Software development outsourcing has become a key story in the IT world. Offshore software development companies have proven to be a cost-cutting and time-effective solution in building robust and productive products for organizations that don’t have specialists or enough expertise to do that in-house.
Nowadays, many businesses cooperate with offshore software development companies in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, China, or India. Let’s find out what are the best countries to outsource software development and what benefits they can bring to your business.
Benefits of Software Development Outsourcing
Outsourcing lets the company delegate all or a part of the software development work to a third-party. This possibility ensures high results of the project and helps to avoid the lack of specialists or expertise inside the company. Here are some more benefits that make businesses opt for outsourcing developers:
- Reduced costs. Offshore software development is the best way to save on costs. When working with software engineers in an outsourcing company it’s not necessary to form your own team. That means that you can cut expenses on recruiting and administration. Moreover, the hourly rate in offshore companies is usually lower without losing in quality. Since there is no need to hire a team of software developers there is also no need in building team spirit and trying to motivate the employees.
- Expertise. Outsourcing software development companies usually have wide experience in working on projects with different requirements. Having this experience, it’s easier for them to find a team that will comply best with the specific demands of the project. Moreover, the choice of specialists is not limited by the country. Since outsourcing software developers are constantly improving their skills to get a better project they are aware of the latest technologies that can be applied to make the software more user engaging and productive.
- Switch to in-house activities. By delegating some tasks to outsourcing specialists it’s possible to save time and resources for inner issues. Not only does it help to reduce pressure on the company’s employees but also focus more attention on the daily projects and strategic goals.
- Saving time. Time-efficiency determines the success of the company on the market. Thus, the sooner the task is solved the better. Since in-house specialists are often multitasking and have to deal with several projects at a time, it usually takes them longer to dive into details and find out possible solutions. In contrast, outsourcing software engineers are usually specialized in a particular sphere so they need less time to respond to a challenge.
Main Criteria for Choosing the Best Countries for Outsourcing
Choosing an offshore outsourcing software development company is not as easy as it seems. The IT market is full of companies that are trying to keep up with the latest technologies providing high-quality services. When making a decision it’s crucial to pay attention to some criteria that will ensure the success of your project and bring your company to the top of the market competition. Here are the most important of them that will help you in choosing from the top outsourcing countries:
- Technical expertise. Opting for a particular country it’s necessary to find out what level of technical expertise local universities provide and if there is extra training to improve the knowledge.
- Time zone. Well-established communication is the key to the project’s success. The contractor should be able to maintain efficient communication during the project execution. Thus, a convenient time-zone is one of the important factors to consider.
- Language of communication. English has become the language of international business. When choosing the country to outsource it’s important to check if the specialists there have a sufficient level of English.
- Experience. Although every region and country has specialists talented and capable of developing various software solutions, some countries are more popular for a particular technological expertise. According to the survey of HackerRank, Ukrainian developers are high-skilled in C++ and provide the best security solutions, the Chinese are experienced in functional programming, in Poland the stress is on such programming languages as Ruby, Java, and Python, etc.
How to Deal with Culture Differences and Communication Issues
All countries have their own traditions, customs, national holidays, and attitude to work. The first step towards successful future cooperation is the understanding of cultural diversity and complexity. But what can you do to overcome cultural differences and to form a stable working process?
It’s important to separate national differences (language, public holidays, mentality) and corporate ones (differences in the organizational culture). To handle the first ones it’s crucial to find the approach that will treat the culture of both parties with respect. If necessary there are various training courses that can facilitate the process of team adjustment to cultural diversity.
Considering corporate culture differences, the best option is to negotiate on them beforehand and resolve all ambiguities.
5 Best Countries for Outsourcing Software Development Today
Outsourcing has stopped being a trend and become a wide-spread solution in software development. It provides companies with efficient and cost-cutting software development services. Here is the list of the top 5 of the offshore countries that took the leading positions in meeting the demands of their customers in software development.
Poland
Poland is one of the most attractive countries for software development outsourcing. Polish universities offer a big choice of IT courses since there is a trend among the youth to study computer sciences. Moreover, Poland is a popular outsourcing region due to minor cultural differences and a large share of specialists fluent in English. Poland as a member of the European Union has a stable economy and transparent government policy.
As for technologies, Poland is known for its deep expertise in PHP, JavaScript, and Ruby.
Belarus
This country has gained its reputation for expertise together with a big number of IT companies showing excellence in the highly-competitive market.
Belarus has been an expert in outsourcing software development for over 20 years. Its location in the center of Europe provides customers with a convenient time-zone and minimal cultural differences. What is more, its IT market includes more than 40.000 software engineers, 90% of them have a university degree in the sphere. Due to the lower hourly rate, here it’s possible to find more cost-effective and qualitative software development solutions. Since the majority of IT companies have high expectations for the level of English most of the Belarusian developers are fluent in it.
Ukraine
Ukraine is one of the most popular offshore countries for outsourcing software development in Eastern Europe. According to idapgroup.com, Ukraine had over 180.000 IT specialists in 2019 and this number has been increasing. Since there is a high demand for software engineers, Ukrainian universities create more courses related to computer science. There are also various internships offered by IT companies that want to train high-skilled specialists.
The most popular programming languages in Ukraine are Java, JavaScript, and C#. What is more, Ukrainian developers are trying to keep up with innovations, thus, they show expertise in new programming languages as well.
Argentina
Compared to other countries, Argentina requires fewer expenses for software development since the local currency is much lower than the US dollar. Communication in English is not a barrier here. Argentina was ranked first among Latin American countries with a high index of English Proficiency. It is an attractive outsourcing destination due to its strong expertise in software engineering, operating systems, and cloud services.
Romania
Romania has been a software development outsourcing destination for the USA and Western Europe for over 17 years. It has a convenient location and is considered one of the fastest-growing European economies. It offers more than 185.000 IT specialists. Moreover, 50% of them are skilled at software development. Romanian developers are aware of various technologies, but they are mainly experts in Java, .NET, and C++. Many companies prefer Romania when it’s necessary to outsource mobile or web development services.
Conclusion
Software development outsourcing is a great solution for companies striving to reduce costs and avoid challenges related to building digital products. It allows companies to get high-quality software at a reasonable price and free up resources for in-house activities.
The market of outsourcing companies is ever-growing and developing. However, to choose the best country to outsource software development it’s necessary to define what is critical for a particular project. It’s important to consider some criteria such as the location of the outsourcing country, its technological resources, level of English proficiency, and others. A clear understanding of your demands and awareness of the main peculiarities of offshore outsourcing companies will help you to make the right decision and lead your company to market success.