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When is the right time to outsource your software development?

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When is the right time to outsource your software development?

Published: 2018/05/30

5 min read

When used properly, software development outsourcing can bring tons of value to your company. But is it always a good idea to outsource? If you want to start, what are the right circumstances that call for the use of software development outsourcing? Let’s consider various scenarios that make outsourcing a no-brainer decision.

The software development outsourcing market is continuing to grow at an outstanding pace[1]. It’s hardly surprising. As globalization, which also includes factors such as the proliferation of solutions that make remote work easy as well as the ubiquity of English as a universal means of communication, is advancing, it’s only natural that companies are increasingly bold in taking advantage of the benefits of outsourcing. We have already discussed this, as well as the best way to maximize your return on investment in outsourcing. But what about the “when” part?

To find out, we have compiled a list of the most typical circumstances that call for the use of software development outsourcing.

1. When you don’t want your in-house team to waste time on tedious tasks

Oftentimes, your in-house team would have to take care of day-to-day software maintenance tasks and operations required by your business department. As completely new projects emerge to take even more time and focus away from your in-house developers, outsourcing can arise as a really attractive way to make sure that your in-house team can focus solely on the actual development of new software solutions.

When taking this route, it’s worth making sure that your outsourcing vendor uses adequate resources to meet your development needs – very skilled and experienced developers may quickly get tired of this kind of tasks. Their services may also be too costly. Therefore, the vendor should sometimes switch team members as well as search for ways to automate some of the workload without sacrificing quality. Both the frequency of changes within the team and the extent to which the work can be automated should be agreed upon beforehand.

2. When the amount of workload changes abruptly

Due to seasonality, short- or medium-term contracts and their sudden termination, the amount of work your developers actually have may vary significantly. At the same time, recruiting and training developers may take a lot of time and once you do hire them, it may not always be so easy to let them go. This inherent lack of flexibility in your in-house team may cause you to always be too late to respond to new opportunities and cut your costs in case they stop coming your way. With software development outsourcing, you can increase and decrease the number of developers much more easily.

3. When time is short

That also means that when your deadlines are looming or time-to-market is of significant importance, you can use software development outsourcing to quickly improve your development capabilities.

4. When your scale doesn’t justify hiring and training

Hiring and training software developers takes time and money – depending on you strategy, those costs may even amount to more than 20 percent of their annual salary and include tasks such as sourcing, review application, interview, or onboarding[2]. In many cases, hiring too many developers simply isn’t very practical. Find out more about how you can easily extend your teams with outsourcing.

5. When the project is very small…

A small-scale project, for example, adding a few new web pages to an existing system, may be a great way to test a software development outsourcing provider. While the scope may be straightforward, it’s a fantastic opportunity to see whether the cooperation is smooth and all deliverables are completed on time and according to your requirements.

Read also: How to outsource web development services

6. …or when it is really huge

It makes just as much sense for the biggest projects, those that have the potential to change the very essence of what your business is about. The experience of a seasoned outsourcing provider can help  you find the best way to match your business goals with the technology you’re developing.

7. When the project calls for specialized knowledge outside of your core competency

When you develop a software solution that calls for the use of the R programming language, or require the assistance of developers experienced in fintech development to help you develop a system for internal use, outsourcing offers the most cost efficient solution. It also makes for a great opportunity to establish a long-term cooperation with a reliable partner.

8. When you want to grow your startup in a lean and agile manner

Creating innovative products, based on unusual business models, requires a lot of trial and error. A minimum viable product (MVP) is often developed just to gather market feedback on how viable the idea really is. With software outsourcing, an agile team can be created quickly and at the lowest possible cost, using flexible pricing models such as time and material. Learn more about how you can grow your startup with software development outsourcing.

9. When you want to improve your effectiveness in the long term

Using cooperations models such as managed services, a business can outsource various processes and pay its contractors based on outcomes (rather than, for example, the number of hours). Such specialists become a part of your organization and their expertise, focused on solving problems as efficiently as possible, will help improve your in-house employees and the entire company in the long run. Learn more about the many ways to accelerate your IT with outsourcing.

10. When you want to mitigate the risk of hiring outside of your home market

A lot of companies are interested in permanently hiring developers from outside of their home market. However, such endeavors can be very risky as they require proper knowledge of the foreign market of choice. In case anything goes wrong, huge losses may be unavoidable. A specific type of outsourcing, called outstaffing, can be used to delegate the duty of actually hiring developers onto another entity and simply use their services for a fixed price.

Software Mind is a Polish software company that has been providing top-of-the-line outsourcing services for several years. During all this time, we have perfected our approach that involves hiring the very best software developers and equipping them with our know-how about making outsourced projects work. Whether you want to extend your team, improve your efficiency or develop a new complex solution, Software Mind will have you covered with just the right expertise and resources. If you already have an idea of how our prowess can improve your bottom line, just give us a call.

 

 

About the authorSoftware Mind

Software Mind provides companies with autonomous development teams who manage software life cycles from ideation to release and beyond. For over 20 years we’ve been enriching organizations with the talent they need to boost scalability, drive dynamic growth and bring disruptive ideas to life. Our top-notch engineering teams combine ownership with leading technologies, including cloud, AI, data science and embedded software to accelerate digital transformations and boost software delivery. A culture that embraces openness, craves more and acts with respect enables our bold and passionate people to create evolutive solutions that support scale-ups, unicorns and enterprise-level companies around the world. 

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