Offshore Software Development: Pros, Cons, and Key Considerations

Lyudmila Kucher
Lyudmila Kucher

I specialize in outstaffing and staff augmentation, and I have extensive experti...

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Pros And Cons Of Hiring Overseas Developers

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that there will be a 22% increase in software developer job openings in the United States between 2020 and 2030. These growth rates are much higher than the average of all occupations, which is likely to create a deficit in programmers, inclining more companies to compare staff augmentation vs project outsourcing and choose one of those options for their software development solution.

If the thought of hiring developers overseas has crossed your mind, chances are you have a couple of questions on how to go about it. This article focuses on pros and cons of offshore software development. Let’s delve into the specifics.

How Does Overseas Software Development Look

Overseas programming is a business strategy that involves trusting a third-party team or a company abroad with your software development projects to reduce operational costs. This hiring strategy differs from freelancing as it has a bunch of benefits compared to what Toptal offers or any other freelancing platforms can suggest.

It is a concept of adding SW engineers to a project crew by choosing contractors who are usually living abroad several time zones away from yours. For example, if an organization is residing in the US, one might mull over an alliance with providers from one of the leading destinations — Eastern Europe. Choosing an IT partner, firms ponder different factors and benefits, but the basis of comfortable teamwork is a time difference you are comfortable with.

One may use overseas engineers to boost the internal team, work on a separate feature or part of the product, or completely rely on specialists outside of the motherland. Companies usually go for this after analyzing the pros and cons of offshore software development and identifying it as more profitable for their business than choosing in-house employees.

This cooperation concept is very flexible and can be adapted for firms of various gradations: from beginners to corporations. However, to utilize its entire capabilities, one should understand well how it works, which upsides it brings for them, and which pitfalls one should avoid.

benefits of offshore software development

Benefits of Offshore Software Development

Various companies have their unique reasons why they are looking for remote developers for hire. Some of the most common include:

Finding New Talents That Are Not Available Locally

With the current and project shortage of available software developers, your company may encounter challenges in finding the ideal talent for your development project. Furthermore, if you decide to work with in-house programmers, you might settle for ones available locally, even if they do not possess the technical expertise relevant to your scope of work.

Additionally, if you find a qualified one in your country, they must be able to move to your locality (in case your company doesn’t have a remote-first culture) as soon as possible. In this case, outsourcing is better option than in-house software development.

When you hire programmers online and overseas, you reach out to an infinite talent pool. Since you can employ globally, getting highly qualified professionals perfect for your development project is a guarantee.

If your project requires, let’s say, an offshore sharepoint development center you can quickly gather a distributed and highly qualified team – you just need the right partner to assist you. Talmatic is a staff augmentation service from Eastern Europe that matches you with a team of high-performing web and app developers. Click here to find out more.

Focus on the Main Tasks of your Business Instead of Finding and Hiring Talents

The IT department has a lot on its plate, from ensuring all business computer-based systems are working seamlessly to safeguarding sensitive company data. Coding an application in all its glory is complex. Programming needs undivided attention and simultaneous efforts from the entire development team to minimize the risks of developing an improperly functioning application full of bugs.

Furthermore, developing an application from planning to deployment is time-consuming, not forgetting software testing that needs to be done at different stages.

By embracing the advantages of offshore software development, you delegate all these responsibilities to a skilled team of professionals, such as app developers in Poland or Ukraine. This approach also eliminates the arduous process of talent recruitment, allowing you to focus on other mission-critical tasks.

Cost-reduction

According to US News, the average software developer in the United States made $110,140 in 2020, with the best and lowest-paid making $140,470 and $84,020, respectively. Generally, software development is the 5th best paying job in the country, hence hiring one for a long-term project might set you back a couple of hundred dollars.

On the other hand, overseas developers are not as costly. Take the example of Ukraine.

According to Glassdoor, hire a software developer in Ukraine will cost montly $3,000, which translates to $36,000 per year. Even with a bit of compensation, the amount is only a fraction of what the same developers earn in the United States.

So, as far as cost-reduction is concerned, outsourcing allows companies to access cheap overseas developers who are equally talented—if not more.

Furthermore, overseas web developers are not entitled to employee benefits such as insurance covers, bonuses, holiday pay, profit sharing, etc. You can also cut down on overhead costs such as hiring expenses and office supplies.

Flexibility

Flexibility to scale up and down as needed size of a team of programmers is one of the main benefits of offshore software development.

If, for instance, you need server-side programming for a small business app, you can easily hire one or two highly-skilled python app developers with comprehensive experience in the task. In contrast, if you have a bigger project, involving, let’s say, PHP or Ruby stack, you can quickly increase capacity to cater to the bulging workload and ensure smooth sailing.

Such flexibility in software development is instrumental as it minimizes project bottlenecks, assures the client of functional applications, and prevents the downfall of a promising product.

Faster Recruiting

Labeling the benefits of offshore software development we should admit the capability of covering your labour shortfall faster, especially if your needs touch some specific technologies or experience. Going out to the global talent market, you instantly get access to numerous options that were missing on the domestic one.

 

 

Pros And Cons Of Hiring Overseas Developers
https://www.bigscal.com/blogs/software-development/guide-for-hiring-an-offshore-development-teams/   

Drawbacks of Offshore Outstaffing of Software Development

Along with the advantages of offshore software development, one ought to be conscious of the shortcomings you’ll grapple with. Most of them can be easily covered with the proper oversight and meticulous choice of the people for a mission.

Limited Control Over Project Tasks

It might seem problematic to control how the devs proceed with the tasks if they are situated abroad and have non-matching working hours. A thorough project management will bring the control back to you. The PM on the vendor’s side will control the team and transfer the news on the progress to you.

Language and Social Barriers

How to work with offshore teams without language and social barriers? It is not always practicable to onboard advanced English speakers. Report transition can go through the Product Owner or a Project Manager who speaks fluent English. Some IT vendors even offer native-speaking team leaders to their clients.

Different Time Zones

It might be challenging to proceed with the scope and discuss obstacles that crop up if the working periods are poles apart. A clear-cut software development process doesn’t require constant supervision. It is satisfactory to have 1 hour of matches.

Data Security Risks

Projects get threatened in plentiful routes – from credentials breaches to insecure server storage. To reduce development hazards before the cooperation starts, make sure that the NDA is signed, your partner is trustworthy, and your soft- and hardware are official and secure.

Not Understanding the Needs of Customers in the Client’s Country

Differences in mentality cause this trouble. To eliminate it, involve a Business Analyst on your side, who will cooperate with the tech crews during consequent development cycles to ensure that the product sticks to the plan and conforms with promotion demands.

Drawbacks of offshore development

How Talmatic can support your business

Talmatic is one of the best IT resourcing service providers, assembling a dedicated team of high-performing programmers to cater to your software development needs within 24 hours. The company takes a customer-centric approach, offering unmatched support as they guide you step by step on how to build an overseas developer team.

Talmatic has a systematic and rigorous vetting process. Before setting up a team, they will do due diligence, looking beyond their technical acumen and considering the candidate’s problem-solving skills, learning and adapting abilities, time management, and interpersonal skills.

Of course, all these qualities should align with what you seek to ensure you get your perfect fit. This method of hiring developers differs from the one offered by freelance marketplaces like Upwork or Fiverr.

Being an authority in its niche and having been in operations a couple of years now, Talmatic has a wealth of experience in .NET, Angular, Python, Backbone.js, you name it! They have all the resources and tech stack needed for any development project. Furthermore, they offer a free-risk trial—that’s how confident they are!

To Sum Up

Offshore software development has its pros and cons. Outstaffing as a hiring model offers the best benefits with negligible risks. You put top talent to good use and access innovative resources at pocket-friendly prices.

Are you searching for the best way to find a developer overseas? Look no further than Talmatic.

Contact us today to grow together!

Frequently Asked Questions

Looking to hire remote software developers but have a few questions unanswered? We are sharing our list of frequently asked questions by our clients when hiring software developers.

view all

It offers a number of benefits embracing the attainability of more technologists, reduced taxes and other costs, and more.

To scale rapidly and get impeccable SW ready at a lower price, shorter period, and higher quality.

The biggest downsides are the absence of monitoring, time differences, communication setbacks, data confidence risks.

view all

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