Things to Consider for Startups & Businesses Before Outsourcing a Development Team

Every startup is based on an idea that makes it a unique business. One should be clear with their idea and vision before bringing their ideas into the world of opportunities. Once you get your startup off the ground you have to buckle down and build a team that can help you to grow your startup to a successful level. There is a ton of things that a business owner or the startup founder has to consider before outsourcing their development.

• Getting the Right People
• Research Your Market
• Making a Business Plan
• Studying the Competitors
• Mvp (Minimum Viable Product)
• Creating and Understanding Your Requirements

What is IT Outsourcing?

In the tech industry outsourcing is the process of hiring developers outside of the organization to build your software product or handle certain information technology functions. It can be locally or internationally to handle your development activities. Outsourcing can be ranging from infrastructure to software development, maintenance, and support.

There are thousands of companies that provide software development outsourcing services around the globe. And keeping in mind that choosing a technical partner for your startup or outsourcing your product development can be a big decision. Your initial goal should be finding the right outsourcing partner that have talented and qualified specialists, who are able to apply the technical expertise to meet the requirements.

Types of Outsourcing

• Onshore
• Offshore
• Nearshore
• Hybrid

Onshore:

The onshore model means working with companies that are located in your own country. And your development is getting done locally in your country by the skilled teams, who can speak your language. But the major concern in onshore outsourcing is a high development cost.

Offshore:

The Offshore model is hiring developers or teams outside your country to do the work remotely, whether its web, mobile or custom software development. Cost-savings are the main reasons why companies or startups outsource their work to minimize internal overhead or costs.

Nearshore:

Nearshore outsourcing is a process of getting work done or services performed by people in neighboring countries. Nearshore is a model, where companies outsource some of their tasks or entire development to neighboring countries to save the operational cost. And other benefits like convenient location and time zones, maybe similar language also.

Hybrid:

The hybrid solution model uses a blended team approach of both on-site and outsourced team members. And encompassing a variety of these outsourcing options can often provide you with the most optimal solution to align your company’s needs and goals. It minimizes the cost and increases the team flexibility & productivity.

Why It Is Important to Check the Quality Development Company?

Many big companies such as Apple, Google, HP outsource their work to those locations, where labor is very cheap and skilled people are relevantly available. But the real question is how do you find the right outsourcing company to hand over your product development or some part of IT infrastructure. There are a lot of things that you have to consider, and questions need to be asked with the outsourcing provider.

Challenges of outsourcing

• Finding the Right Technology Partner: When there is a number of outsourcing firms that offer almost the same services. It’s not easy to select the right partner for your company or development. Who can comprehend your necessities give the surety of value and complying with the time constraint?
• Projects Cost: The very first reason for outsourcing is an inexpensive resource cost, and countries like India, China, Philippines, and Ukraine are the most preferred countries for outsourcing. While looking for an outsourcing firm one question will consistently meander at the top of the priority list, is outsourcing improving the financial performance of your business?
• Deadline: Hiring a remote team or Managing an outsourcing project has never been an easy job. Several problems may occur, originating from lack of time, or misunderstanding between your internal and remote team.
• Loss of control: One of the biggest outsourcing risks is the loss of visibility and control. Organizations going for outsourcing, are left with very little control over the team and find it hard to keep up with consistency and quality. But they can be easily prevented with a few risk management strategies
• The Mismatch of Cultural and Language Difference: Companies that are managing remote teams often cite communication and different timezone as their biggest challenge. Not all of us understand specifically how different cultural aspects show up in offshore projects and how the resulting barriers can be addressed.

How to Find a Development Team for Your Startup?

Startups and small-medium size businesses are increasingly outsourcing their development work to offshore where they can find skilled and cheap resources. And finding the right company to achieve the desired result you want isn’t an easy task, you need to go through a list of companies analyzing and choosing the one which seems most appropriate for your business.

• Google Search:

Looking on the internet is the primary step one can take in order to search for different outsourcing companies. Creating a list of keywords of technologies and industry will help you find the most appropriate search result.

• Recommendation from others:

You can ask for referrals from your industry colleagues or business partners who have been already outsourcing their work. And if they have some company to refer you.

• Marketplaces:

There are different marketplaces for IT Services that are promptly accessible to organizations and which make IT outsourcing increasingly available as well as manageable.

What Should Be the Structure of the Dedicated Development Team?

• Project Manager
• Front-end development team
• Back-end development team
• Business analyst
• DevOps engineer
• Quality Assurance team
• Designer (depending on the project)

Questions to Ask Your Potential Software Outsourcing Provider

• General (work process, communication, responsibilities)

Communication is crucial to any successful project, ask all your questions and doubt to outsourcing providers before you handover development to them. What are their work processes, and which development model they follow? How often you will have calls with the team, what time it will be possible to contact them.

• Technical (tools, documentation)

It is obviously important to make sure that the outsourcing provider knows its technology well, consider talking to the firms that, what are the technologies they use in their solutions. And a road map to the critical pieces of code and methodology they’ll be using to build your product, so asking for technical documentation is an essential part of the development process.

• Business (rates, management, experience)

What is your pricing structure? And what does it include, How much time would they need to scale up the team, if you decide to speed up the development. Experience and expertise of the team so they can deliver the quality of work on time.

Consider the Following Aspects

• The Service Level Agreement:
  A contract is the most important document or base of any business, service level agreement is the most integral document when you are outsourcing your work whether it’s onshore or offshore. Make sure everything is clearly mentioned in the agreement and there is a point of conflict or confusion in the future.
• Proven track record:
  Before you sign the agreement, do make it a point to visit the company site. Apart from this, also do the research on the internet to find more about the outsourcing firm and their customer base, and testimonials from previous clients.
• Resources and Technology:
  Make sure that the project team is well experienced and they have the required exposure and experience to fulfill your requirements.
  If you are working with an offshore software development company, get the assurance that they are well aware of the latest trends in technology and code quality. Keep yourself updated with the ongoing development process and ensure the code your offshore team delivers meets your quality standards.
• Pricing:
  Outsourcing is most helpful for startups and small businesses to improve their business bottom lines through reduced operational costs. Compare the cost with other service providers and find out what are you going to get. Along with cost reductions for outsourcing, consideration must be given to the quality of services received.
• Good project management tool:
  The basic role of task the project management tools is to enable managers to plan, execute and control all parts of the project management process. A good project management tool can help you to understand the status of your project development and other process & planning.
• Proactivity:
  Proactive employees typically don’t need to be asked to do something, and will usually require less detailed instructions to complete any task. That includes their mindset, space and organizing their time to approach tasks more efficiently.

There are both pros and cons of outsourcing and it has a direct impact on any company’s top and bottom line. Outsourcing has become a huge service industry. Today, any company can hire the exact person or team they need for a specific project and it doesn’t matter if that person or team is located in any corner of the world. All these are possible because of technology and the internet, access to technical experts is easier and more affordable than ever before.

Are you looking for a dedicated development team that have professional experience, and expertise? We are a Custom Software Development Outsourcing company. We provide IT Services/ Solutions across Software Development, Web & Mobile Application Development. Contact us today.