Outsourcing is something we have all grown accustomed to in the past years. It is somewhat easier and it takes less work but has some drawbacks if not performed as it should be.
Outsourcing has become the answer for businesses that want to grow and scale more. Outsourcing is the practice of obtaining goods and services from companies or individuals outside your business. Outsourcing can happen in basically any part of your business that you are unfamiliar with or do not have anyone to do it in your company. It can sometimes be a lot cheaper than hiring staff for that job, but it needs a lot of attention if you want your results to be good.
Thanks to the internet and technology we are now able to outsource any kind of job to anyone capable of doing it anywhere on Earth. Let’s say for example that what you do is video creation. You have what it takes to create a video from start to end, but editing jobs or jobs on the effects are not your strong side and you opt for hiring someone outside your business for that job. With this, you will have someone else do the job you can’t for you and you will have to pay the price for that.
If you are looking to outsource a certain job you can visit any of the numerous sites around, one of those being thirdwaveoutsourcing.com.
Now let’s get down to how exactly do you outsource software engineering in some easy steps.
1. Preparation
When it comes to preparation you can have two reasons why you are looking for outsourcing.
Number one is reducing the costs. Every company each year spends a certain amount of money on the software engineering department. If you want to cut down on costs you have to make that engineering department somewhat smaller and the way to do it is outsourcing. With outsourcing, you can reduce the workforce for any department and with that, you are directly impacting the costs that said department directly makes.
Number two is the market falling short to give you a worker you need with a specific set of skills for the job you have at hand. Since we are on the topic of software engineers then you probably are searching for one with a specific background or specific skills that your market simply can’t offer. What you do next is outsource and find that person somewhere else who can work from their home or other office and be available for you whenever needed.
In this part, you also need to define the length of your collaboration with either the freelancer you are hiring or the specific software development company. Short-term hirings are good for some freelance platforms but if you are looking for a deeper relationship and a somewhat longer collaboration then definitely go with a software development company. Have a meeting, talking things through, and make a deal good enough for both sides.
2. Finding the right location
This is mostly tied to choosing the right country for an outsource, regarding its education level. A valuable piece of information you can get is just how many students are getting IT jobs each year in a country you are interested in and go from there. This will not only help get the education level of the candidate but it will also help show you how that country is growing which can also affect your business.
Another thing to consider here is the Bounce ratio or a specific time a single person is working in a company. This ratio will affect your business and thanks to this ratio you can decide if the outsource job should be a long-term one or a short-term one. If the people tend to stay longer in certain company’s then it is favorable to consider long-term collaboration, where if they stay in a period of one to three years a short-term collaboration is in order.
Cultural compatibility is also an important factor that shouldn’t be skipped over and with this, you should understand why different people understand the same information in different ways. When talking about software engineering this can be a rather important thing to understand because in a job like this you need to understand each other well. You have to focus on those locations that are close to your mindset and in this job, people have to understand you the way you understand what needs to be done.
The language level is the final thing you need to take into consideration. The level of English knowledge is important for both you and the one you are outsourcing your job too. Communication is the key and if you make a mistake or have troubles here you won’t finish your project and you will hit every bump on the road to the goal.
3. The right person for the job
After making preparations and choosing the right location to outsource to the last thing you have to do is find the right individual or the right company. There are services you can utilize to take a look at both individuals and companies with their portfolios, rankings and feedbacks which will serve you when opting for the best ones.
The service you will opt for will depend on what you need and for what amount of time. There is service that only targets individuals or freelancers while there are also those that target big and serious software development companies.
If you opt for a company that will do any kind of longer work for you, watch out for the size of your business against the company you are hiring. These two should be the same because your way of working, producing, and people management will stay the same and not produce any additional headaches. Always look for a company that is close to you if not the same and you won’t have any troubles communicating or getting through to people.
The bottom line is that outsourcing is a thing that can save you a lot of trouble and money. Small businesses that ache for expansion and market growth are the ones that utilize this the most because they do hit two flies with one stroke – you save money and get the job done with quality.
