In the software world, going offshore means building a permanent team of developers in another country, to either compensate for the lack of local talent or to manage increasing workloads. The developers you hire are full-time employees, dedicated and committed to the vision of your company. Realistically, any company can set up an offshore development center, irrespective of the scale. For instance, IT giants like Google, Microsoft, and Apple are all establishing their R&D centers in Bangalore – The Silicon Valley Of Asia.
What does an offshore development center look like?
The phrase “offshore development center” makes it sound complicated – it isn’t.
It’s just an office. A modern one, furnished with all sorts of tech and mod-cons required to work effectively in 2019. But it’s still just an office. One that’s home to the world-class developers producing quality software for your company.
When we furnish office spaces for our clients, there are two focuses:
- Supply all the foundations of a great office: equipment, light, reliable air conditioning, high-quality desks, and chairs – all the stuff we take for granted. In the West, these things come at an absolute premium, a cost that can be significantly reduced when building an offshore center in a country like India.
- Matching it with the ethos and brand of the client: Your brand, the statement you wish to make, and the culture of your organization are all extremely important factors that one cannot overlook when building an offshore center. For example, for a fast-growing, trendy fashion business, the aesthetic and layout will be different from a game developer. When someone from the at-home office visits the offshore team, stepping into that office should feel like coming home.
The benefits of building an offshore development center
There are variously real, tangible business benefits of offshore software development. But we’re only going to touch on 3 of the most prominent: reduced operating costs (i.e. higher profit margins!), access to great engineers, and the ability to scale development sustainably.
Lower operating costs
Building and scaling software teams in Western Europe is expensive. Office leases, wages, recruiters, employee benefits – it adds up quickly. And as more and more businesses spring up every year, these costs are going nowhere but up.
And so it makes sense to move that business unit to a location where costs are lower.
The key to success here isn’t just a location where the costs are sufficiently low. It’s also about a location where the quality of engineering remains impressively high. We identified Bangalore as the most strategic location for offshoring since their engineering infrastructure is superb. What’s more is that all the employee-centric benefits can be provided at a fraction of the cost as compared to back home, which means savings!
As long as there’s no compromise on quality, it makes perfect sense.
Access to a deep talent pool
Given the shortage of engineers in Western Europe, nailing down qualified and passionate developers can be quite a task. According to some statistical reports, there is going to be an acute shortage of talents in the US and UK, especially in the field of engineering and software development. Bangalore – as just one example – actually produces more engineers every year than any other country in the world, except for China.
Such little-tapped resources can allow businesses to snap up a niche or experienced developers much more easily than in major European cities. These engineers are not only technically-gifted, but they are also fluent in the English language. All this, simply which means that communication with them on a daily basis will not be a hurdle whatsoever.
An opportunity to scale-up sustainably
The cost of recruiting and paying staff is reduced with offshoring. This allows businesses to shoulder down periods more easily. At the same time, expanding an offshore team can be done much faster than in-house.
For example, if you team up with the right offshore partner, you can have multiple groups of engineers to your teams in as little as 4 weeks. Vetted, tested, and ready for work. Quickly turning a 30-person team into a 60-person team in London is almost impossible. Doing it with a veteran offshoring partner, however, is a walk in the park. This means that you do not have to worry about the absence of a strong workforce to back you up.
How can you launch an offshore development center?
Invest in a reliable offshore partner
The simplest and most effective way to establish an offshore team is to work with the right offshore development partner. This is the local company that builds the team on your behalf and helps you avoid the big mistakes companies make setting up their own ODC. They will be the people who are responsible for setting up a strong foundation for your development center. They will also work jointly with your in-house teams.
After a series of in-depth, face-to-face meetings and regular contact, your offshore partner will construct an understanding of what you need from your offshore team. They then coordinate on recruitment, payroll, administration, legal, and getting the whole team up and running! They are also your eyes and ears in a foreign land.
Identifying the right offshore development partner is absolutely crucial. It’s key to do all your due diligence, from investigating their work history (reading case studies is a good method) and getting on the phone to ask direct questions. Without the right partner, you may be well on your way to set up what may only be a disaster. With a proven and reliable method for achieving success, your partner will make going offshore a seamless transition. It’s worth the time investment to find your perfect partner.
