5 thing about outsourcing that you need to change your mind about
The main stereotypes about software development being debunked
To look at the matter precisely, let’s get to the core of the problem. And by the core, we are talking about the stereotype itself. Because stereotypes reduce the amount of thinking we have to do when we meet a new person or deal with the problem at hand, they are a major way in which we simplify our social world. Stereotypes can lead us to make potentially damaging assumptions about other people, companies, business, etc.
The aim of this article is to debunk the main stereotypes about outsourcing and concerned problems with it. Let’s find the roots of the issue. Outsourcing myths have generally appeared due to semantic reasons. Because of stereotypical media and pop culture depictions, the term “outsourcing” connotes vast geographical and cultural distance, with your product or service being rendered distantly by someone who scarcely speaks the same language as you. Though, this is not always totally accurate.
IT outsourcing is inexpensive
The first stereotype that we are going to debunk is the price. Logically, businesses are looking for ways to save some money and cut costs. Outsourcing is defined as a procedure used by various companies to reduce expenditures by transferring bits of work to outside vendors rather than completing them from within.” This presumption appeared when the prices of an IT outsourcing project were compared to the costs of an in-house project without accounting for all of the factors that go into hiring an outsourcing team.
Outsourcing is associated with a cost-cutting measure, but it is not totally right. It may be less expensive in terms of office costs or insurance.
Now, you may think, what is the point in outsourcing, if it isn’t cheap at all? Let us reassure you that when it comes to long-term goals, however, outsourcing may be less cost-redundant. If you need to hire an additional designer, for instance, it will be easier to hire a qualified outsourced specialist into the team rather than hiring an in-house designer and training him from the scratch, which will take more time and cost you more money. Plus, if you establish a good partnership with an outsourcing company, then the process of finding /replacing developers will take only a few days.
Delegate the project and rest peacefully
You may think if the company is located somewhere on the other side of the globe, they are professionals in their sphere, so now you may have a complete rest because everything will be done and there is no need to worry about the process. Partially, it’s true but it is highly recommended to have projects under control.
In reality, each outsourcing project necessitates constant monitoring and communication. The project manager and the outsourcing team are both in the same situation. The project owner approves and oversees the project after the outsourcing team analyzes and estimates it. Problems should be solved collaboratively. Both parties should work together to reduce risks.
If the developer remains uninvolved in the process, the end result may differ significantly from what was originally intended. The absence of the project manager can quickly discourage the team and put them off track rather quickly.
But don’t be discouraged, in our previous article, we have analyzed three business company models and you should know that regardless of your controlling process there is a special type of company that will perform it for you efficiently and at a great professional level.
Outsourcing is your answer to all your questions or magical pill
Sometimes outsourcing companies cannot determine the client’s goals, because he believes that specialists in the outsource company must know what he wants and how to reach it without seeing the goal. By hiring an offshore team, you must know and be able to single out each criteria of your goal. Nothing will be done automatically.
There is no magical pill in outsourcing. Every outsourcing is a joint collaboration of equal partners, with both sides profiting from the process. The client’s correlation with their outsourcing team should be open and without hidden messages. Goals should be communicated clearly, and a plan with deadlines for each goal should be implemented. Because the market is constantly changing, financial aspects as well as the means of achieving project goals must be updated regularly.
Greetings to “Outsource”, Farewell to “Control”
When a company has assigned a project or a functional part of a project to an offshore team, it is commonly estimated that the company relinquished its control until its completion. It may happen if the companies did not have a contract that specified all the project’s requirements and means of communication. In such a case, the outsourcing team would then have the authority to make decisions entirely on their own, without first consulting with the client.
You will have to let go of some control because you cannot supervise every step taken by your outsourcing team. You have hired a team of professionals with technical skills, so it’s only logical that they would require you to be more flexible and independent. Most importantly, you can hire the US company to make sure that if the company fails to meet all the agreements of the contract, you will have all the legal rights to sue them.
Time-zones, the English language and IT Education
Probably the biggest stereotype is the following. Exists widespread belief that when a company outsources to a team in another country, they won’t fully understand each other due to language barriers, cultural differences, and importantly due to the time zone differences.
Frankly speaking, when it comes to Eastern Europe, all smart developers have already learned English because they understand that working with clients from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom is more profitable than working with clients from their own country. The majority of Ukrainian specialists have a good command of the English language. We can roughly estimate that around 50% of IT specialists speak fluent English and around 30% have an intermediate level that allows them to easily communicate with international vendors. Their level of professionalism is on the highest, top-notch level, and these specialists are educated in specialized universities such as Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University, Kyiv Polytechnic Institute named after Igor Sikors’kyi, Lviv Polytechnic National University, etc. Ukraine has a strong technical education system. Great number of engineering students graduate every year with certificates in technical disciplines.
When working with a nearshore or offshore vendor, some businesses have difficulty setting working schedules or planning some meetings. Knowing how many overlapping working hours your teams will have can assist you in selecting the best IT outsourcing country.
Time zone matter is easily resolved. Discuss how you plan to adjust to any time differences. Set available working hours and discuss how to reach them in case of an emergency. There is always a window of mutual 3–6 hours of acceptable working day.
Take a closer look at time zone differences between Ukraine and Texas. The 8-hour difference with Texas gives possibility to specialists from Ukraine to be online from 4 p.m. up till 9 p.m. in case of an urgent matter. This means that your working day in Texas begins at 8 a. m. and gives you 5-hour long productive day time with your offshore company. The same scheme is applied to Belarus with the same time zone.
The large percentage of Ukrainian outsourcing companies are working to create a business culture that is similar to American and European. Ukrainian specialists are transparent and enthusiastic to propose new and more efficient ways of collaboration. This may help to eliminate misunderstandings and steer project development in the right direction.
In the case of outsourcing, the very technology has enabled the industry to thrive and here where the negative stereotypes are associated from. People from all over the world can now communicate in real time, forming a global community in which physical and cultural distances can be widened. The distances become shorter thanks to all privileges of the 21st century.
While vendors and clients may not always speak the same mother tongue, but the language on which their products are built go beyond cultural barriers — different programming languages aren’t bound by geographical or cultural boundaries.
It makes no difference whether your need is to build your own outsourced team or to supplement your team with specialists; whether you have a large project or a small niche; whether you have your own project manager or not; Outsourcing or service delivery companies can provide a suitable solution for all of this.
