Many entrepreneurs worldwide have already appreciated the plentiful merits of offshore app development, while others say that they have experienced unsuccessful outcomes for their businesses. Although there is a lot of benefits of outsourcing mobile app development overseas, there are also some disadvantages to this approach. There are contradictory points of view, and we’re going to consider both sides of the coin in this article. Let’s start!
What Is Offshore Mobile App Development?
A profound understanding of the problem and the best solution can only come if you’re well-aware of what you’re dealing with. In other words, you must clearly understand the definition of offshore software development to assess its pros and cons objectively.
So, offshore outsourcing mobile app development is a practice widely accepted by different enterprises across various industries nowadays. It implies hiring a remote mobile app development team located in another country and joining your project on demand to build a mobile app for your business. The main reason business owners are looking for software outsourcing companies offshore to develop their apps is a price. It is caused by the lower living costs in these geographical locations compared to the USA, UK, and Europe.
Usually, these companies offer a comprehensive suite of services, including custom app design, UX research, mobile app development, and maintenance. Some companies also provide systems for CRM, ERP, SCM, and other enterprise-grade services for a wide variety of industries.
Pros
Now, when we have already investigated the term offshore software development, it’s time to familiarize yourself with the top seven advantages of this approach allowing you to better understand how to outsource mobile app development.
It’s the most cost-effective and affordable solution
As mentioned above, offshore outsourcing software development is a helpful tactic that allows companies to save costs and concentrate on other essential tasks inside the company. It’s a more cost-effective solution because software services in countries like Vietnam, Poland, and China are much less expensive due to the overall lower living costs there. These are popular offshore software outsourcing destinations that, besides lower development costs, also offer a rich pool of talent.
You can choose from a large talent pool available worldwide
When deciding to hire an offshore software company, you assess a wide choice of countries with an extensive talent pool each. Particularly, countries like Vietnam, Ukraine, India, and China have become the most famous locations for software outsourcing thanks to their high-professional, experienced, and well-educated developers that are recognized as one of the best engineers on a global scale by Hacker Rank.
No headache about hiring proper professionals
Another considerable advantage of offshore mobile app development outsourcing is that you needn’t spend time profiling, interviewing, and hiring the best professionals for your project. All this can be done by an HR manager of a company that you are going to work with. This person is specifically trained to recognize the talent and suggest the best candidates to the employer. Does it sound appealing? Of course!
Get rid of the micromanagement and save your time
It’s probably one of the most attractive advantages of offshore mobile app development outsourcing. You shouldn’t spend much of your extremely precious time on micromanagement that is one of the most time-consuming things during an entire development process. Reputable companies commonly pay particular attention to hiring qualified and skilled Project Managers who control the workflow, lead the team, and avoid such an undesirable thing as micromanagement on your project.
Focus on your own business and projects
As known, software outsourcing is considered as a beneficial and handy business practice because it enables you to entrust the development process to professionals and concentrate on managing your internal team tasks and projects. After all, you will have more time to spend with your family.
Access narrow-specialized experts who know how to do their work well
This approach allows you to deal with skilled people who know how to do their narrow-specific work at the highest level. Theoretically, you can work with any expert in the world who knows his business and knows how to build apps. It helps you deliver the best outcomes for each stage of the development journey and create a mobile app that will win the market competition in perspective.
Extend your outlook by learning about different mentality and lifestyle
This knowledge and experience can help you build future partnerships and collaborations with other companies and organizations across the globe. On the one hand, it educates you and your team about different mentality, lifestyle, values, and mindset. On the other hand, it teaches your company to communicate with foreign teams, be tolerant, and think of the cultural sensitivity of people involved in a project.
Cons
Existing threats related to IP protection
Pay attention to signing an NDA or an IP agreement with companies and keep an eye at their willingness to do it. It aways hints if the company has some “dark” plans toward your data and a product idea. An intellectual property (IP) agreement is now the only method of protecting your idea, so be sure to leverage it timely to avoid the negative consequences for your business.
You may need a lot of time prior to finding a proper team
Hiring a company with a proper team may be a complex, challenging, and time-consuming project. Yes, it’s indeed much faster than building a team inside your company. But it needs time for research too.
The difference in time like a challenge
Many companies find a time zone difference as a significant problem threatening the project’s success. However, if there is excellent project management, then timely delivery and effective communication can be delivered regardless of this issue. Companies with an established reputation always try to do their best to satisfy clients and adjust calls and other kinds of e-communication to the time that suits the client.
A language barrier
When working with companies headquartered in non-English speaking countries, you may face a challenge of a language barrier. But, companies that provide upscale service speak English fluently and constantly work on its improvement. So, there is no need to worry about this.
Conclusion
Are you going to build a mobile app and thinking of using offshore development services? Then this quick guide on the pros and cons of software outsourcing in foreign countries may help you assess a situation more objectively and make a highly informed business decision.
The collaboration with offshore software company has both advantages and disadvantages. It’s a coin with two sides, and you must be aware of both of them. However, as you can see it here, the positive side is more significant and promising.