Is Outsourcing Software Development The Next Big Thing?
It might sound a bit cliched, but the pandemic has indeed rewritten conventions. It emphasized the importance of digitization and pressed on its inevitability. Several companies were forced to scale down operations and reassess their market stance. And what is incredibly complementing to current business goals and expectations is outsourcing.
The outsourcing industry is anticipated to be valued at around $400bn by the year 2027. And while outsourcing is often associated with larger companies, surprisingly, close to 24% of small businesses outsource an aspect of their operations to external teams.
Today, businesses have very little time-to-market for their ideas. They want to get their tangible products out as early as possible to have an edge in the market and set trends. To enable all this, brands focus on getting their jobs done as swiftly as possible and are ideally relying on outsourcing.
It is especially gaining momentum in the software development segment. Brands find it difficult to assemble teams with the right experience. Sometimes, they are clueless about the necessary tech stack and infrastructure needed for software development. They also find it difficult to hire the right DevOps specialists or developers for Nodejs and React or Angular and even project managers. Outsourcing often turns out to be the remedy.
So, for those of you wondering if outsourcing your software development projects is the way forward, let us reassure you that it is. In this post, we will explore some aspects of why outsourcing software development is gradually becoming more of an essential than a luxury and delve into some pros and cons of it as well.
Let’s get started.
Why Do Software Development Projects Get Outsourced?
There are two aspects to this –
- advancing tech concepts and implementations
- and changing consumer dynamics
As business owners, it becomes challenging to keep track of changes in both spectrums and be abreast of everything associated. Improved programming languages roll out frequently, and diverse development methodologies take over while exiting industry benchmarks become obsolete. These changes make it challenging for businesses to focus on product development.
The prevailing skill gaps in tech development teams prove to be a barrier to seamless software development processes. The onset of new programming languages dictates teams to skill up to the latest trends. When companies fail to do so, they become obsolete or work on products that hardly have any shelf life in the market.
Agencies delivering Custom Software development services, on the other hand, have everything sorted. They take the responsibility of hiring the right talent to get a particular task done. They take care of development methodologies, the tech stack, recruitment, retention, and training. They manage operational constraints and what you get in the end is just a finished project and timelines of product demos every week. It makes the job of every stakeholder simple.
If you believe this is the only significant benefit of outsourcing software development, here are a few more.
Key Benefits Of Outsourcing Software Development Projects
Access To Global Talent
When your project is outsourced to external teams, you pave the way for talents with global exposure to working on your product. You get to access the brightest minds from across the globe. For fresh perspectives, ideas, and alternate conventions, global talent is necessary, and outsourcing does just that.
Faster Turnaround Times
Like we mentioned, most products in development eye on riding an initial wave, and that’s why the time to market becomes highly critical. External or outsourced teams can take up your projects on priority and roll out a stable and quality product in time just the way you wanted.
Reduced Expenses
Outsourcing software development can give you a great deal of financial freedom. It frees you from multiple resource-intensive tasks such as recruitment, arranging logistics, project management, etc. You get to focus on everything else that is crucial for your product apart from development. You could invest this time to market your product better, raise investments, pitch for preliminary, and much more. It invariably helps you save on operational costs as well.
Eliminate Risks
Your outsourced teams will address any protocols, compliances, or legalities involved in your product that you could probably overlook. This way, your brand, development, and integrity remain airtight throughout.
Types of Software Development Outsourcing
Now that you are aware of the different benefits of outsourcing software development let’s look at the different ways you can leverage it.
Staff Augmentation
It is when an external team or an individual professional joins your in-house team to develop products. The model helps you fill the skill gap we discussed. For instance, if your team lacks a full-stack developer, an augmented staff can make up for it for the project.
Dedicated Teams
Dedicated teams take up the onus of your product development on them and work as an alternate to your in-house team. You may or may not have an in-house team, but a dedicated team will work as one for your project.
Project-Based
Deployed for a particular project or a specific type of project, these teams take charge of everything associated with the project. From brainstorming and wireframing to testing and phased rollouts, they are responsible for your project’s progress.
Wrapping Up
While outsourcing software development is beneficial, there are some risks associated with it as well. To eliminate those, you need to ensure the outsourcing company you are about to collaborate with is credible, knows the job or technology, and has a proven portfolio and client references.
From your end, you need to ensure a convenient working space by defining your goals and objectives better, managing payouts on time, giving adequate operational space, and optimizing learning curves about your business.
That would be key to getting an ideal product out from external teams. With more than a decade of software development experience, Simform can expertly help you with your next development project. We’ve worked with Fortune500 companies as well as empowered multiple small businesses. We give you all the benefits of outsourcing software development and more.
So, reach out to us with your vision and ideas and see the magic happening.
Author Bio –
Hardik Shah is a Tech Consultant at Simform, a leading custom software development company. He leads large scale mobility programs that cover platforms, solutions, governance, standardization, and best practices. Connect with him to discuss the best practices of software methodologies @hsshah_.
Disclaimer: This is a sponsored article.