GBCORP BLOG · IT SERVICES
Company to Develop an App: The Five Questions Before You Choose
Looking for a company to develop an app is easier with five questions in hand. They are about apps in the stores, price, ownership, rhythm and support, and GBCORP's answers are below each one.
A business looking for a company to develop an app usually compares portfolios and prices. Portfolios show design; prices without a scope show nothing. The five questions below predict the outcome better than either, and GBCORP answers each one the same way for every client: apps it runs in the stores today, a fixed price per release, everything in the client’s name, a build every two weeks, and a support plan in writing.
The five questions
| Question | What the answer tells you | GBCORP |
|---|---|---|
| Which apps do you run yourselves, in the stores today? | Install two and use them. A company that runs its own apps knows the store rules and the running costs. | GBCORP’s own products, on both stores |
| How is the work priced? | Per release, fixed, with a date; or per hour, open-ended. | Fixed price per release; scoping week priced on its own |
| Whose name is on the accounts? | Cloud, stores, payments, domain, from week one. | The client’s, from week one |
| When do we see it? | A build on our phone every two weeks, or a reveal at the end. | Every two weeks, with a release note |
| What happens after launch? | A support plan with response times, or silence. | Monthly plan with response times in writing |
Configured or custom, and why it matters for the choice
If the app is an ordering, booking, loyalty, portal, education, healthcare or property app, a company with a white-label engine delivers it in days at a flat plan, and a company without one will build it from scratch over months. If the app runs a process that is the business’s own advantage, the company should build custom on a shared core so the common parts are not rebuilt. Ask which route the company proposes and why; a company that offers only one route will fit that route to every business.
What a good first conversation sounds like
The company asks what the app should do for whom and which number it should move, before it talks about features. It proposes a route with reasons. It offers a scoping week priced on its own, whose documents the business keeps. It names its contact and its build rhythm. It puts ownership and exit in writing before the price. GBCORP’s first conversation follows that order on purpose.
Checklist before choosing
- Install two of the company’s apps and use them for a week.
- Ask for the price per release and the scoping week priced separately.
- Read the ownership and exit clauses before the price.
- Ask for the support plan in writing with response times.
- Ask who your contact is and how fast they answer.
- Agree the number that defines success, measured before and after.
The numbers to expect
A configured app live within one to five working days on the web, store listings after review, a flat monthly plan. A custom first release in eight to twelve weeks at a fixed price after a priced scoping week. Releases every two weeks. Support at a known monthly figure. Customised or more complex functionality is quoted separately before any work starts.
A worked example
A pharmacy chain shortlisted three companies. The first showed a portfolio of designs and quoted a price without a scope. The second proposed a six-month custom build for an ordering app. GBCORP proposed configuring its ordering and loyalty engine in a fortnight at a flat plan, with the chain’s prescription-upload rule as one priced release. The chain asked the five questions of all three, installed GBCORP’s own apps, and chose on the answers. The app was in both stores in five weeks under the chain’s name.
Reading a quotation
A quotation without a scope is a guess; ask for the scope first. A price in days is a price that grows; ask for a price per release. A quotation that includes the store accounts in the supplier’s name is a lease; ask for them in yours. A quotation with no support plan ends at launch; ask for one with response times. GBCORP’s quotation is built to survive those four questions, because they are the ones that matter.
Red flags in the first month
A scope still being discussed in week three. A first build promised at the end rather than every fortnight. Accounts opened in the developer’s name for convenience. Questions answered by phone with no written record. Each is fixable in the first month and expensive after it, and a good company removes each before it is raised.
The scoping week as the decision
Buy the scoping week from the shortlisted company and judge the documents: screens the business’s own staff have clicked through, a written scope that says what the first release does not do, a fixed quotation with dates. The documents are the business’s whatever it decides. One week and one fee tell more than three months of proposals.
After launch
A support plan with monitoring, patches, operating-system and store updates, hours for small changes and response times by severity. A quarterly review of the number the app was built to move. Releases every fortnight for as long as the business has changes worth paying for, and a clean stop when it does not.
Ownership terms
Brand, data and accounts are the business’s. Store and payment accounts are in its name from week one. On custom work the code is delivered, documented. Data exportable at any time. No commission on sales, and no credentials retained after a hand-over unless a support contract requires them.
Questions we hear first
Should we choose a local company?
Choose on the five questions; a fortnightly build rhythm and written decisions matter more than distance. GBCORP works across 17 countries on 4 continents.
How do we compare prices fairly?
Only against a written scope. Ask each company to price the same scoping-week document.
What if we have an app already?
A scoping week maps it; the extension or rebuild ships as an update to the same store listing.
Can we test GBCORP cheaply?
Configure one app on a monthly plan, or buy the scoping week; both are small and both show the method.
Where to start
The GBCORP Custom App Development product is the priced starting point; the GBCORP custom app development hub sets out the method. For the owner’s question in plain words, read who can build an app for my business.
GBCORP operates across 17 countries on 4 continents through six pillars: AI & IT, Innovation, Sustainability, Infrastructure, Premium Business, and EV's & Solutions.
