More and more organisations are looking to save time and money through outsourcing to digital agencies. This is when you choose to allocate some or all of your digital and technical business processes to a specialised agency local or abroad. There are many benefits to software outsourcing, as this process has evolved to offer an added value that often couldn’t otherwise be met in-house.
As technology becomes more complicated and your final customers and users keep raising their expectations, software outsourcing is arising as one of the cleverest moves your business can make. Today we will discuss the advantages of software outsourcing as a common-sense business strategy.
Software Outsourcing Benefit #1: Flexible, fast, and low risk.
One of the biggest benefits of software outsourcing is that, by hiring a reliable digital services agency, you don’t need to go through a long protracted recruitment process. And you don’t take on the risk of hiring a full-time staffer. Outsourcing allows you to get started quickly by filling any specific experiential, language or tooling gaps on a current or future project.
If your unique value proposition (UVP or USP) isn’t on a digital project, but you only need to make an app or website to compliment your main offering, it just makes sense to look to software outsourcing to hire reliable IT contractors. That way you can stay honed in on what you do best.
There’s no doubt that software outsourcing cuts your overhead costs and increases your speed to market, while keeping you focussed on your core work.
Software Outsourcing Benefit #2: The digital talent gap is widening.
Tech is evolving faster than ever and companies are challenged to keep up. More than half of organisations worldwide are struggling to fill their digital talent gap with in-house up-skill trainings and recruitment programmes. Even with these tedious, time-consuming efforts, they still say that they are losing their competitive advantage.
Some of the sectors Code4Nord specialises in are witnessing the largest digital skills gaps between what they need to deliver for their digital transformations and their current talent. The automotive and transportation industry faces a 50 percent gap, while retail sees a 60 percent gap.
Across all industries, there’s a 64 percent gap in web development, a 65 percent gap in cloud computing, and 62 percent gap in mobile app development. Tech is simply moving faster than one person could ever study to fill all these needs.
The main benefit of software outsourcing for most companies has shifted from just saving money toward acquiring the right talent for just what they need, when they need it.
Software Outsourcing Benefit #3: Hiring a truly full stack developer is impossible.
The term “full stack developer” is kind of a misnomer nowadays. There might be someone who works with both front-end and backend development — we have a few of these rockstars on our team — but you also need someone that understands infrastructure, integrations, data, architecture, design, and so much more. Plus, as AI and automation takes our roles from code monkeys to creative workers, you need people with soft skills like problem solving, customer-focus and an understanding of agile methodologies. Add to this a growing need for financial and big data compliance, and you’d be hard-pressed to find one person to know even half, let alone everything.
Technology and laws are advancing so fast that even the sharpest programmer needs to be continuously learning. One person couldn’t possibly complete a complicated project.
By contracting a software development outsourcing agency like Code4Nord, you gain access to a team of experts, instead of trying to hire a permanent all-knowing, one-size-fits-all developer. This in turn reduces the risk of project failure because you are hiring domain knowledge experts in a specific area for your specific project’s needs.
Software Outsourcing Benefit #4: It saves you money.
OK it’s not the only benefit, but cost-saving is an important motivator.
Software outsourcing eliminates the risk of permanently hiring the wrong candidate that you won’t be able to terminate easily. Another benefit of software outsourcing is that it’s cheaper than a ‘permie’ as you are only paying for the work needed. And following the thought process in the above point, as it’s impossible to find that Jane-of-all-Trades, by hiring an agency, you can get three part-time developers and solutions architects that meet your specific needs at much less.
Bonus Benefit: Augment your existing offering.
It can all get very meta, but software outsourcing agencies often outsource to other software outsourcing agencies. Many agencies like ourselves offer white label software outsourcing services to help any company — including who would normally be seen as our competitors — to offer a well-rounded, full-stack service.
Just as we believe that happy people make great software, we believe the future of software development is in collaboration.
But what are the risks of software outsourcing?
Of course, while the benefits of software outsourcing outweigh the disadvantages, it’s essential to work with a digital agency that comes with great points of reference like recommendations and testimonials from previous clients.
And while one of those benefits is cost-saving, it’s important to not just go for the lowest price. Look for an agency that really sits down to understand what your organisation and your project needs to succeed. And look for a software outsourcing company that fits in with your company culture and your ways of working. This is a strong benefit of software near-shoring, when you’ll find more compatible timezones, languages, and ways of communicating and collaborating. This is why we have chosen to focus our service on fellow EU countries.
Don’t forget, while you’re outsourcing, that doesn’t mean that person can’t work on-site with you, to truly be part of a team! Again near-shoring makes this more possible and affordable. Plus, as today’s teams are embracing flexible work, most teams and tools used make it easy for distributed collaboration.
The right outsourcing partner is just that — a partner. You strategise to make sure great people build great software.
Follow this quick checklist to understand the true benefits of software outsourcing:
- Lowers risk of failure.
- Saves time.
- Saves money.
- Flexible.
- Lower risk.
- Referable proof of work.
- Focussed strategy.
- Compliance.
Want to know more if software outsourcing is a good fit for your project? It all starts with a conversation.