In 2020, as expected, outsourcing gained even more momentum. According to Fortune, the market size for global outsourcing reached $92.5 billion over the last year. Many companies are hesitant because offshore employment has its pros and cons. Before we look at the pros and cons of remote offshore employment, let’s find out what fears clients (employers) have.
Fears of Customers Who Want to Take Advantage of Outsourcing:
1. Management at a Distance
This is a good point to discuss the cons of outsourcing. Managers often find it difficult to imagine how to effectively manage their offshore team. The time zone difference, physical absence, and language barrier can become an obstacle. In fact, for the successful management of an offshore team, there have long been many tools that help create the right model of managing workflows, their verification and help you remotely control the execution of tasks.
2. Little Face-to-face Communication
Indeed, live communication can help you to become not only partners and team members, but also good friends or interesting interlocutors. Live face-to-face communication, may become a serious con of offshore employment and creates a more relaxed and friendly atmosphere that is better understood in the future. And this can be easily addressed by using video meetings on a daily or weekly basis. Of course, this will not replace live communication, but it will definitely allow you to better understand each other.
3. Question of Price
Some customers still think that outsourcing is expensive, but if it was more expensive than in the US, for example, no one would use these services, so the cost is rather one of the most attractive pros of offshore employment. The choice and calculation of offshore team services depend on the country you choose.
4. Monitoring the Implementation of Tasks
As a client, you want to pay only for the work actually done and get advantages of offshore employment. This is not surprising. To know what you are paying for, you need to monitor the implementation of tasks and have a good understanding of what services are offered to you at the negotiation stage. Therefore, even at the negotiation stage, you need to use the expert opinion of a third party to know exactly what services are needed and to already monitor their progress during the tasks. This way, you will only pay for the work actually done. You can control the execution of tasks and the time spent on them, thanks to special tools.
Do you still weigh all the pros and cons of hiring offshore software development teams? Then you should definitely read on and decide for sure!
Pros of Hiring Offshore Teams
1. Significant Reduction of Additional Costs
One of the biggest pros of remote offshore employment is cost reduction. By hiring remote workers (offshore teams) you reduce the cost of equipment, office rent, utilities, office maintenance, and last but not least—you do not pay taxes. According to Forbes research, companies such as Cisco and Aetna save $277 million and $78 million by hiring remote offshore teams.
2. Exactly the Specialists You Need
If you turn to an outsourcing company, a team will be formed according to the needs of your project. You will not overpay for team members that you do not need that is a great advantage of offshore employment. What’s more, you get access to the best talents, and you can form a multifunctional team, from programmers to marketers.
3. Greater Efficiency
If you are still afraid that offshore teams work less intensively than in-house teams in your office, then the Global Workplace Analytics study revealed that approximately 53% of offshore developers are open to work overtime in comparison to their in-house counterparts. Only 28% of in-house employees are open to doing the same.
4. More Flexibility
If you hire an offshore team, you have more opportunities to make changes and adjustments to the team. Professional recruiters will look for the best specialists if you decide that you need them later. Just imagine how much free time you will have to deal with management and not spend it looking for new talents. Also, your product can be much more innovative than you expected, as offshore developers have a wide variety of experiences that can benefit your project.
Cons of Hiring Offshore Teams
1. Management and Control Issues
Working with offshore teams can cause difficulties with management and control. But! This is only possible if the offshore team is not worried about its reputation. Responsible remote offshore teams, of course, use all possible resources, platforms and tools to manage, control and provide you with access to them. This way you can easily control the progress of tasks, the process, as well as manage them.
2. Cultural and Linguistic Gap
At first, it may be difficult for you to communicate with your team, even if the members speak your language, because professionals may not be native speakers. It may be one of the biggest cons of offshore employment. A no less important role is played by cultural features. For example, Europe (as in the United States) uses a horizontal management model; ie your team works side by side, but each team member has the right to defend their point of view. Asia, however, uses the vertical model of management; the boss’s word is the law. Also, in Eastern Europe, Western customers notice such a feature as “business and business only”; people are not used to “introductory courtesies” before asking a clear question. So don’t be surprised if you’re immediately told “Hello! When are you planning to approve the strategy?” without any “How are you, how was your weekend?”.
3. Security Issues
Because all your documents and data will be in the cloud, they may be at risk. Therefore, read carefully about NDAs, company policies and find out the security settings and storage conditions of your sensitive data. Remember that responsible and self-respecting offshore IT companies always have clients’ testimonials that you should read.
4. Time Zone
Because technical product development requires regular support and maintenance, different time zones can be an obstacle to the timely coordination of offshore teams. This disadvantage of offshore employment can be corrected over time, again, when the processes become more coordinated as well as with the involvement of tools.
Conclusion
Now that we’ve talked about the most significant pros and cons of offshore employment, it’s clear that the pros outweigh the cons. Of course, the choice is always yours, but remember that the cons can be easily turned into pros of offshore employment by listening to the advice we gave. If you are looking for a dedicated, responsible offshore team specially formed for you, then Israel IT is ready to take on your project and create an innovative product that will be assured of success. For 4 years, we have been providing our services to clients all over the world and attracting the best talents to turn ideas into reality!
