How to Choose a Software Outsourcing Partner?

“ If you deprive yourself of outsourcing and your competitors do not, you’re putting yourself out of business. — Lee Kuan Yew “

If you are a Large-sized software company, Your IT team has enough on their plate already. They are expected to take care of the never ending volume of tickets while simultaneously developing cutting edge technology solutions, which you are bound to ask them to do because, if you’re not innovating, someone else definitely is !!! Same is the case, if you are a start-up with limited budget and no on-site software developers. As we all are aware of, Development, isn’t a side project; it requires a lot of labour upfront and testing and maintenance down the road. You can always hire more developers, but that’s going to incur a lot of cost as well as time ( yeah, we know how lengthy these recruitment process takes !!! ). All you need to do is expand your bandwidth, which is exactly the solution that outsourced development offers. Acc. to Microsourcing, 78% of businesses all over the world feel positive about their relationship with the outsourced company.

Outsourcing is no different than hiring. You take a risk when you hire a team of a third party company, but, don’t you take a risk when you hire an employee too? With either option, there are potential risks. Just follow the same steps that you would take to hire an employee while hiring an outsourced team.

Let us now see what are the most important parameters while selecting your outsourcing software development partner !!

Do your research

When outsourcing, the third party service provider becomes an extension of your organisation. The team must act as a real business partner and give you the feeling that you have the entire team behind you. Go through their website, their previous work experience and most importantly, the client testimonials, as that speaks a lot. ( Take a sneak peak of our’s here ) Remember, Bigger Isn’t Always Better and Price isn’t everything.

Get a Dedicated TeamA dedicated team ( ones who will work on your project from inception to completion ) is beneficial as they can consult with each other and solve any complex problems faster and in turn shorten the project completion time. Do your research on the firm and find out whether the firm you are hiring has a really strong percentage of repeat clients or not. If they do, it means that they are trustworthy and they stick by whatever they commit and that’s why customers keeps on coming back with further projects. Take references and speak directly to the clients who are partnering with the company for the longest time. Btw, 94% of clients who tried Binaryfolks in the first place, made us their permanent development partner.

Communication is the key

When you are outsourcing, it isn’t a “fire-and-forget” solution. The biggest benefit of outsourcing is that the third party team has the capacity to bring in a fresh perspective, but that is useless if they don’t understand the client requirements. It is absolutely essential for both the third party team and client to understand the requirements in high level and break it down to small chunks so that the whole flow makes sense, both logically and technologically. At BinaryFolks, we deliver a Business Requirement Document (BRD) as soon as both parties settle on the complete application flow, this keep both parties focused on exactly what will be delivered and eliminate any last minute surprises.

The success of any project depends on both parties communicating issues, concerns, and requirement very clearly and in unambiguous terms. We frequently use voice chat, video chat, screen sharing and regular emails to create a virtual office environment to facilitate such seamless communication.

Trust

I know! I know ! Easier said than done. But, fact is that, “Outsourcing works better when based on trust”. Initially take some time to get to know the members of the team. Put faces to names and treat them like the partner you expect them to be.” Ask them to divide the whole project into certain milestones so that you have full visibility about the progress and health of the project and there is no negative surprise during project delivery.

Technology Infrastructure

Make sure that the outsourced team can work with your existing tech stack as well as have the skills and expertise to adapt to any new tech stack. Take a look at BinaryFolks comprehensive tech Stack here. Look for developers that work with diverse verticals of industries and business niches and are constantly trying to update their knowledge and skills.

Transparency

This goes without saying, but, stay involved with the project. There’s one aspect of outsourcing that cannot be stressed enough and that is transparency. There cannot exist high quality without high transparency. So, both the buyers and service providers should share more, in order to gain more. All the processes should be carefully evaluated and structured in a way to keep client’s convenience and satisfaction in mind. BinaryFolks takes a straightforward approach to do what is right for the client by creating the most transparent environment possible when negotiating rates, time and application functionalities.

Parting Words

Outsourcing is not a simple outlook. Someone gets it wrong and they end up wasting a hefty amount of time and money, that they intended to save by outsourcing. But, if an organisation doesn’t opt to outsource, it will be encumbered with doing every little thing on its own, leaving little to no time to create new skills that forms the foundation of competitive advantage.

How to Choose a Software Outsourcing Partner? was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.