More and more software companies are going for offshoring because it gives them the advantage of hiring high-quality programming talent without any struggle and more time to focus on core competencies. Software development offshoring comes with multiple benefits; the primary among them is faster time to market, reduced costs, and access to highly proficient software developers. As software development is a people and knowledge-centric business, setting up and running a distributed development team involves aligning people, their skillset, knowledge, and the overall business ambition of the company.
With software development offshoring becoming a multi-million dollar business, they must get the maximum benefit possible by opting for the correct offshoring partner. Like many tried and tested software development approaches, there are many options for you to decide when selecting a software partner.
But, before you proceed with searching for a partner, note these three prime reasons and identify why you want to opt for offshoring.
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Finding the right talent – Software companies always look for highly skilled, qualified talent. However, these companies sometimes find it challenging to get the right talent in their own country. To master such a situation, several software businesses collaborate with a highly skilled offshore partner to set up a distributed team to get easy access to the talent pool.
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Bringing down the development cost – Offshoring software development is a profitable cost manifesto for small and mid-sized software businesses to launch new and innovative products. It also provides flexibility in service delivery so that the partners can scale up or down the operations depending on their client requirements.
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Leveraging offshore market – Locating development centers in various locations around the globe allows businesses to leverage a 24/7 developmental cycle. The multiculturalism of development also aids in transforming the talent pool and lowers the risk associated with counting on a single talent market.
It is not very easy to decide on an offshoring partner quickly. Multiple factors come into play before choosing the right development partner. An offshoring agreement between a software company and a partner often fails due to a lack of trust, transparency, and expectations. It is crucial to set up an environment of confidence from the beginning to profitably take forward an offshoring venture. There are five critical points that a software development company should keep in mind while hiring an offshoring partner.
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Specialization and vendor size – When you want to engage an appropriate partner to outsource your software development needs, you might come across many companies offering the same services. It might be baffling to decide which is the right choice for your business. So before you move ahead with signing the contract, do thorough research about the kind of specialization that particular partner company excels in and also the size of its development team. It is suggested to look for a company that is a software development expert rather than just offering multiple outsourcing services to any company.
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Domain knowledge and expertise – A business offering outsourcing software services should have a product development DNA. Accurately, such companies should have specialists in product development who have the required maturity and are very well aware of product life cycle management.
Contrastingly, the development team should also be proficient in handling multiple release cycles. The developers must be able to swiftly acclimate to future product release requirements and meet end users’ needs.
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Considering total cost – This is a vital aspect that you should discuss clearly with your partner before signing the final contract. To avoid confusion in the future, ask your vendor or partner to estimate the total expense incurred throughout the project instead of hourly wage rates. Also, factor in the price you incur if your developing product has to be scalable for future needs.
While searching for the appropriate partner, you might come across several service providers offering services at a low cost. But, put some extra effort into finding out if there are any hidden costs, which, if not figured initially, might lead you to pay much more than you expected.
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Product ownership – Be very clear about how you want to develop a software product for your company. There are two options to choose from: either build or buy it. A third option is to rent a company’s software solution for a specific period.
But, if you are developing a unique product that cannot be replicated, you should select a vendor that offers the option of transferring complete ownership of the product once it is finished. So, if you have clarity about all these aspects, it becomes easy to decide which offshore software development partner is the best fit for your organization.
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Adopting proper methodology – Your software development partner should be comfortable with multiple methods, such as Agile, Rapid Application Development (RAD), and Waterfall/Cascade, so your return on investment (ROI) is always high. However, it is now accepted that Agile methodology offers far more benefits than traditional Waterfall and other alternative processes.
The agile software development method will provide a high degree of collaboration between you and the project team. You will benefit from transparency as a stakeholder through continuous involvement in iteration planning and review sessions.
Conclusion
Preferably, you should look for a software development partner with the competence to build core business applications critical to business operations. The partner you finally engage with should have rich expertise and experience in all the phases of the product development lifecycle and understand the importance of product customization to suit individual needs.
