Offshore Software Development: Benefits, Cost and More

In this rapidly changing digital world, most businesses increasingly use offshore software development as a strategic solution for boosting operations. Everywhere, it has become a common option among startups and other established enterprises. Hiring overseas developers could offer a wide variety of benefits ranging from economical value to access to an expertise pool and scalability. 

This blog discusses the benefits of offshore software development and their associated costs along with some essential considerations that could be required to get the best value out of devops consulting services.

Offshore Software Development: What It Is and Its Advantages

Offshore software development refers to the process of forming an agreement with different software development companies in other countries. Offshore software development is mainly sought for most of the reasons including cost cuts, shorter time to market, and tapping of global talent pools. The offshore software development market is growing rapidly and here is a stat that shows that: 

Benefits of Offshore Software Development

1. Cost-effectiveness

Cost-effectiveness is one of the primary compelling reasons for using offshore software development services. If you hire team of developers in countries with low labor costs, it can significantly reduce your project budget. You’ll find that the same level of expertise available locally can often be acquired for a fraction of the cost abroad.

2. Access to Global Talent

By casting your search wider and looking outside your borders for developers, you tap into a much deeper pool of talent. Offshore teams bring a very wide cross-section of the diverse skills and experiences of workers around the globe, which can enrich the creativity and quality of your projects. This is particularly true in the tech industry, where innovation really is the key to staying ahead of the competition.

3. Scalability and Flexibility

Offshore development allows for greater scalability. You can ramp up your development efforts faster with offshore developers hired into the organization than local ones. This is especially important for organizations that have fluctuating demands or may experience seasonal spiky loads.

4. Focus on the Core Business Functions

Hiring outsourcing software development services enables your in-house team to focus on the core business functions. This means you don’t get overwhelmed by coding and the maintenance of software but instead help your staff zero in on strategic initiatives, thereby increasing productivity and growth.

5. Round-the-Clock Development

When distributed developers are located across different time zones, your projects would be developed around the clock when your internal team is offline. Continuous development means fast delivery and better time-to-market.

Cost of Offshore Software Development

The benefits are many, but there’s a cost that you pay for offshore software development:

1. Initial Setup Expenses

By partnering with an offshore development team, you need to incur costs for the initial investment in communication tools, project management software, and other technologies to ensure effortless collaboration.

2. Management Overhead

The coordination process often requires additional management effort; hence, you may have to invest in a project manager or a liaison who can interact well with your business needs and ensure that your milestones are met.

3. Quality Assurance

Maintaining quality may be sometimes difficult to achieve when working offshore. “An investment in good quality assurance processes and tools, as applied and maintained properly, is an investment that would definitely help their product meet your desired quality.

4. Cultural and Language Barriers

It may cause issues in communication. To address this issue, consider investing in training programs for your in-house team as well as the offshore team to improve collaboration.

This table tells you the estimated cost of offshore software development: 

Location	Average Hourly Rate	Simple App Cost	Mid-Complex App Cost	Advanced App Cost
India	$20 – $50	$5,000 – $10,000	$15,000 – $40,000	$40,000 – $80,000
Eastern Europe	$25 – $60	$7,000 – $12,000	$20,000 – $50,000	$50,000 – $100,000
Southeast Asia	$15 – $40	$4,000 – $8,000	$10,000 – $30,000	$30,000 – $60,000
Latin America	$30 – $70	$6,000 – $12,000	$25,000 – $55,000	$55,000 – $120,000
Africa	$20 – $50	$5,000 – $10,000	$15,000 – $35,000	$35,000 – $70,000
United States	$100 – $250	$20,000 – $50,000	$50,000 – $150,000	$150,000 – $300,000

Selection of the Right Offshore Partner

While outsourcing to an offshore location, one needs to choose the right offshore partner. Here are some selection considerations:

• Expertise and Experience: Find a development team that has experience in your industry. Their expertise will be indispensable in making sure your project works.

• Cultural Fit: Consider the extent to which your company’s culture can be aligned with the offshore teams. A shared understanding of values and work ethics can make collaboration with the offshore team more effective and even help achieve the best project results.

• Communication Skills: Good communication is imperative in any successful offshore partnership. Ensure that the team you hire has superb command over the English language and is efficient at using all forms of communications.

• Client Testimonials and Case Studies: Research client testimonials and case studies to build an idea of the offshore partner’s reliability as well as the quality of work they can deliver. Such research can help you understand how they operate and what they achieve.

Conclusion

Offshore software development is not a way of saving costs. This is an opportunity for you to incorporate global talent, improve your operational efficiency, and stay ahead in the fast-paced market. 

Maximize its potential and reduce risks by hiring a team of developers from ScalaCode. They offer the best DevOps consulting services. Therefore, make sure you have the right partner to go along with your offshore development so that you can keep pursuing the goals of your business and help take your projects toward success.

Offshore software development might actually be the alchemy to unlock the full potential of your company.