If you are planning to develop a product from scratch then there are hundreds of things on which you have to focus such as managing team, tech peculiarities, time frames, just to name a few. However, if you opt for offshore software development, then the things will get less complicated. As you exonerate your responsibilities to the experts of software development, then you can focus on your business or industry competition.
In this article, we will see whether offshore software development is right for you, as well as how to make fewer mistakes while choosing an offshore software development company.
Offshore Software Development: Introduction
Offshore software development simply means transferring your work to a 3rd party service provider which can be a company, a team of developers, or a single developer. Currently, they are many technical needs which are outsourced such as mobile app development, mobile app design, website development, digital marketing, etc.
If you are planning to delegate the complete software development then it would be a wise decision if you choose a reputed mobile app development company rather than opting for a freelancer. The reason is a freelancer, may have expertise in one, two or a bit more skills, but during the software development, you will also require other experts too such as QA expert, designer, etc.
While considering an offshore software development, you should do your regions in the demographics of south-east Asian countries like India or in Eastern Europe. In these countries, you can find expert developers with a high-level skill set and very affordable & reasonable rates.
If you don’t want to work with a company which is so far away, then you can hire their team for the onshore or nearshore outsourcing. Let’s know these working models in more details…
Offshore Software Development:
In this model, the company you will choose to work for you will be located somewhere far away from your company location may be in a different city, country or even continent. There will be a time-zone difference as well. That’s why the outsourcing model depends upon you and your hired company location. If you are from the USA and your outsource company is in South-eastern Asian country like India, then there it will be proper offshore software development as there is a huge time zone difference.
Benefits of Offshore Software Development:
Let’s know the benefits of Offshore software development for you as a customer.
Reduced development costs:
Most of the offshore development companies are located in countries where the development costs are lower and affordable. In India, you will pay for the mobile app development service at the rate of $25-40/ hour, while in the USA it lies between $100-150 per hour. Also, many offshore development companies leave no stone unturned to satiate their clients and hence provide many services at no cost. For instance, in our company, we don’t charge extra for consultation or business analysis.
Qualified Talents:
There is no doubt that if you are paying a company for its services, then you expect great skills from the developers. It implies that the company should be located in a country with a huge number of technical specialists. If you are comparing the quality of development of US developers and Indian developers then the quality doesn’t vary much but there is a significant difference in the pricing. This is the region why these days offshore development is quite preferred by even the large companies as they get the same quality work but in fewer costs.
Scalability:
In the offshore development process, if you want to increase your requirements and make changes, then it is completely feasible. In bigger projects, it is hard to determine how many pools of resources you will require for efficient development. If you hire very less or too many developers then either your requirements will not meet or your money will go in vain respectively. But with offshore development, you pay for only what you want you can scale up or scale down your requirements at any instant.
Training of Employees:
Suppose you hire an offshore development company for developing a fintech application for you. You don’t need to waste your time to train the employees as your partner company will care about it. Also, many companies try to form a team in accordance with the requirements of the clients, and developers’ expertise.
Skillset:
Generally, the offshore development companies are focused on a particular skill set such as e-commerce development, mobile application development, digital marketing, web development, etc. Hence, you can find specialists as per your requirements easily.
Challenges in Offshore Software Development:
Even offshore development process is not a cakewalk. There will be certain challenges that you have to face.
Slower Communication:
As we mentioned above, there are a lot of chances that the hired company would not be of your time-zone. This will arise the communication issues due to the time barrier. Communication will be slower from time to time. In fact, at some time if there are some strategic queries from the developers’ or client’s end then the project may free for a day or two until the queries get resolved. However, thanks to the advanced technology which now give the options of video calling, quick messaging, chat etc. to connect with the clients located at any place on earth. Also, many companies have started working as per the client’s timezone.
Language barrier:
This can be a barrier in those countries where English is not a prominent or most spoken language like in European countries where their native languages such as French, Italian, or Spanish, are more preferred for communication. While in countries like India, a huge portion of the population can speak English fluently.
Offshore Software Development: Steps
Now after knowing the limitations and benefits of offshore software development, let’s know how to get started with Offshore software development.
The work must be done at your side:
Even if you are giving all the technical responsibilities to the hired offshore software development company, there is still some work for you as an investor:
Decide features for the users:
The company can give you suggestions and do analysis but the ultimate decision would be yours to decide the features that you require for software development. You can analyze your competitors and find out what extra features they provide. Check where their traffic comes from, what technologies are being used etc.
Check regulations:
In many countries, there are special regulations and laws for the apps. For e.g., if you are developing a healthcare app then it should be HIPAA compliant.
Define your objectives:
You should define your goals at the beginning of the project and give those goals priorities through the project. Also, set metrics if you want to check the progress.
Identify what you require:
You need to be sure about which technology you want your software to be developed. What resources you will require from the company such as marketer, developer, designer, etc. If you are not having a perfect idea for this then you can consult with the company.
Choose the right Offshore software development company:
For every service, you can find thousands of software development companies. Here are some ways to find what you require:
Check references:
If you have come across a company then it would be wise if you go through their previous projects, their client feedbacks etc. You can check their case studies, blog posts, etc. These things can tell you a lot of things.
You can also check platforms such as Clutch, Goodfirms, etc. to know what the clients are saying about them. These are highly reliable platforms with no chances of fake reviews.
Protect your idea:
Contact a company to find out whether they sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) or not. It’s very important in case you have a unique app idea and you want to be completely sure it won’t leak anywhere.
Wrapping Up:
We, at Amplework, the prominent mobile app development company in India is having expertise in developing custom mobile apps. Please let us know your requirements. We give you complete business and technical consultation for free and have experienced many different industry horizons.
