Offshore software development isn’t a novelty in the IT world, but the rapid growth of remote work and technologies made this option skyrocket. In a nutshell, an offshore development center means that you hire foreign specialists to help you with a set of processes. Usually, these include software development, payroll, administrative data research, and others. 

With an offshore development center, you can save up to 60% of costs spent on infrastructure and salaries. The most popular regions that offer such services are Asia and Eastern Europe. Local specialists are highly educated, experienced, and have excellent software development skills. 

If you’ve already decided to set up an offshore development center, but don’t know how to do this right, make sure to check out the article: “What Is ODC — Offshore Software Development Center?” It’s written by Qubit Labs and provides several practical tips because the company is an experienced player in the market of offshore development services.

However, if you’re hazy about whether or not to go for offshore IT services, take a look at the following pros and cons.

Advantages of Offshore Development

1. Reduced costs 

Buying equipment, taking care of the office, and making sure there’s everything needed in the workplace requires certain costs. If you decide to take care of this on your own, your budget will be significantly affected. However, an ODC provides your foreign employees with all they might need, from laptops to comfortable desks. 

Also, salaries in other regions that are usually selected to be offshore development destinations are several times lower than in the US or Western Europe. You get the same work done but pay several times less to the equally experienced developers. 

2. Easy scaling up and down

It’s often when the project requirements change over time, and you understand that you need more or fewer team members to finish it. However, attracting new specialists might be time-consuming and increases the final project cost. Offshore development allows companies to avoid this problem.

If you need a couple more experts, your vendor will quickly find them for you, thanks to their developed network of contacts. In this way, you won’t have to delay your project until the necessary specialist is found. Also, offshore IT services allow for a quick disband or scaling down, so you just tell your vendor about new demands, and it handles all the related activities. 

3. Access to a large talent pool

Finding developers specializing in rare programming languages or paying for your team members’ education is time- and cost-consuming. Besides, the IT industry doesn’t stand still, coming up with new demands, trends, and technologies. So, it’s challenging to stay on the same page with the tech advancement unless you constantly pay for your teams’ professional courses.

Nevertheless, with offshore development, you can do away with this issue. Due to the expanded talent pool, your vendor will find specialists with any must-have tech stack for your project. There won’t be any need to spend too much time or money on scaling up your team by hiring such developers. Even if you need someone specializing in a rare technology, one’s services will still cost several times less compared to the US.   

4. Focus on your business

Dealing with your own IT department is cumbersome when your business is not IT per se. The process of managing IT specialists requires much effort because you need to monitor their activities, help with finding the right solutions, and making sure the delivered products are of high quality. This calls for expertise and significant software development skills. Also, when hiring programmers yourself, you need to assess their knowledge correctly, and this is a tricky task.

An offshore development center will provide you with all the specialists within the short term, and you won’t have to go through a time-consuming recruiting process yourself. Besides, you would focus on your key expertise areas and deal with core business tasks. 

Disadvantages of Offshore Development

1. Decreased retention of employees

You might experience a lack of synchronization when it comes to IT offshore software development. If there’s an issue, you might not be aware of it until it becomes bigger. It’s hard to control all the processes and detect what’s gone wrong. Also, delivery delays might take place quite often. However, if you find a reliable vendor, it’ll make sure all the offshoring operations are delivered on time and of high quality. 

2. Risk of data leakage

Laws and tech security differ all over the world, so you need to check the country’s regulations before extending your activities to the new location. It’s better to take extra measures to ensure your information security and prevent possible data leaks. These actions will help avoid potential IP risks and provide additional security levels apart from those offered by a Non-Disclosure Agreement. 

3. Time and cultural differences

If your team is located in another time zone, poor management activities can hinder efficient communication between your in-house and remote teams. Besides, in some countries, developers don’t have in-depth language proficiency, which leads to misunderstandings.

Nevertheless, there’s a benefit in the time zones differences; if your in-house team works on the project for 8 hours, and offshore developers do so as well, your project will be delivered within less time.   

Conclusion

It’s little wonder that the main reason why businesses opt for offshore software development is cost reduction. However, you’ll see that it’s not about the lower budget only when working with such remote teams. An offshore software development center connects you with the world’s best talent that can make any of your project ideas turn into real and competitive products. 

With offshore IT services, you can focus on your key business tasks and critical goals while being sure your company cooperates with skilled foreign programmers, and the vendor manages all the processes. 

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