Each modern business faced the need for software development services. Today, anyone, who wants to compete must offer new and advanced solutions for its clients. However, it doesn’t mean that the business with no experience in programming is the only one looking for offshore development team. Even successful tech giants with thousands of programmers on board commonly hire offshore development teams for part-time projects.
So, how to choose and hire offshore developers to embody your business idea? Let’s start with the basics.
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The Offshore Development Team Explained
Before you hire offshore developers, you should know who they are, and how offshore programming differs from the in-house team.
As the name says, to hire offshore developers is to find a startup development team, located offshore, i.e. abroad. To simplify, the offshore business model offers team hire as a service. Thus, instead of gathering your in-house developers one by one, you can simply choose an offshore development team for hire.
Among the most obvious reasons to hire offshore developers is that it helps to save time and money by finding a team of experts from other regions with lower salaries. At the same time, building in-house might be expensive not only in terms of salary. For instance, you won’t be able to start a full-fledged software development before you gather the whole team. So, each minute costs you: while you build a startup development team, you are not developing a software product.
Additionally, when you hire offshore development team, you hire globally. Therefore, you have access to a much wider talent pool and can find your team faster than building an in-house team from scratch.
Still, all the foregoing is not a final list of reasons to choose and hire offshore development team over on-premises development.
Reasons to Hire Offshore Developers
An Offshore Development Team is Cheaper
Once again, when you build an offshore team, you can gather software specialists from around the globe. The offshore business model is popular among IT vendors in Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Asia. IT outsourcing is a win-win strategy for companies from these regions:
Business owners, looking for fitting solutions get what they expect faster and cheaper, while local IT vendors can get a much more profitable offer from the US or Western Europe, compared to the local offers.
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Offshore Programming is Faster
Many offshore development teams are targeting the US and Western European markets. It is more profitable for them, and the variety of offers is much bigger.
To compete with the others, offshore development teams and companies commonly offer many services simultaneously: starting with niche-experienced team extension services, and ending with white-label software development from scratch.
Besides, they also compete with each other and hire offshore developers in advance to cut the expectation time of the client and offer an off-the-bat solution.
Expert Team Hire
Another crucial reason to hire offshore developers - is their niche expertise.
To cut a long story short, offshore programming commonly includes freelance and team hire on demand. The talent pool and team hire options are wider, so you can find a specific offshore developer, familiar with a very particular technology or industry in no time.
While looking for the same level expert in your area might take months, with no guarantee of available specialists.
When to Hire Offshore Developers?
However, the offshore development team model is an alternative way of software development, not the only one. It is commonly compared to in-house teams, a more traditional and common approach.
So, why hire offshore developers, apart from the benefits and advantages of the offshore business model?
In addition to all the pros of hiring offshore development team, it is also possible to define some cases, more suited to this model.
1. You have an Idea for the startup development team.
First, you have to define, whether you have an idea for software development. In case, you are considering creating a full-fledged Software-as-a-Service and an IT business - consider starting with an offshore programming approach.
Apart from saving costs and efforts, offshore programming offers a deeper expertise in the field. So, you can start working with the offshore development team first and then hire an in-house team.
Most offshore programming companies target startups, providing them with startup development teams. This is probably the best possible solution for both parties, which helps even inexperienced businesses to make their first steps in the IT industry.
2. You are looking for an MVP startup development team.
Once again, offshore development teams are commonly chosen as startup development teams due to their low price and high efficiency.
Still, these are not all reasons to hire offshore developers for a startup. Offshore programming is a great way to decrease risks.
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For instance, if you have a brilliant idea and zero experience in programming, an offshore business model, combined with minimum viable product development is ideal. Such a mix allows to:
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Cut the development time even more
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Significantly decrease the expenses
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Try out the “beta version” of your idea
MVP startup development is developing the simplest version of your idea. It includes only the most crucial and essential features of an app. It is a cheap, fast, and very convenient way to test your idea in practice. Combined with offshore programming, MVP startup development allows you to design and develop your concept with rocket speed, avoiding countless paperwork and other routine processes, covered when you hire offshore developers.
If your idea fails - you can shut down the project, and start again much faster, avoiding the need to maintain servers, office building, and in-house developers. To make it simple, MVP offshore programming can be fully virtual: all communications, processes, and assets can be taken care of through the web from your kitchen.
3. Your startup development team is rapidly scaling and extending.
Finally, another reason to build offshore team is scaling and extending.
Even tech giants like Google or Facebook must hire offshore developers when extending. For instance, you want to develop a new feature, make some adjustments and optimization, or create a new software app, etc. It can be hard to redirect your available resources to new tasks: most in-house specialists already have tasks and priorities. Instead - hire offshore developers and consider IT outsourcing.
It doesn’t mean, that each time you are scaling you have to hire offshore development team. Sometimes, it is possible to cope with it by prioritizing tasks and reassigning developers. Still, if the new scale of the project is too big and complex - don’t hesitate to look for offshore development team.
How to Hire Offshore Developers?
Eventually, let’s talk about the tips to hire offshore developers.
When you are looking for offshore development team, you have to take into account a few major aspects:
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The experience of an offshore development team.
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The rate of offshore developers.
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Client feedback and case studies of the IT vendor.
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Company recognition.
To cut a long story short, there are numerous ways and tools for team hire, which can simplify finding a trustworthy software development partner.
1. Define Destination for Offshore Programming
When you hire offshore developers - you hire software developers from abroad.
While team extension by 1-2 experts is not a big deal if you are looking for offshore development teams - it becomes important.
So, the first step is to choose the location of your offshore developers for hire. Among the most popular modern offshore and outsourcing destinations are: Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Asia. These regions offer different rates, technologies, and levels of expertise. Besides, don’t forget about cultural specifics, time zone differences, language barriers, etc.
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So, the first step for you would be to choose the best and most suited option, that meets your requirements and expectations. Fortunately, the websites and other outsourcing platforms that help to build offshore teams are the same for almost all regions. Still, they might not cover all the region specifics, so you will still have to perform your research.
2. Find an IT Offshore Programming Company
The next step is to choose a list of companies, offering offshore development teams as a service.
The easiest way to do so - is to monitor B2B platforms like Clutch, GoodFirms, or any other alternative. Such online platforms gather information about most IT companies in the region and offer them free of charge.
Some platforms even estimate and provide info on the average prices of the team. However, the most important data they provide - links to websites, client feedback, case studies, ratings, etc.
Hence, even the simplest B2B platform will provide you with a list of companies to choose from. However, you still have to narrow down the list.
3. Learn Your Team Hire Partner
The best way to do so - is to perform your research.
For example, you find a list of companies on Clutch, which correspond with your needs. So, the next step - is to examine their profiles and portfolios on the platform itself, and visit their websites.
All IT companies share the most valuable information about their performance and success on their home pages. To cut a long story short, you are looking for:
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Offered services (team extension, dedicated teams, DevOps, UI/UX, Software QA, etc)
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Tech and Industry Expertise (used technologies like Python, Node.js, AWS, or any other + experience in industries like Healthcare, FinTech, Logistics, etc)
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Case Studies (a list of software development projects they took part in, and a brief explanation of what and how they did in terms of them)
The following information helps to narrow down the list to a few candidates. If you are looking for a FinTech offshore development team, you won’t deal with the company, targeted at EdTech.
4. Contact Team Hire Candidates
After narrowing down the number of candidates, you can contact the most preferred companies.
So, throughout the conversation, you could ask any questions about your software project development or team experience, and discuss your idea.
Besides, you can ask for a rough estimation of the potential cooperation to better understand the scale and price of work.
Finally, having your numbers and answers, you can choose the most suited candidate.
5. Hire Offshore Developers and Sign the Agreements
Before you hire offshore development team, you still have to discuss some working aspects, like the terms and conditions of your cooperation.
For instance, whether it is a time and materials or fixed-price contract, or any other extra papers you will need, like a Data Processing Agreement, Software Specification Requirement, etc.
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After the paperwork is done - congratulations! - you just hired offshore developers for your offshore programming project.