The Basics: What You Should Know
Outsourcing – involves contracting software delivery to third parties. The cheapest approach, involves dealing with freelancers or suppliers that work with freelancers. It’s not viable long-term as development is beyond your control.
Onshoring – involves moving software development to non-metropolitan areas in your country. Rent, expenses, and income are bigger in cities so you can minimise operational costs by establishing a development team in a neighbouring town.
Nearshoring – implies “close” to home. Involves working with a development team that operates in a comparable time zone. Nearshoring helps organisations collaborate in real-time with their in-house personnel.
Offshoring – involves constructing a global development team with full-time employees. Despite the time difference, this reduces the dangers of hiring short-term workers. It also lets organisations choose their developers without geographical constraints.
Downsides of Outsourcing
Outsourcing is cheap so it’s used by companies trying to cut costs fast. Flexibility and lack of commitment are the benefits. You just pay the team for the job since they’re not permanently hired and no resources are spent on idle workers if demand lowers. This can benefit firms with less predictable capacity. So what are the drawbacks? Here’s a list of the most popular ones:
- The developers aren’t your employees.
- You won’t always deal with the developer themselves.
- Lack of proper investment in your vision nor your brand.
- Developers work on multiple projects for different clients simultaneously.
- Substandard delivery.
- Unpredictability.
- Lack of control: you don’t manage the team directly.
- Difficult communication.
- Lack commitment.