Outsourcing software development companies: how to find them and what to expect
TThe world in the 21st century goes global, and tech companies, obviously, lead the way in this movement nowadays.
Current world labor distribution gives businesses and entrepreneurs a wide variety of options to choose from when it comes to offshoring your mobile and web development assignments. So wide, in fact, that the competitiveness of the markets can drive both the customer and the developer mad.
So, how do you choose an outsourcing software development company? What to expect from delegating to professional mobile and web development teams abroad? What projects to outsource?
We’ll give you the answers from the outsourcing company perspective – that’s always interesting, right?
Research. A ton of research
Considering all the competitiveness among the software development companies, it’s hardly surprising, that just googling stuff won’t make a good job looking for a development professional.
Many sources need to be considered here for the decision to be truly comprehensive. Here are some basic steps to view a bigger picture of the software development market:
- Web research: On search engines, Quora, Reddit, etc.
- Gathering references from companies, colleagues or friends who have outsourced mobile or web development in the past.
- Talk to several candidates. Make sure the software professionals of your choice have a good understanding of the project and the technologies involved in the making. If programmers or project managers go into a lot of detail or make their own suggestions regarding the features and implementation – it’s a great sign.
- Inquire in detail about your candidates’ business processes and structure. Request documents, licenses, possibly even photos from their office – because not all web design agencies and software companies are what they seem to be online, and your tasks are at risk to be distributed around a whole chain of not so high-quality sub-implementers.
- Ask for web agency’s references & check their past work – if a company stands well on its feet, it won’t hide its cases from you.
- Ensure you have the necessary paperwork in place in terms of the proposal, NDA, etc. And always work on a contract basis, even if foreign legislature seems unfamiliar to you.
Good mobile development companies and web design studios are usually pretty versatile as far as contract adjustments are considered, just make sure all the conditions are agreed upon. - If you can pay your offshore developers a visit. It’s always nice to know your partners in person, and customer service is often best shown offline.
Communication
After you’ve chosen a software development company abroad and signed a contract, it’s time to establish the ways your communication will be conducted.
At OZiTAG, we usually agree on weekly conference calls via Skype and daily message exchange using custom Slack channels. If a client needs a detailed report on the time spent on various tasks, we provide reports by Toggl, which we also use for internal purposes.
Time difference
Of course, working with software developers abroad, possibly, far away from you, you should always be aware of the time difference in different parts of the world.
For instance, when our US clients come to their offices, it’s already around 4 PM in Minsk. Might be tough for someone, but you need to remember two things:
- It’s always okay to ask your development team to adjust their schedule to yours if you need it;
- Sometimes it’s even better to work with time difference because you won’t need to be bothered with extra project details. You’ll get all the planned work done by morning in “The Elves and the Shoemaker” type of situation.
Development
If you’ve made the right choice finding a web design studio, this part is where you should have confidence at. The technologies are pretty much universal all over the world, so this is going to be the common language you and your outsourcing developers speak.
If you’ve chosen good programmers from Eastern Europe, you can be pretty much sure they’re competent in the technologies you’ve hired them for. The situation with Asian developers is a bit trickier, though, so keep that in mind.
Customer service
Again, if you’ve chosen a cheaper Asian path – don’t expect much. If you’re going for Eastern Europe, you will always be a welcome guest, but some things here you might find slightly off-putting. Like one of our clients, Salim Madjd, once noticed: “Business is done without a smile here”.
And that’s true – from the first glance local developers seem way too tense and serious, but once you get to know them, you’ll be up for a big surprise about how warm-hearted and friendly these people are, and how much we value long-term relations with our partners.
After making your first successful project with, say, Belarusian developers, you’ll definitely want to come back for more.
Aftertaste
After all, your efforts in looking for outsourcing partner come down to the final results of the development. And only then will you be able to analyze and decide, whether you made the right choice for outsourcing enterprise web or mobile development.
Our experience shows, that most of our clients not only enjoy collaboration with BLAST but also experience a great ROI on their projects due to well-organized offshore development.
Of course, they could find mobile and web developers of comparable skills in the US or Western Europe, but that would be way more expensive. A tiny bit of risk to bring you profit – isn’t it what entrepreneurship is all about?