5 Hidden After-Launch Costs of Software You Need to Know 

After months or even years of blood and sweat, your software is finally up and running. What can be better than this? A big relief and so much more to expect from this software for your business. The biggest relief businesses have is that monthly expenses will finally go down. Well, this notion however is not true at all. Hidden costs of software are always involved even after your software is ready and running in full swing.  

Unfortunately, very few people realise that even after development they have to bear some software-related expenses. People are so busy determining the development rates that they give no attention to the post-launch development costs. 

This guide will explain the top 5 hidden costs of software that you must be ready to incur after your software is launched. 

Maintaining Your Staff

Employees play a pivotal role to develop software. But do you know that the app development team need to keep on working on your software even after it has been launched? Software needs to develop with time according to the new opportunities present in the market. Even you have to make changes or upgrade as per the changing needs of the customers. 

Remember that technology is always dynamic and should keep on evolving to get the most optimal results. Stagnant technology is no less than dead technology. Take the example of the companies such as Facebook, Twitter or Google which are global giants, they have an army of engineers working behind them. The reason is that software development is never finished. For this reason, you have to maintain your staff as well.  Moreover, if you do not employ anyone for your software then your software is bound to die as it will find no place for itself in the competitive market. 

Hosting Expenses

Your initial budget must encompass hosting expenses. These costs are related to hosting the servers for your software. There is a lot in your app such as email servers, push notification servers, analytics servers, integration servers, and other servers on the basis of the type of app you’re developing. Most probably, you may be involved with a company that offers you a product or Saas that requires you to pay a monthly amount. And to host the software in the cloud with a company such as Amazon Web Services. These services also require you to pay monthly fees for subscriptions. 

Other than that, you have to bear expenses as your company scales. Therefore, you must make it a point to get ready for this type of expense from a budget standpoint. 

Maintenance

Before your launch, you must have gone through the technology to ensure that everything is working smoothly and hassle-free. There has been intensive work on finding and fixing bugs. Well, the work is not over yet. No doubt you must have fixed bugs and done your best to have error-free software still devices need to upgrade themselves as time advances. And no maintenance of the app will make it regress which nobody wants. And maintaining software does come with a cost. 

Refactoring

Refactoring is another aspect of maintenance that needs to be highlighted here. The idea that lies behind refactoring is that you write code that needs to pass the basic testing, compliance, limitations or several other factors. 

Let us understand how refactoring works. Some of your code which was written during development must have passed with flying colours. However, as you progress, it may be needed to be rewritten in order to deal with the new traffic loads as your business boosts. 

Such kind of good problems is welcomed gracefully as it means that you are growing as a business. However, this good problem does include cost.  

Training

Training seems to be the most undermined cost in terms of hidden software costs. The major mistake which people commit is that they assume that their staff who is accountable for maintaining the app will stick with them forever. However, this does not happen. If we talk in real terms, some of your staff may decide to leave you and grab some other job opportunities. And in some cases, you may be dissatisfied with the services of some of your employees and you may fire them. In such cases of turnover or new hiring rigorous training sessions are required. 

The average cost that is needed to recruit, hire, and train a new employee is $4,000. So you must bear these costs as well. And in the tech industry, this cost is quite higher as compared to other professionals. 

Strategic Costs

Remember that you also have to bear strategic costs when you come across a new market opportunity. You need to switch gears promptly to fulfil the market needs. Market needs are time sensitive for sure and delays in making moves may lead to more delays. You have to take advantage of being the first mover. Moreover, there is immense competition that you have to face strategic costs that can save you in such scenarios. 

For this purpose, you also need to employ a few extra people to ensure that you hit your target on time. So you must anticipate such kinds of costs in advance. 

Get in touch with the experts of Elephy Tech, a software development company in Australia, to get reliable guidance related to the pre and after-development costs of software.