iPhone apps and Android Apps are interesting  creatures. They help us save time or waste it; they live in your pocket and some of them even make their way to your desktop, e.g. Angry Birds. Simple apps can sell for $1000 (Google: “I Am Rich App”), while an app like MelApp, that educates you as to whether or not you may have skin cancer, can sell for as little as $2. So, what if you have the idea for the next big thing for consumers, your company, or like-minded professionals?

You may be thinking of developing it for yourself. Start by investigating the start-up costs and requirements. Begin your research with the understanding that they are quite different for Android apps and Apple apps, and if you’d like to release in both environments, its double. Also know that you’ll likely be splitting the revenue 70/30 with the app store in which your application is for sale. These things are all important, but they are ancillary to the biggest consideration. Are you comfortable with developing in objective C or java within the iOS or Android framework, respectively? You’ll want to have a bit of prowess in development for both PCs and embedded devices in order to timely turn your idea into a saleable app. After all, you may not be the only one undertaking an app like yours.

You may decide to go the route of having someone develop it for you. Before you approach a company, know and be comfortable with the answers to a few questions. How would you like to share in the risks and rewards of your idea? Will you be covering the cost of development in full or in part? If in part, are you willing to share the revenue from your idea with the company that helped you develop it? Also, be prepared to share enough about your idea to gauge the company’s interest and ability to develop it for you. Once you’ve shared some basics, you may want to request a mutual non-disclosure agreement or provide one of your own to ensure that the intellectual property you’ll be sharing is protected. Most importantly, make sure you can be comfortable working with the company. To bring a well thought-out, intuitive, and usable Android or iOS app to the market, you’ll be communicating frequently and discussing complex ideas in detail. One final note, be weary of a company that will offshore any of your development. Not every place around the globe affords the same level of intellectual property protection, and after all, content is king.

Precision Systems, Inc. has recently been registered as an ISO 9001:2008 certified company. You may be thinking, “So, what does that mean to me?” At the core of the ISO 9001:2008 standard are two ideas that shape the entire standard and therefore the companies that subscribe to the 9001 philosophy. The first is the delivery of high quality products and services. The benefit to the customer may seem obvious but, what about the indirect advantages? If you receive higher quality work product, could you get to market faster and capture a larger share? Would that not only be a mark of prestige, but a monetary gain as well? Could you be working fewer overtime hours fixing the “finished” product that was delivered to you? This brings us to the second core idea of ISO 9001:2008, continual improvement. If some facet of the work product supplied to you could use improvement, how can a change be effected? In a company focused on continual improvement a process is in place to not only receive your input but to incorporate it to provide iteratively better service.

Couldn’t everyone use a vendor that provides high quality products and service and is continually improving?

So, you have the science, mechanics, and hardware under control. What do you look for in the software contractor? When starting from scratch or building-on, having software for your medical device done out-of-house can be an exercise in sniffing out (very expensive) snake oil and herding cats. These may be common sense, but I thought I’d share a few things to look for when you’re talking to a potential software development vendor.

Where are the documents? Does the potential vendor normally develop the project planning and design documentation UP FRONT? If they can’t be held to a plan and a design, it’s hard to hold them to a budget or a due date.

Do they regularly report their status? Does the potential vendor provide a weekly update on progress and planned activity? Can you get it in writing? Status reporting in plain language, on paper, gives you a gauge of the vendor’s progress and provides a structured means of feedback between design reviews.

How’s their past performance? Ask for references and call on them. In my experience, companies are more than willing to tell other (non-competitor) companies how a vendor has served them.

Look for answers to “How do they work?” over, “Have they done a job just like mine before?”. Experience relatable to your project is important, but it’s likely you aren’t making a replica of an existing device. I believe, it’s how a group handles the details of your particular application that will make or break your development.