Essentials of Offshore IT Project Development
By being one of the most popular types of outsourcing, offshore IT development is a standard practice and a natural business move for achieving fast and cost-effective company objectives.
These days, almost any organization can locate the best strategic partner for its unique purposes, obtain high-quality software solutions and benefit from an improved time-to-market.
With competition at an all-time high, combined with increasing operating costs and the difficulty of hiring skilled developers, IT outsourcing can solve a wide range of business issues.
In this article, we will cover the basics of offshore IT development and continue with exploring how IT outsourcing enables companies around the world to achieve their strategic tech goals.
What is Offshore IT Development?
Offshore IT development means transferring a project (fully or partially) from a client to a third-party software development vendor based in a different country. Many companies turn to remote IT development teams to build flexible resources for their company. Offshore IT development can include the following services:
→ Simple coding to custom software development
→ Software support and maintenance
→ Mobile application development
→ Website and web-application development
→ Cloud computing and storage
It is also important to make the distinction between offshore IT development and another two models that are widely common today:
Onshore IT Development: This is when companies hire an IT development agency that is based in the same country, and operating by the same time zone, language and culture. In general, the cost of onshore IT development can be two or three times higher than offshore IT development.
Nearshore IT Development: Hybrid model between onshoring and offshoring. It means hiring an IT development agency that is based within the same time-zone as your company. Minimal time difference and shorter travel time offers better communication and face-to-face meetings.
Reasons to choose offshore IT Project development
Depending on their specific needs, capabilities and market sectors, companies around the world have a wide range of reasons for why they prefer outsourcing their IT development to offshore IT centers, instead of hiring in-house development teams. Here is a list of the main reasons:
→ Limited availability of skilled and in-country IT developers
→ Limited financial resources
→ Unable to provide scalability and flexibility
→ Looking for specific skill sets
→ Lack of productivity caused by inefficiency
→ Need to provide 24-hour services
𝔸𝕣𝕖 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕝𝕠𝕠𝕜𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕒 𝕡𝕒𝕣𝕥𝕟𝕖𝕣 𝕔𝕒𝕡𝕒𝕓𝕝𝕖 𝕠𝕗 𝕡𝕣𝕠𝕕𝕦𝕔𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕙𝕚𝕘𝕙 𝕢𝕦𝕒𝕝𝕚𝕥𝕪 𝕀𝕋 𝕕𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝𝕠𝕡𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕥 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕪𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕡𝕒𝕟𝕪? 𝔸𝕥 𝔹𝕠𝕔𝕒𝕤𝕒𝕪, 𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕕𝕖𝕕𝕚𝕔𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕕 𝕥𝕖𝕒𝕞𝕤 𝕠𝕗 𝕕𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝𝕠𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕤 𝕡𝕣𝕠𝕧𝕚𝕕𝕖 𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕕𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕡𝕒𝕟𝕚𝕖𝕤 𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕙 𝕤𝕞𝕒𝕣𝕥 𝕀𝕋 𝕤𝕠𝕝𝕦𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟𝕤 𝕒𝕣𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕕 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕨𝕠𝕣𝕝𝕕. 𝕐𝕠𝕦 𝕙𝕒𝕧𝕖 𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕖 𝕥𝕠 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕣𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥 𝕡𝕝𝕒𝕔𝕖, 𝕕𝕚𝕤𝕔𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕣 𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕥𝕖𝕒𝕞 𝕠𝕗 𝕕𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝𝕠𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕤.
Benefits of Offshore IT Project Development
There are a number of benefits that come attached with offshore IT development. They range from direct access to best-in-class developers and lower development risks, to reduced operational and development costs, faster project delivery, higher scalability, and access to the latest technologies.
- Cost-Effective: By offshoring your company’s IT development, it means that you don’t need to spend time and resources to hire and maintain expensive in-house IT development teams and infrastructure. Offshore development agencies provide experienced developers for any project.
- Low-Risk: Developing IT on your own will always be slightly risky. The custom IT development experience that is offered by offshore agencies can pretty much guarantee that your company’s risk will be as low as possible. Latest and best practices will provide key efficiency and flexibility.
- Time-to-Market: High-quality IT development is usually the result of dedicated teams working on each project. Offshore IT development offers a faster pace of development, ensuring that your company’s products and services can reach their intended markets and key clients faster.
- Industry Experts: Regardless of how unique your project is, or the type of niche services your company requires to perform better and faster, offshore IT development ensures that you will always find dedicated IT developers who are simply experts of the latest available technologies.
- Endless Talent: Offshore IT development can offer access to a vast pool of talent that is not limited by your company’s geographical location and time-zone. Partner only with skilled IT developers who have extensive experience of the field of international custom IT development.
- Optimal Workflow: In-house IT development is often both expensive and time-consuming. By optimizing your workflow, offshore IT development agencies enable your company to find the time and space to focus on core business tasks, and ultimately improve output and productivity.
- Cutting-Edge: Successful IT development involves keeping up with the latest technologies and avoiding getting stuck into outdated workflows. From artificial intelligence, blockchain and natural language processing, offshore IT development ensures that your company is up-to-date.
How to choose an Offshore IT Development Agency
When choosing an offshore IT development agency for your company’s next project, you should consider the following criteria:
Experience Credentials: Before choosing to work with an offshore IT development agency, it is important to check their references, past clients and successfully completed projects. It is crucial to gain insight into your partner’s experience, credibility and past performance.
Workflow-Communication: Ensure that your IT development partners are fluent in English or the language of your company’s choice. You should establish clearly set workflows that can match with your company’s particular needs throughout the entire IT development cycle.
Flexible Service: The best offshore IT development agencies will be able to provide a full range of flexible IT services, adapting to their clients’ needs according to evolving goals. The bottom line is that what your company needs today, might not be exactly the same in the near future.
Security Protocols: Any IT development has to take cybersecurity seriously. It is important to establish shared security protocols between your company and your offshore IT development partners, in order to ensure critical company data safety and to avoid costly data breaches.
