Know all about Offshore Software Development and its Best Practices

Every business is vying to stay ahead of the technology curve and in this rat race, offshore software production has gained momentum. In simple words, offshore development is another term for outsourcing. By hiring experts based on third-party offshoring, companies get product development services and digital application services right from coding to mobile application development, custom development, website design and development, and software support and maintenance at costs much lower than employing in-house employees.

Before we deep dive into how to find the perfect offshore development team, let us have a look at why more and more businesses are opting for offshore development services:

• Cost-effective: The most obvious benefit of working with offshore teams is the ability to reduce production costs without compromising the quality of the finished product. Offshoring allows businesses to save up to 30% on their costs. Furthermore, companies do not need to spend any additional cost on the hardware and software as these costs are incurred by the company offering product development services.

• Experts handle specific tasks: A business may recruit a scalable team only for a specific project, rather than committing to long-term recruiting. Once the product is released/developed, the team can further be reduced to handle only digital application services and upgrade the software as and when required.

• Larger talent pool: By having the opportunity to offshore your software development, you gain access to a large pool of engineering talent who have the expertise to build software using the most cutting-edge technology, allowing you to remain ahead of the competition.

• Employee training not required: Lastly, you don’t need to enhance the developers’ training skills when working with an offshore development team. Training necessitates extra time and financial resources, which is often not a choice due to today’s fierce competition.

Ways to implement outsourcing:

Businesses need to decide how and what they want to outsource, keeping in mind the requirements. Some ways to implement outsourcing are handing over the product development servicesto:

• A freelancer or an individual developer
• An agency
• Outsourcing the entire project
• Hiring experts only for specific parts of the project

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Now that we have an idea of what offshore software development is all about and its advantages, let us proceed to understand its best practices:

• Define your goal: Before entrusting any work to an offshore team, you should have a good understanding of your company’s or project’s overall objectives and requirements. Do not follow the approach of just jumping into and seeing how it goes on later – this will waste money and harm your company’s reputation with a failed, expensive, and broken end product. Here’s what you need to determine beforehand:

1. What is the comprehensive purpose of the project?
2. What kind of product development services are you looking for?
3. What ROI do you expect from the end product?

• Choose the offshore destination wisely: When opting for offshoring, one of the major advantages is choosing people to work for you from the geographies of your choice. Make a choice by seeing what fits the bill for you. Some of the aspects that can help you make an informed decision are having the same culture, region and work environment as yours. Ideally, you should choose an offshore location where potential contractors will be able to communicate in your native language and share your work ethic.

• Check track record: Once you have shortlisted a company that can offer you digital application services and product development services as per your requirements, the first thing you need to do is to look at the company’s past projects. If possible, connect with the company’s previous clients and request for an assessment of the quality of work. Furthermore, you can choose to read reviews of their clients on the internet. Once you are satisfied with the company’s work, do not directly sign a contract. Always protect your data by signing a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

• Work with a technology stack of your choice: Once you are aware of the product development services you are looking for and the kind of product you aim at getting developed, always ask the company offering the services for a technology stack of your choice. If the company knows its job well, it will not offer you alternatives; it will instead agree to your choice of technology and use the same while offering digital application services and product development services to your company.

• Evaluate cost-effectiveness: While building an offshore development team, it is certainly all about getting the best possible talent for your project, but also at the most affordable price. Ensure that you discuss the quotes, timelines, and unforeseen expenses before making the final call.

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In this age of technological innovation, offshore outsourcing allows businesses to outsmart their competition. In anutshell, offshore software outsourcing can be difficult, but with the right strategy and knowledge, you can end up with solid software for a fraction of the cost of recruiting, managing, and retaining a software development team.