Outsourcing is quickly becoming a trend among MNCs and startups alike in every industry. This is because every organization wants to focus on its core business and incorporating innovation into it that it would rather outsource its less important backend IT and non-IT business processes to specialist agencies.
Only if an established firm or startup in any industry is able to focus on its core business, devise effective business strategies, make its products or services better and more innovative will it be able to survive in the industry and remain profitable. In this blog post, we’re going to have a look at all the main benefits outsourcing backend IT and non-IT business processes can bring to a startup or an established firm in any industry. So, kindly read on.
Table of contents
The tangible benefits of offshore software development
How to select a good offshore software development firm?
The steps involved in offshore software development outsourcing
The tangible benefits of offshore software development
Outsourcing your backend IT and non-IT business processes to specialist IT agencies will bring you many more benefits than just lowering your expenditure and enabling you to focus on your core business. The other tangible benefits of offshore software development are as listed below.
It is a highly flexible option
Since your backend business processes such as ensuring statutory compliance with the local government’s laws, accounting, HR responsibilities, IT and non-IT support processes, etcetera are taken care of by your IT specialist agency, you will be able to focus on your core business and handle your essential workload better. That in turn will lead to lower running costs and higher profit margins.
Smooth execution of your interim projects
The skill requirements of your interim project can change even during the course of execution of the project. In such a scenario, it would be difficult for you to hire new full-time employees or request your existing employees to learn new skill sets.
The skilled team that you contracted from your IT specialist agency can be expanded or cut down in size to suit your dynamic project requirements. Hence, the execution of your current project will be hassle-free, efficient, and smooth.
Contracting skilled resources from IT specialist agencies is definitely a far cheaper, efficient, safe, and flexible option to meet your interim project requirements than hiring and firing in-house employees for the same purpose.
Seamless execution of all your projects
Your IT agency will have skilled and seasoned IT professionals who have at least a few years of proven experience in successfully completing outsourced IT projects and other business processes. Hence, you can focus on your core busines as you can be sure that your backend IT processes and non-IT processes will be handled flawlessly by the IT agency.
It is always better to let experts handle your less important backend business processes rather than hiring full-time employees to handle those processes that you are not expertised in. You will not be able to manage your full-time employees who handle your backend business processes well as you are not expertised in those domains.
You can get effective and innovative business advice
Apart from handling your backend business processes well, your IT agency will also have business strategists who can give you ideas to streamline your existing business processes and incorporate innovation into them.
Implementing their ideas will shrink your operational costs and maximize your profit margins and could even lead to higher employee satisfaction with their jobs.
If you run a startup in any industry, you’ll definitely need sound business advice from expert business strategists to get off to a good start and to be able to compete with giants in your industry.
Better risk management
Before signing the contract, specialist IT agencies will usually share with you the service outage risk, disaster recovery plans, and data security and confidentiality arrangements.
You must check these vital parameters before signing a contract with any specialist IT agency. Doing so will protect your organization in many ways and help it detect and manage various types of business risks better.
If these business risks are not detected and handled well, they could lead to costly lawsuits being filed against your organization or they could even lead to a dramatic loss of business volume and the eventual closure of your business. Hence, it’s advisable to sign data and service security agreements with your IT agency to safeguard your business interests
Cost effective
The hourly rates of contracted IT professionals will be far lower than the hourly charges of in-house full-time employees.
Apart from this outsourcing your transient IT project will prevent you from incurring miscellaneous expenses like renting new office spaces to accommodate your new employees, buying new equipments for them, paying the bills and taxes if your decide to rent new office spaces, etcetera. After all, minimizing running costs is key to maintaining higher profit margins.
How to select a good offshore software development firm?
If you want to be sure that your chosen IT agency can do your backend IT and non-IT business processes perfectly then you must adopt the following selection process.
Check if the IT agency has a team with the required skill sets
The IT agency that you are considering to tie up with must have a skilled and seasoned team of software professionals who are well versed with the coding technologies that are required for your current project. Only then will they be able to execute your project flawlessly.
It is also important that the team must be committed to completing your present project impeccably. The IT agency’s culture must gel well with your own organization’s culture to enable effective communication and coordination. The IT agency must be prepared to send you daily or at least weekly project progress report so that the schedule of your project is met.
You must evaluate their software development process
The IT agency you intend to consult with must have a sound and internationally recognized software development process. They must be willing to keep you informed at every phase of the software development to prevent anxiety for you.
The software development process of the IT agency must be designed in such a way that you are kept informed throught the software development project and that it enables the perfect design of the software as per your requirements.
Go through the IT agency’s software development portfolio and official website
You must go through the IT agency’s official website and check if they have an impressive software development portfolio. It would be preferable if their software development portfolio shares similarities with your current project requirements so that you can be sure that the IT agency will perfectly complete your present project.
You can also go through a few of their ex-clients’ testimonials to gauge their commitment, professionalism, technical expertise, and quality of work.
You can also request them to share their balance sheet for the past six months at least. A good IT agency will usually have a positive balance sheet and therefore by looking at their balance sheet, you can gauge whether they’re a good quality IT agency or not.
It would be desirable if the IT agency provides post project services
People and organizations alike prefer and benefit completely from allround support. Hence, it would be desirable if your IT agency provides post-project services like Digital Marketing, sales, software maintenance and upgradation, customer or client technical support, etcetera so that you can derive the maximum benefit from your tie up with them and the sales of your official software will be off to a great start.
The steps involved in offshore software development outsourcing
Whenever any organization wants to outsource its software needs, these are the steps it must follow for effective transfer of the project to its client.
Checking potential clients’ capabilities
This step involves checking if your chosen potential client has the technical capability and experience to execute your interim project impeccably to your satisfaction. You must also discuss with your potential client and arrive at a mutually accepted roadmap for the development of your official software.
Requesting official information and a quote for the project
Before finalizing a deal with your potential client, as a precautionary measure it would be better if you request for their six months balance sheet and their quote for your project. This is officially termed as sending an RFI (Request For Information) and sending an RFQ (Request For Quote).
If your potential client has maintained a positive balance sheet for at least the past six months, it can be considered a genuine IT agency. If their quote for your project seems reasonable, you can go ahead with outsourcing your software development project to them.
Signing the official contract
After lengthy rounds of discussion with your potential client, you must arrive at a mutually accepted Service Level Agreement (SLA) with them.
The terms of the SLA along with the specifications of your project’s deliverables and their respective deadlines should be specified in the contract you sign with them. This is done to ensure that your client completes your project to your satisfaction and delivers quality in your project.
Briefing and guiding your client’s team
Generally, your client would have given the relevant details of your project to their contracted team but in case their team has any queries regarding your project or needs training in certain technical domains, you must be willing and able to answer their queries and provide the necessary training to ensure seamless completion of your interim project.
Effective coordination throughout the project and making the final payment to your client
You must effectively communicate and coordinate with your client periodically, throughout the duration of your project to be informed and to ensure the spotless completion of your project.
If the project has been completed to your satisfaction, you can then make the payment to your client in accordance with the agreed upon quote for the project.
What we can do for you
If you need to develop any software and if you wish to outsource that project, think no further than contacting us. We have quite a few years of proven experience in the software development domain.
Our impressive software development portfolio and jubilant client reviews are proof of our technical expertise, commitment, professionalism, and quality of work.
Our team of professionals are highly skilled, seasoned, and motivated. They are well-versed in popularly used coding technologies and can impeccably complete software development projects of any size and complexity.
We will communicate and coordinate with you at every phase of the software development project so that you are kept informed (KCI practice) and are void of anxiety and ambiguity throughout the duration of your project.
We will make a note of all of your software’s functional and non-functional requirements and design your software to your satisfaction. We offer all of our high quality professional services at very reasonale rates. So, you have everything to gain and nothing to lose by consulting with us.
