In every company’s development cycle, there comes a moment when the magical word “outsourcing” comes up. In some cases, it is due to looking to save money, and in others, from the need to quickly enter a new technological level. In both cases, outsourcing helps satisfy individual needs. However, before you decide to transfer parts of your tasks or projects to an external company, it’s worth considering what type of outsourcing will be best for your company.
The two faces of outsourcing
Outsourcing has various faces – it may relate to both simple projects and support facilitating different business processes. Its main advantage is delegating selected tasks to specialists in a given industry, which means both a lot of benefits and challenges. It’s worth highlighting that we talk about two kinds of outsourcing in outsourcing cooperation: off- and nearshoring. Offshoring means that you contract a team located in remote parts of the world (e.g., from Europe – India, or China. Nearshoring is the opposite – you give tasks to a team in close proximity to your company, both in cultural terms and geographic ones (e.g., from Germany to Poland).
There are many upsides to outsourcing, but most importantly, it’s the financial saving. The costs of hiring a group of specialists or purchasing new equipment to perform a certain task are decidedly higher than delegating to an external company. Outsourcing lets you save time because remote management of a project by qualified experts will require a lot less supervision from your side. External IT specialists often know and apply modern technology, thanks to which the end effects of their work will most often be at a higher level than if you did it yourself. If you describe the action plan well and clarify your expectations, both for the final product and the whole cooperation should meet your requirements.
However, it’s worth remembering that outsourcing also has a dark side. That’s because everything depends on what criteria you apply while choosing your outsourcing partner. If you select a company from India, apart from good pricing, you must expect cultural and business differences that will influence communication and project management. It is key to also check all certifications and experience of your new partner to make sure that they have competencies to execute the task. Some people find it hard to trust a contractor who they only see through a camera, so it’s a good idea to sign a contract and build rapport. In these cases, nearshoring is a better option because it lets you meet more often, both remotely and in-person, as you’re in the same time zone.
While deciding on outsourcing cooperation with an external team, you need to think over many aspects. It’s worth investing some time in the beginning to get to know your potential partners and clarify the key issues not only regarding the ways of managing the project, methods of communication, or forms of settling accounts. It’s equally important to build trust and rapport between the two sides, so your project will go smoothly and without problems.
