for your safety; something like extra 2 years or so on sounds better. Now, you should also ask for extremely tight security of your project codes, designs and discussions with the developers or project manager; because they are the core element of your project. The offshore software firm should be asked to sign NDA from all its associated employees to avoid any leakage of information in the process. If all these things are considered and made available in the NDA, then you need not to bother about your intellectual property and have a peaceful sleep at night.

At Mindfire Solutions, we are experts in offshore small team software development and we have been serving our 300+ esteemed clients more than 15 years now and have executed over 1000 projects in various technologies and domains. If you have any custom application ideas in mind and need our expertise, please feel free to write to us at sales at mindfiresolutions dot com and we will revert back within a business day. You can also avail our limited period risk-free trial offer now.

HTML5 mobile app development tips for developers

Creating mobile applications using html5 can possibly make an experienced web developer to the mobile app developer. Lots of businesses have began creating business mobile applications with HTML5 and JavaScript. Because of the rise of HTML5 based mobile operating systems, like Firefox OS along with Sailfish OS, the idea of building HTML5 apps has achieved huge popularity. These days the developers are happy to create apps with the help of HTML5. HTML5 can do excellent things and it's being supported by big players including Adobe, Google, and Amazon.

Ensure that it Support Various Operating Systems - The concept of building apps using html5 is becoming quite common these days. The skilled web developer can easily code mobile apps by using HTML5. The rise of smartphones in the marketplace drives the business owners to build HTML5 based mobile applications. Incorporated with remarkable and innovative features these savvy hand-held gadgets are ready at an affordable price.

Develop a good User Experience - Much delightful and the most gratifying client experience should be a HTML5 developer’s primary focus. Before you can start the composition of code, you should understand what exactly your client is wanting and then plan the strategy. Once you have the strategy, you could potentially start with the coding. You need to value what your client probably expect and how they can get interrelating to the app.

Go With Appropriate App Type - What types of app, packaged or hosted, the one you select to build is important. A packaged app is actually a single zip file which users may download and can do the installation through the app store, whereas assets of any hosted app are generally hosted over a web server. Every app type has some advantages and drawbacks. Hence, it is important to choose which kind of app is ideal for your users and will scale your needs.

Make Use Of Templates Whenever You Can - At the time of building your app, think about the benefit of pre-built templates as well as code snippets whenever possible. Many of the programs and frameworks offer a starter project that may help you speed-up your app development. Make use of them to minimize total development cost besides save a lot of your valuable time.

Think about the Size of the Screen - There are certainly lots of devices found in the market these days, and all comes with a different screen size. It is likely that even more devices are going to be launched in the future, therefore, try not to develop an app simply for a couple of devices. Rather, make it adjust to whatever screen size. The greater amount of devices an application supports, the more and more people will likely adopt it.

Focus On Language Localization - In order to encourage user use of any kind of app, you should not create it for any specific device. Rather, develop it to get universal. Many of the mobile OS that are based on HTML5 such as Firefox OS that has got a large user base of non-English and thus, localization of an app is very important. Therefore no matter if that is a packaged or a hosted app, as per the local of an user, the content needs to be served.

Offer Offline Support - Among the common mistakes which the app developers over and over again do is making an assumption that the user might have accessibility to the internet. Whereas packaged apps usually do not need any kind of internet connection. However, hosted apps require. Offline support has an important role to play in keeping user’s experience when you will find some short of interruptions within network connectivity. For this reason, craft your apps using offline support.

Test Prior To Deployment - Regardless of how attractive or well-functioning you may have built your app when you ignore to test it prior to release, all of your efforts might ruin. It's the stage that enables you to notice whether the app is created in a manner that you wish to be used by your audience. The actual test of an app is for testing it among those individuals who did not test it in the past. When you do the testing prior to deployment, one can know if things are all right or have to do some changes.

Based on a survey, HTML5 use by the developers is quite active nowadays. This will certainly increase the developers approach and the use. This can further increase the need of professional developers of HTML.

At Mindfire Solutions, we have a team of senior HTML5 developers, who have developed over 50 custom HTML5 Applications to our esteemed clients. If you have a custom web application development need, please feel free to write to sales at MindfireSolutions dot com and we would revert back in one business day. You can also avail our limited period Risk-Free Trial offer. 

Planning for a Web App 6 Things You Should Consider Before Getting Started

“Web apps are the next generation web applications to replace websites. Web apps can also be treated as smart sites i.e. websites for smart phones. In the era of smart phones, no industry can ignore the power of web apps for the benefit of its business. Every e-commerce site or other website owners want to create a web app form for their users. As a result, there is an overnight demand of web apps in the industry. But for a successful web app, you must follow some concrete methodologies before you fly into the development process- let’s find them out”!

Cost of development is the most important deciding factor: Money is the most important factor for any business or transaction. It determines which business you should start or at which level your business service should run. Similarly, when you want to build a web app, you must consider the amount that you are able to invest for the process otherwise, you may end up your money in the middle of the development process. Better to determine your budget for the web app before you kick start the development process. Again, you should also consider whether you want to gain profit from your web app; if so then in how much time and all.

Time constraint should be considered: Suppose you are already running a successful business and you want to expand it for the next level, then you should consider the time factor. You should consider how much time you would like to give for the development process. Yes, the deadline used to extend and you must aware of this before you decide to develop your web app for your business. Accordingly, you can make a planning for the development process so that; you can get your REFINED end product before your time limit. It is extremely difficult to build a good approach to meet your time line and quality altogether; still you have to try your best to consider every possible constraint that may delay your process.

Choose the right platform: This is yet another important factor to consider for your venture. There are basically 3 platforms i.e. Android, iOS and Windows. I think you should much bother about Windows until you have already web apps for both Android and iOS. Android has a better market presence in the globe whereas iOS maintains higher standard for its apps. If you want to get a good profit from your app, then you can opt for iOS; but make sure that, you are creating a quality web app otherwise; your app may not be considered for iOS app store. Again for an iOS app, you have to pay little extra as the development cost since iOS developers demand more in the industry. On the other hand, Android platform is having a larger community and you can reach at more number of users through Android. So if you want to reach at more number of users then you can consider Android platform for the development process. Again Android play store is open for everyone so you needn’t to bother about the permission to launch your web app on Android platform. Here the development cost will be less as compared to iOS. So you have to decide wisely which platform suite your business best considering the above points.

Market research and know your target audience: This is the most important consideration for any new business. You must research market properly and find out who are your target audience because it will help you in creating a better canvas for your business. Suppose your target audience is the youth section then you can design your web app accordingly to attract the youth. This becomes extremely vital for the success of your business and you should take this decision consciously with prior research and effort.

Know your competitors before you proceed: Every business is surrounded by a large number of competitors. May it be a small food stall or a big enterprise; there is competition everywhere. In order to sustain in the market you have to provide as better service as your competitors provide. Hence you must shortlist the top competitors of your business and you should go through their web apps if available for your reference. Then accordingly you can develop your assessments for a better web app with more features or improved features for your users. This is a must for every business to consider their competitor’s activities thoroughly so that they can able to modify their business strategy from time to time and hence the web app.

Design the first layout with extensive effort and time: After market research and competitors activities you can sit down and start sketching your business application with your consultants in order to make a better web app for your user. Never underestimate the power of user experience for any business. A bad user experience can ruin your all hard work in no time. So be careful before crafting your template for the business web app. The first layout that you have designed is never becomes the last one. In fact you have to go through multiple iterative processes to reach at a better design. For the same, you need to put all your effort, expertise and you also have to consider the suggestions from your consultants and business associates for an improved user interface. This stage is the most important stage of your entire lifecycle and hence you should take as much time and effort as you can for the success of your business application in future. You can also consider hiring some experienced professionals for this purpose so that they can help you in designing a better pattern for your web app.

If needed, you should outsource your development work to an offshore software development firm. There are many third party software companies or offshore software development firms having a tremendous expertise in your required domain. For safety, you can outsource your web app project to a reliable offshore software development company for better result. You can consider the most trusted offshore software development destination of the world i.e., India for the development process of your web app. You can definitely get an amazing experience with the software developers of an Indian firm for outstanding result that too at less cost.

At Mindfire Solutions, we have been handling custom web application development requirements of our clients since 15 years now. We have dedicated teams for ColdFusion, PHP, PHP Frameworks, Python, ASP.Net and Java to name a few. We also have senior developers in various popular CMS like WordPress, Joomla and Drupal. If you need any assistance in creating engaging web applications for your target customers, please feel free to write to us. As a limited period offer, you can also avail our Risk-Free Trial offer. 

Drupal vs. WordPress: A comparison

“Demand and supply are just like two sides of a coin. To fulfil the demand of the user there must be enough resource so as to meet the expectations of the industry. If you are not able to meet the ever changing demands of the industry then you couldn’t sustain in the market. Similarly technology should be always up to date so as to provide optimum service to the developer and hence the end user. Every technology strives to remain in the industry with newer and advanced features and to serve the industry in a meaningful manner. Content management system is one such platform that provides enough scope for the developers in developing enterprise quality web applications. It definitely reduces the effort of the developer due to its in built systematic architecture and hence increases the productivity of the software developer. Drupal and WordPress are two magnificent CMS software available in the industry to serve in an efficient manner. But, nothing is perfect in this materialistic universe and so the case for these CMSs as well. Let us discuss their advantages and disadvantages and usefulness from the developer’s point of view”.

Ease of Use: For CMS software, user interface plays an important role as a deciding factor. User interface is something that makes sense when we think about ease of use and easy to learn character of the software. The popularity of WordPress is around ten times than that of Drupal considering the fact that the population of WordPress user is ten times more than that of Drupal. This is due to simple user interface and easy to learn approach of WordPress CMS. But the case is different with Drupal; though it is efficient enough to handle complicated web applications but it needs more effort and time from the Drupal developers to learn and integrate all the components of the CMS whereas WYSIWYG editor of WordPress is much more user friendly to provide better accesses for the WordPress developer. In fact WordPress releases upgrades every three four months without creating any annoying experience for the developer whereas Drupal upgrades need effort from the developer to handle the code changes of the newer version.

Scalability: Scalability is something that enables the web developer in crafting enhanced web applications from scratch with less effort and with more efficiency. There are many options available in a CMS platform that extends the features of a web application like integration of advanced themes, templates, plug-ins and components etc. Again the ease of integration of these features matters a lot from the developer’s point of view. WordPress provides sufficient room for the developer to integrate better themes, plug-ins and components etc from a repository of millions of contributions of the industry whereas Drupal developers may not find enough open source templates and plug-ins for their application. But if we consider about the quality of customisation then the clear winner will be Drupal because of its highly optimised Architecture that enables the Drupal developer in building high performance web applications; but at the cost of effort and expertise from the developer. In short we can say the customisation features of WordPress are better for moderate standard web applications whereas Drupal is consistent enough for big content web solutions.

Security features: Undoubtedly the security standards of Drupal are par ahead of WordPress due to its highly optimised design pattern. A Drupal application is extremely secure and hence can be used confidently for any big data application. On the contrary WordPress is little loose from its score and hence it can’t be a trusted one for data driven application. Again due to larger community of WordPress, hackers love to show their talent in the bigger canvas. Hence the security threat is more for a WordPress website than that of a Drupal.

Search Engine Optimization: Search Engine Optimization is one of the most important features of every CMS. There are many third party SEO tools or plug-ins available in the industry along with the inbuilt SEO tools. There are more number of advanced SEO tools and plug-ins available in WordPress platform than that of Drupal. On the contrary, Drupal platform has less number of SEO tools available in the industry but due to its default caching features, it forces Google to give priority for a faster Drupal website. Again Drupal can handle larger volume of content without any hassle and hence it makes a lot sense when we think about search engine optimisation. So it is like a tie between both the platforms from two different angles.

Performance: It is needless to say that the performance of an optimised platform is always better than that of a loosely coupled platform and hence Drupal performs outstanding in the industry. Drupal is having a tremendous popularity in the industry as a tough yet powerful CMS and it enables the developer in building enterprise quality high performance web applications.

Futuristic i.e. Responsiveness and mobile platform support: Industry has understood the importance of responsive web design in building a larger audience community for its business. It can be well achieved with the introduction of smart apps and web apps for different platforms like Android, IOS and windows operating system. Fortunately both Drupal and WordPress provides enough scope for the developer in designing responsive web applications through dedicated mobile theme for their application. WPTouch is one such WordPress mobile theme for responsive web design. It is already revealed that building a responsive web application with WordPress is much easier than that of Drupal platform. Again WordPress handles both the desktop web application as well as mobile web application in a better way so that your website can be well visible on the search engine. In fact WordPress provides real time content editing feature on mobile and it is extremely helpful for updating your blog in real time and it can be done from a native mobile app itself.

And the Winner is: Both the CMSs are having some advantages and disadvantages with respect to different prospective. WordPress is better for a medium volume content application where as Drupal is powerful enough to handle any complex application. WordPress doesn’t require much learning and expertise from a developer whereas Drupal needs it from the very beginning. Drupal is highly secure and stable platform but WordPress is extremely simple and flexible. So we can say Drupal is best platform for complex applications whereas WordPress is a simple platform for quick web building that doesn’t require much expertise from the developer.

We, at Mindfire Solutions, are equally competent in WordPress and Drupal. If you have any custom WordPress plugin development requirements, or need the help of our senior WordPress programmers: please feel free to give a shout to us any time and we will be replying back within one business day.