As new tech products continue to revolutionize the way we do business, software outsourcing is becoming more and more common. Many professionals use it to minimize costs, drive growth, and create valuable products. With IT services on the rise, we can expect even more companies to turn to outsource in the future as an efficient means of transforming their service offerings and evolving their business models.
But is a software outsourcing a good idea for your business? Let’s take a closer look at the benefits of outsourcing.
What is software outsourcing?
Outsourcing simply means delegating a project, task, or function to a third party: either an individual or a company. IT services are outsourced more often than any other service, and software outsourcing is especially common. Outsourcing software development means hiring an external individual or company to create software on behalf of your business.
Sometimes, companies outsource just a part of the development process. For example, they may build the software themselves but hire an external agency to test it. Other times, businesses will outsource the entire process from ideation and design to testing, debugging, and launch. Occasionally, even software developers outsource certain parts of the process.
Why outsource software development?
The benefits of outsourcing software development go beyond just cost cutting. Many businesses outsource because it saves their internal team valuable time and energy. By delegating extra tasks to an outside company, you enable your in-house team to focus on long-term goals, customer service, and business growth. The advantages of outsourcing software development include:- Reduced spending
- Flexibility
- Faster development
- Risk minimization
- Expert guidance
- The freedom to focus on your business
Advantages of outsourcing software
Reduce spending
While it may seem counterintuitive, hiring a third party to develop your software product is actually much more affordable than just relying on your in-house team.
For one thing, you don’t need to pay for employee benefits like insurance and leave. Outsourcing companies usually charge an overall development cost based on their hourly rate, expertise, and the project length. In other words, when you hire an outsourced worker or team, you’re paying for just the work itself, not additional employee benefits.
For another thing, if you don’t outsource, you may need to hire and onboard new employees to develop your software. By outsourcing, you can skip all the usual hiring and onboarding costs—and save yourself a lot of time in the process.
Skipping these costs allows you to invest more in your business and in the actual software product itself, contributing to a higher quality outcome and a higher success rate.
Flexibility
When you rely only on your internal team, you limit yourself to who you have in-house. But when you outsource, your options are wide open. Need a QA tester? A digital marketer? A CTO? You can outsource any of those roles at any time.
In fact, many development teams will be able to supply you with a full lineup that includes testers, designers, marketers, CTOs, and more. And once you develop a relationship with a third-party developer or development team, you can bring them on board any time you need a few extra hands or an expert eye.
On the other hand, if you hire a full-time employee for a temporary project, you may find afterward that they’re no longer needed and it’s not cost-effective for you to keep paying them.
Faster development
As mentioned already, when you outsource, you get to skip the process of hiring and onboarding, saving significant time. You’re also working with a team who’s focused solely on developing the software, unlike your regular employees, who would have to split their time between this project and their other daily work tasks.
Since you usually want to get software up and running as fast as possible, saving time and speeding up development is a massive benefit of outsourcing.
Risk minimization
When you outsource software creation, you minimize your risk of failure. One reason for this is that you’re hiring experienced developers who know how to plan for delays and deal with setbacks.
Another is that, if your software fails, you won’t have wasted valuable time and money hiring and onboarding new employees. Since you’re not concentrating all your resources in one place (in-house), it’s easier to bounce back from failure.
Expert guidance
Often, having an expert on your team can spell the difference between success and failure. When you outsource to an experienced development team with good references and a strong portfolio, you can feel confident that you’re getting a capable team who will take your software product to the next level.
Additionally, it’s often valuable to bring in an outside perspective. An expert who’s not part of your company may have new ideas and strategies to bring to the table, and they may be better at spotting any weak points in your software development plan. Software outsourcing is a great way to get help from an expert developer without paying the full price of hiring one permanently.
Focus on your business
Outsourcing means you and your internal team don’t have to spend as much time on projects that take you away from the day-to-day business of helping customers and running your business. This is especially true if you’re not in the IT industry, but it can apply to IT companies as well.
Usually, software development is not the end but the means, and if you spend too much time focusing on the means, your end goal suffers. But delegating the means to an expert, external company frees you and your team to focus on reaching your end goal.
How to efficiently outsource your software development project
Aside from choosing a good software development company, there are a few things you can do to outsource efficiently. For one thing, it’s important to clearly establish your goals, including deadlines, with the outsourcing team in advance. Work with the team to set milestones, and meet regularly to review those milestones and discuss how close you are to reaching them.
On a related note, it’s important to dedicate someone from your company to liaison with the outsourcing team. While it’s tempting to just turn everything over to a third party, you still need to be kept in the loop so you can reach your goals and avoid any surprises. The agile methodology is a great way to collaborate efficiently and keep everyone in the loop. Another way is to use communication tools like Slack or Trello.
Finally, stay flexible. While it’s important to communicate your expectations upfront, it’s also important to be realistic. Challenges and setbacks will happen, and when they do, the best thing you can do is be patient and continue to support the development team.
In fact, it’s a good idea to give yourself a little extra time when you set your deadline to account for delays. Having said that, if your development team continues to push back the deadline without a reasonable explanation, it may be time to terminate the contract and bring in a new team.
Need an efficient software development team? Set up a call with Band of Coders to learn more about our process.
By Band of Coders
Share this post:
