Maybe you have a small but established company with enough developers for your development projects and various approaches on how to create software, that is also planning on undertaking this complex and very critical software development project. Or your a company burdened with multi-level tasks and is planning on optimizing your business processes. Or you simply want to expand the reach of your company and be more involved in the global IT market by planning a collaboration with a software outsourcing company.
You also might have gotten wind of dedicated teams, software outsourcing, and offshore software development, but are still weighing the option of hiring more staff, hire dedicated developers, or engaging in project outsourcing. A summary of the key points would go a long way in helping you decide.
To Hire or To Outsource?
Knowing when to hire more staff for your projects and when to outsource business processes will help greatly in your plans to enhance your company. There could be a number of factors leading to this dilemma; staffing concerns, tech talent shortage, or others. To address these, you have the option to either hire software developers to supplement your staff or engage in project outsourcing.
Hire more people when…
- Building and strengthening in-house expertise, ensuring that your team will have stronger foundations and potential for sustainability.
- Diversifying your company skills and portfolio by having more staff on hand provides you with the opportunity to add more skills and expertise to your company portfolio without overburdening your staff.
- Expanding your company network and manpower resources not only provides you the chance to grow your skills portfolio but also the opportunity to get a foothold in more aspects of the global IT market.
Outsource projects when…
- Allocating more time and focus on crucial company tasks or projects; such as core business processes and critical projects, and outsource business processes that can be handled by an external party.
- Optimize in-house staff expertise by focusing on business processes or tasks that are within their scope of expertise, and outsource the projects or processes that are not.
- Access a global pool of expert developers, which will also supplement the tech talent shortage in your company.
- There is an immediate need to accomplish a project that cannot be met by your in-house developers.
- In need of cost-efficient solutions to software development projects.
Why’s and Why Not’s
Aside from timing and motivation, it is also important to weigh the pros and cons of any approach to enhancing your company. Outlined below are the advantages and disadvantages of hiring more staff, as well as the disadvantage and benefits of outsourcing projects.
Staff Augmentation
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Project Outsourcing
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Outsourcing vs Offshoring
Weighing the pros and cons, as well as the possible motivators for either hiring more staff or outsourcing, the better option would be outsourcing. A bigger discussion would be about which approach to outsourcing will be the best option for you. Outsourcing vs offshoring? Software outsourcing or offshore software development?
Outsourcing and offshoring can be interchangeable at times and are similar in a lot of its aspects. The main difference is that outsourcing is more focused on obtaining the services of a third-party company, such as sourcing the accounting services or manufacturing of a product to another company – not necessarily in another country. While offshoring may refer to obtaining products or services from another country, much like outsourcing, it would also include moving certain aspects or processes of your company to another county – like setting up a part of your business in another country.
Choose Offshoring
Offshoring is the best approach to outsourcing, combining the benefits of project outsourcing with the capacity to enhance your staff. It brings together the best of staff augmentation and project outsourcing, providing your company the ability to:
- Build and strengthen your in-house expertise through hiring from a global pool of expert developers with diverse skills.
- Focus on core company business processes and still be able to diversify your company portfolio by offshoring projects.
- You are still able to meet the immediate need to accomplish a critical project, not within the scope of your in-house developers by handing offshoring the projects to a different team still within your company umbrella.
- Your company now has more cost-efficient options for addressing your development needs.
It is no longer a matter of choosing either just hiring more staff or outsourcing projects. With the numerous organizational and company improvement approaches available today, merging two previously conflicting methods is not an issue. What is essential for you is that you find the method that will bring together the best parts of staff augmentation and project outsourcing. And the offshore software development projects approach does exactly that.