Here is All You Need to Know About Offshore Development Centre
Whether it is London or San Francisco, Berlin or New York, or any other major city, hiring a software developer can burn a hole in your pocket. Apart from eye-watering salary, the other expenses will also be associated like rents, pension, equipment, perks and taxes. That is the reason why today business owners are looking to set up an offshore development centre to balance the cost of growing their software business.
Firstly, Let’s Understand What Offshore Development Centre means?
When it comes to the software world, offshoring is where a company hire a brand new team of developers in another country. They are just like the regular employees; the only difference is that instead of working locally with your in-house team, they are based elsewhere.
Here are a few reasons why you should consider establishing offshore software development centres:
1. Operating costs:
Building a software development team in India or Eastern Europe is less expensive than Paris, London or New York. Premises, salaries and equipment all are cheaper because of the affordable cost of living in these regions.
1. Scarcity of Talent:
Highly qualified software engineers are hard to nail down across Western Europe and America. Tech economies in India such as Bangalore produce more world-class IT engineers than anywhere else on the planet.
2. Shared Responsibility:
When you outsource a given component, the parties agree on what has to be done and the impact and risk management is shared among them. Being part of its core business, the offshore development team manages and mitigates the risks produced by the development team in a better way.
How is this different from Outsourcing?
Outsourcing involves engaging third-party vendors on temporary contracts to deliver you software development. These vendors generally employ developers on an ad-hoc basis for sporadic projects.
The problem with outsourcing is that these developers do not work only for you; they cater to different clients and different projects. Since the main driver for outsourcing is cost; companies try to get the work completed in the lowest price possible. The end result is always below expectations since the developers do not get incentives to do a good job.
Setting up offshore development team rather than looking for in-house developers or outsourcing the project, not only give you access to a wider pool of talent but also offset the high rates and competition prevalent in the US, the UK and other western countries.
However, before you take the leap and recruit your first offshore developers, there are a few things that should be considered. Hiring offshore developers is strenuous and challenging and that’s why we bring for you a few key learning that helps you make the transition from in-house to offshore team with ease.
If you are overloaded with software projects and pressing deadlines, it makes more sense to hire an experienced team of developers with a proven track record.
Here are a few points that will help you make the right decision in choosing the best offshore development partner:
1. Share your Product Vision:
While hiring an offshore development team, it is always essential to share the bigger picture. Giving them full product vision and explaining the goals in detail will aid them in planning the work in the right direction from the initial stage.
Paint the picture of your product that you have in your mind so they can make smarter decisions as they work on the project. Moreover, it is important for your offshore team to understand and be able to determine the upcoming work. Make sure to share all the details with your offshore teams like sprint planning and the release date of the product.
2. Engage More:
It is crucial to engage more with the development team that is working offshore over your projects. When you are working with a remote team, communication is vital to make sure that they are not left in the dark. It is better to over-communicate to remain updated about what is going on with the business.
Don’t simply engage with them once in a week or once in a day during scrum meetings. Make sure you are engaging them once every day to get the update of the project and helping them however you can.
3. Overlap the Work Schedule:
One of the biggest challenges that come while hiring an offshore development team is the vast difference in time zones. India is 9 hours and 30 minutes ahead from the USA, however, web and app development companies in India often have flexible working schedules. You can communicate with the team early in the morning or late at night.
Moreover, the shifted hours work as an advantage, as your offshore team in India can provide on-call support while your USA team is asleep.
4. Keep Communication Simple:
Depending upon the country where your offshore team is located, chances are there that they may not be as fluent with your language as you are. The best thing to prevent misapprehension is to keep the communication simple.
Make sure you are using a common vocabulary, avoiding metaphors and cultural references that they won’t understand.
Get straight to the point, state the obvious and be clear with your directions. If their fluency of the language is not as good as yours, get to the point and don’t make them assume anything.
5. Don’t Micromanage:
Controlling every part can lead to problems on the part of your offshore team. Moreover, it is hard to scale your development team if you can’t trust them over the work that has been allotted to them. Make sure that the offshore team you are hiring has a senior developer who can act as a team lead.
It would be beneficial for both you and your offshore team that your offshore team is self-managing and successful. The team you are hiring must have the right mix of developers, senior developers and potentially a project manager.
6. Use Images and Quick Video:
Software development is all about communicating your requirements in the right manner. Try to use images, screenshots and quick video to explain your requirements.
It will take just a few seconds to take a screenshot of something and doodle on it. With that little doodle, you can make your team instantly understand what you are talking about. It can save hours of time.
In addition to this, you can also share the video. You can use tools like Vidyard to record some feedback or quick training video and email it instantly to the team.
7. Treat them as your team:
One of the biggest mistakes that companies hiring offshore professionals to do is they keep “us versus them” mentality towards their offshore team. Don’t keep your offshore team at arms’ length. To keep a healthy working environment, it is better to treat them like they are part of your own team.
Here are a few ways you can make them feel that they are part of your team:
· Avoid “us vs them” mentality.
· Schedule meetings regularly and even plan for in-person meetings.
· Include them in company and time meetings
· Include them in all communications.
Why Choose India to Setup Offshore Development Team?
Setting up an offshore development team is a crucial business decision, which means the benefit must also be significant and tangible.
Here are two major reasons explained in detail for setting up offshore development team:
1. Talent:
In a recent study conducted by the Institution of Engineering and Technology, it has been found that shortage of engineers is growing, which is negative affects the business.
The employable developers either lack the necessary skills or are underpaid. India is the country with a rising number of STEM graduates. Since the country puts emphasis on IT and English education; these engineers are highly capable of filling the American shortfall. Thus, when building a team in a country like India, you will find a 5x larger talent pool.
2. Cost:
Most major software businesses are based in cities, cities are typically expensive and therefore rent, wages and everything else involved in running a business is also expensive.
In India, the cost of living is significantly lower than the UK or US. The average developer salary in India, even in tech-focused economies like Bangalore, is considerably lower as compared to countries like the UK or US. When you consider the cost of rent, health insurance and travel, it’s huge a difference. Thus, building an offshore development team in India can bring a huge benefit to your business.
This was all about offshore development centre. I hope this article has helped you understand all the key points associated with developing a software team in offshore countries.
For more such updates, stay tuned!
