Is Outsourcing A Good Or Bad Thing?

A very popular practice in the IT industry is outsourcing software development. Although it has its negatives, it also has its positives to take into consideration. Here are some of the leading benefits for outsourcing.

The Benefits Of Outsourcing

In many cases, companies that are not involved in software development are looking for ways to attract and bring in new customers. These same companies might want to incorporate designing a software for management within their business. Obviously, they do not have a team of IT developers on their staff. Going out and hiring a specialist for one single application can be extremely expensive. Their best option is to get involved with outsourcing software services that can be very cost efficient. This is especially popular for a business in their development stage, but is also very popular with well established corporations. Not only are outsourcing services able to rapidly create a software but will be available for support in the future.

Outsourcing will allow a business to concentrate on what’s important to them, running daily business operations. Managers are always looking out for the best interest of their business along with work-flow and growth. A good outsourcing service will keep added stress off managers by doing what they know best, creating software.

Pricing & Quality

Pricing and quality are very important when finding a good outsourcing service. Outsourcing projects are usually very profitable because the costs are relatively low. Here’s the rub; many of these services are in countries such as China and India that pay their teams low wages. Companies that use them know they are not going to get great quality, high-performance applications. Looking for a good outsource service that pays attention to details is important.

Even if you find one that is good at what they do, the distance and lack of communication can come into play. With lack of communication, vendors are not always going to be upfront about who is actually working on your project. They will save costs by using a junior developer vs a seasoned tech. You might think it’s not a problem, but the bottom line – the quality could be pretty dismal. Communication issues are difficult to overcome, you have never met the people you have hired and will not be in a position to approach them. Cultural backgrounds can also lead to a great deal of frustration and misunderstandings.

Plan Ahead & Know What You Need

Vendors pretty much live in their own world and some have many years of experience but only in a specific area of software development. They are able to produce high performance software in a very short period of time. It’s really important that you plan ahead for your project and choose the proper vendor to make it happen. Here are some tips:

Understand what the software should be able to do, what features should be incorporated and whether it should be a cross-platform or something much simpler.

Questions You Need To Ask Yourself

• How many people will be utilizing the software?
• Will you need in-house tech support?
• How many employees are in your business?

Once you are able to answer these questions you will get a better picture of what kind of software will be needed. This will tell you what level of designing is going to be required. Hiring a design company will be very expensive and have negative repercussions on your business expenditures.

Finding The Right Vendor

There are outsourcing companies all over the internet, so weeding out the good and the bad can be a little dauntless. You need to get your hands on “real” references, not just some blurb thrown up on someone’s website. Do as much research as you possibly can, find out if a friend has used outsourcing and what their experience was. Checkout sites on the internet by searching for reviews. Just like anything else, if you are going to hire someone to take care of a project, you need positive feedback and good references. If you take your time, understand what your software should be able to do, you will find someone with the experience and know-how to make it happen.