6 Steps To Offshore Outsourcing Software Development

Almost everything about offshore development companies, the engagement models, hiring a remote offshore dev team, risks, benefits, etc. have been covered in our previous blogs. Here I would like to summarize the basic steps for any business looking to partner with an offshore development company for software project outsourcing.

1. The Type of Client You Are

For the exploration, finding, and choosing the right offshore development company (ODC), the first thing to self-analyze and understand where you stand as a client. Just as all the fingers are different, similarly all the businesses are different even though belonging to the same industry. Knowing about your own business and budget will help you to find a perfect match to partner with. Nevertheless, your client business profile may fall into one of these categories explained below.

1) Mature Client

Consider if you have a 6-digit budget for software development, that automatically tells a lot of things about you. You will have the idea of what you want, the experience of managing remote teams in the past with offshore and multi-shore outsourcing models, and also in-house teams to manage the software development projects.

If this actually is true in your case, hiring an offshore development company is the RIGHT choice.

2) Small to Medium Scale Business or Enterprise

Are you an established non-tech or tech company looking to develop a software application, either a web app or a mobile app, but lack in-house resources and expertise to do so? And does your budget fall somewhere in the range of 30K-50K or more? Then it may be a cost-effective and time saving option to hire a remote team by partnering with an ODC. You can hire the complete team including a project manager who can manage everything just in case if you have the ZERO experience.

3) Startup

If you are a fresh venture, then you may have a very limited budget for the software development, in case you are not funded heavily by the investors. The key is to select a top offshore development company that understands and suggests as per the startup business model and requirements. Whether to develop an MVP or a full-fledged solution, the choice is yours to make depending on the ticket size of your software project in the initial phase.

2. Realize What Your Business Needs

The next most important facet is understanding and determining the needs of your business operations and the end goal behind developing a software application. Once you do that and share this to any software development company of your choice, make sure you make them understand about the exact needs and ask suggestions. Always remember that “No suggestion or questions” from the development team is a warning sign. As there are always software development customizations waiting in the corner to match business needs on a case-to-case basis.

3. Know Risks & Fears to Be Proactive in Engagement

In any of the three models of software outsourcing, there are associated risks which a business client needs to know. Knowing fears in doing business or partnership reduces the vulnerability and flushes out the complacency immediately. Businesses are hiring software developers from offshore development companies beyond their geographical borders, having different mindset, language, culture, etc. A few risks you may want to consider are mentioned below.

1) Save your unique idea

It would be an unfortunate situation where any outsourcing firm can steal your idea and you still can’t do anything about it. Hence, sign an NDA (Non-disclosure Agreement) ASAP. NDA ensures the privacy of your valuable idea and data where your offshore development partner cannot share or use.

2) Competency Check of Development Partners

It will be easy for you as a client if you have already determined the software requirements, your business needs, and project objectives. During the first initial meetings and collaboration instances, you will evaluate if your development partner is the real deal or not. Find another development partner instead of risk to continue for a long-term.

3) Time-zone Differences May Cause Delays & Surge Cost

Considering a difference of around 12 hours, a team may have to wait for your approval till the next day to continue the work. Calls may be arranged outside the working hours. The problem happens when either of the two parties are not flexible or professional. A close collaboration and timely response is the key.

4) Loss of control & quality concerns

There will always be questions regarding the code quality and working of remote dev teams. This is normal because any business trusts the in-house team more than a remote team. Also, there are instances where the client does not know how to control the cost, especially when the hired developers are taking time to understand and doing research to learn about the client business.

4. Decide a Location & Find the Right Outsourcing Partner

Depending upon the budget, it will be easy for a client to search and decide the destinations based on the hourly rate for software development. There are several locations over the globe which are popular but given the vast majority of quality resources available to be hired, India is the most preferred location to find a top offshore development partner.

The average rates of software development in India is between $15-$75, which is way cheaper than the US, European, and Australia/Oceania markets.

5. Know Your Development Partners

Follow these basic steps which will help you to know your outsourcing partner (vendor) more.

• Explore about the company, reviews, ratings, domain and technology expertise, and portfolios. Go through Clutch & Goodfirms profiles too.
• Drop a mail to begin the engagement with executives and forward your basic software development requirement.
• Once there is an agreement, discuss NDA, project estimations, payment methods, delivery schedules, etc. and finalize the way of working before it starts.
• Keep a close eye in the beginning on communication and response time.
• Decide on the collaboration model and kickstart your project with transparent access to track the progress.

6. Check Employee Skill Sets

Checking the flexibility & ability of the hired team is vital to know whether or not they are going to be ready to process your idea into a real-time working app. Always ask for a demo or a pilot program if they can give to you. This may provide a better picture leveraging visual idea of how the partnered company will provide software development services.

Wish to know more about our approach in helping global clients with remarkable Offshore Development Services? Let’s connect. It only takes a “Hello” to initiate long-term relationships!