The basics of offshore software development
Offshore outsourcing refers to delegating a project or particular tasks
to a third-party service provider. Software development vendors’ headquarters
are usually located in another country and usually another timezone.
For example, a company from the USA is transferring its project to a software
development service provider in Ukraine.
Key pros and cons of choosing an offshore software
development
Most common benefits of offshoring
Offshore software development enables outsourcing to any location across
the globe. A company can choose its best fit according to its business
needs. Let’s take a closer look at the most common reasons for organizations
to turn offshore:
Cost-cutting. Companies can eliminate
all the operational expenses related to the hiring process (hiring an internal
recruiter, advertising, training costs, etc) and minimize such additional
expenses as office rent, insurance payments, etc. Moreover, specialists
in developing countries usually have lower pay rates than in American or
Western European regions and offer high-quality services.
The pool of tech talents. With the
ability to hire people from around the world, companies receive access
to a wide talent pool. What's more, experienced specialists can not only
tackle certain products, services, and activities, they can help your in-house
team to learn and adopt practices.
Better scalability. Offshoring helps
to scale resources due to one’s needs. For example, if the workloads are
getting bigger you can ask the offshore vendors to involve more specialists.
Availability of the latest technologies. Small
companies do not usually make large investments in the newest technologies
due to the high costs. However, offshore service providers always stay
up-to-date with the latest innovation to ensure the quality of services.
Thus, a company that hires offshore software vendors ends up with the polished
procedures, finest strategies, and trendiest technologies.
Top drawbacks of offshoring
Apart from numerous benefits, offshore software development has a few
drawbacks. Here are some of them:
Time zones. The difference between
time zones can streamline the non-stop working process. For example, an
in-house team works on a task and then leaves it for an external team to
test and fix the bugs. On the other hand, when working hours are not overlaying,
it is hard to have a meeting with both teams which leads to misunderstandings
and an increased amount of reworks.
Regulation differences and data security. The
laws on data security may differ in the country of your offshore service
provider. And even if all the security-related issues are settled, no company
can guarantee 100% protection against cyberattacks.
Cultural differences. It is hard
to maintain effective cooperation with people with different values. Thus,
before hiring a team have an interview with them to make sure they have
a like-minded culture and similar work ethic.
Searching for an offshore development partner
As described above, working with offshore software development companies
has its advantages and disadvantages. So what are the main things to consider
before turning to an offshore services provider?
Lay out all your requirements, consider what is the goal of your project,
what type of specialists you will need, and define your budget. After you
have a clear understanding of what you need, start looking for an offshore
development partner. Get to know your potential partner, look for case
studies, reviews from previous customers, rankings on specialized websites,
including Clutch and GoodFirms, etc.
Key takeaways
Companies turn to offshore software development for many reasons such
as lack of talent in their country, decreased costs of offshoring offers,
improved scalability, and more. However, with all the benefits there are
still some disadvantages to this outsourcing type.
Have some questions about offshore software developers? Want to hire top-notch
developers? Contact us today and we will gladly help you!
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