1. If you’re new to IT and/or you don’t have an R&D department.

It’s quite common that there is a need to undertake a project, develop something from scratch, or refine/improve a current IT system, but if you are not an expert in development, or more commonly, you may not understand IT at all or simply don’t have a development team available. In such a case, it makes sense to turn to professionals who have the experience, expertise, and portfolio of projects. A company, which specializes in development, can help with forming technical specifications and a product backlog, as well as advising you regarding which technologies are better to use for a certain project. Such a team would also be able to carry out development and take on support of the product itself after its release. In such a case, your responsibility would be reduced to securing project funding and regular participation in meetings in order to be in the loop of the development side, as well as to address any emerging questions from the project team.

2. If you’re interested in developing/improving your existing system, but do not know where to start

Suppose you have several IT systems/products in place and you would like to perform an integration between them, develop a new functionality, or improve the current functionality of each system/product, but do not know how this could be done and by whom. The best way is to contact a software development company and to consult with them. Such a company would be able to estimate the approximate budget, as well as the terms of development and implementation of new functionality while dealing with pertaining documentation and code of the current systems. It would also be able to provide the necessary technical support.

3.If you are limited in terms of time and/or budget

If you have a set budget, by utilizing an outsourcing company, you are able to deliberate and finalize your product and determine its functionality, which would be made within the existing budget and deadlines. In this case, you can concentrate on creating the functionality of the product and its main features.

4.If you have the desire to try and come up with an MVP, but are not confident about the product being in demand

You have an idea of creating a certain product and the desire to do this, but you would like to test your idea via a working prototype at first. After getting positive feedback from users and becoming convinced of the economic feasibility of the idea, you’d like to invest the bulk of your available funds in creating this product with a team. Such a case presents an ideal scenario for the development of an MVP (minimum viable product) with the help of an outsourcing team. Within a short time period, you would be able to receive a prototype of a product with minimal functionality, which would allow you to attract the first customers/users.

5.If you need a trustworthy agent in Information Technology, which can also help with development

Having worked with an outsourcing company on a single project or several projects, you can always decide to change the development service provider if you are not satisfied with the current one. Upon switching, if you like the approach of the new provider and the work that its employees perform, the relationships that are developed with the new provider’s management and team, you obtain a trustworthy agent in Information Technology, which can always answer your questions and become your provider in the world of IT products in case of any request for development.

6.If you need to quickly launch software development, quickly scale up, or use a team in a different time zone

It is quite common that the labor market situation makes it impossible to quickly expand the IT team twofold or even by 5-10 people within a period of 2-3 weeks due to the fact that the notice period of potential employees could be as long as 6 months and 2-3 months may still be needed for the probation period once such an individual joins your team. As a result, an excellent alternative is to engage an outsourcing team, which would be able to take over some of your software development needs and quickly incorporate itself into the product/system development process. Furthermore, if your product or service targets users worldwide, it would make sense to have your technical support or even your development team be in the time zone, which would have such teams’ working hours at least partially overlap with yours or which would partially or completely fall into your evening/night-time hours.

7.If you already have a software development team, but are not satisfied with it and if it uses up a lot of your budget without being efficient enough

Oftentimes, internal development teams are not motivated enough by work while enjoying a stable salary, various perks, a corporate policy and so on. Such teams’ performances decrease over time and, as a result, so does their motivation and results. Such teams use up substantial amounts of annual budget allocated for salaries and bonuses, and do not always cope with the amount of software development they are tasked with, and, most importantly, do not generate the result sought. The best way out of such a scenario (if your company does not want to further increase the number of its staff and incur high costs) is to transfer its system, project, and product to outsource. In this case, by finding the right outsourcing software development company, you would be able to acquire significant savings both in the short and long term, as well as increase the speed of delivery of new functionality and/or be provided with technical support.

Pros & Cons

Advantages of Outsourcing

  • Substantial savings, cheaper than maintaining your own staff
  • You can choose an experienced team with similar development experience.
  • Speed of initiation of development; in some cases, as soon as the day after the start of communication
  • Flexibility in decision making – you can redefine priorities, suspend work, or significantly change the direction of development
  • The risks associated with personnel changes lie with the company responsible for development
  • If you are not satisfied with the cooperation, you can change the development team or the service provider
  • Payment upon completion of work
  • There are no costs related to wages, taxes, recruitment, hardware, licensed software, or office space – these are all the responsibilities of the supplier
  • Development results are NDA-protected and belong to the customer.
Advantages of an In-house IT Department

  • Complete control and management of the development process
  • The company’s development experience grows
  • Neither the company, nor the product are reliant on the contractor’s actions
Disadvantages of Outsourcing

  • No direct management of the timing and development process, which can lead to development delays
  • Risks related poor quality of work
Disadvantages of of an In-house IT Department

  • Large payroll expenses, including taxes and deductions
  • Hardware, licensed software, and office space expenses
  • Management and staff motivation expenses
  • Extensive, specialized IT expertise is required (cost of training, exhibitions, conferences, etc.)
  • Recruitment costs incurred due to the high turnover rate of IT specialists in the market (costs starting from 2 monthly salary figures for each hired employee)
  • High risks related to staff, which may affect development results
Author: admin