The means of recruiting business personnel have significantly evolved. By outsourcing their digital needs, firms have gained more control of their processes and improved their productivity. It has allowed organizations in various industries like Insurance and IT to rely on international or nearshore teams to draw upon their services.
Outsourcing software development is a great way to improve business performance and quickly scale up operations. Keeping costs low while staying at the forefront of innovation is a priority and outsourcing can help you achieve this goal.
According to Statista, the IT outsourcing market is projected to reach $587.3 billion by 2027. It is essential to understand the differences between nearshoring and offshoring remote team models – two main types of outsourcing, to reduce costs and speed up the production of digital products.
Offshore Vs. Nearshore Outsourcing: An Overview
Both offshore and nearshore outsourcing involves hiring foreign workers for projects. With nearshoring, the countries involved are nearby, such as having an American IT firm hire staff from Canada. For offshore outsourcing, the firms are farther away from one another, like a Mexican company hiring developers from Poland, India, or Ukraine.
Offshore Software Development Outsourcing provides the opportunity to draw from a larger pool of experts at a much lower cost, yet there is no control. Going with a nearshore developer means a client can outsource processes or tasks to a partner company while still in an excellent geographic area.
Nearshore development presents a compromise, with the team being close enough for direct communication and onsite visits yet offering similar cost savings as offshore teams.
Reason to Select Offshore Outsourcing
Outsourcing works best for Startups to benefit from the lower wages software developers charge. According to reports, India is a popular choice for Offshore outsourcing services, with developers charging just $7.24 an hour.
In addition to money-saving measures, offshoring grants access to a global pool of talented workers – something that may not be easy to achieve in a country like the US or the UK.
There are many excellent examples of offshore outsourcing companies with experienced developers, providing access to a wealth of knowledge and existing skills. Accessing such know-how helps streamline the app creation process in getting it to market quickly and efficiently while minimizing the risk of common pitfalls.
Prominent Limitations
Before deciding to outsource to a distant vendor, you should take note of some potential disadvantages such as,
- Time zone differences could challenge direct conversations and urgent decisions with an offshore IT provider based in India compared to a US-based startup.
- Additionally, there is the potential risk of misunderstanding due to differences in language and culture. This could extend the timeline for development and cancel out any potential cost advantages.
To avoid these issues, many US-based companies outsource to vendors in Eastern European countries like Ukraine or Poland, where cultural similarities are more likely to result in fewer communication issues.
Reason to Choose Nearshore Outsourcing
Through nearshoring, it is feasible to organize face-to-face gatherings between the startup and outsourced workers. It gives you an easy way to convey the project particulars to the programmers.
Furthermore, you can circumvent the potential issues of linguistic and cultural discrepancies. Eastern Europeans typically have a better grasp of English and more similar business cultures, making nearshoring a smooth process.
Moreover, nearshoring lets you maintain stricter security over the app and related information. It is especially crucial when a company needs to comply with data protection regulations. For instance, Eastern European countries like Poland and Romania are under the GDPR’s regulation. If you are starting a tech business in the UK, contracting with outsourcing companies in the EU zone has advantages regarding understanding data privacy rules.
Possible Limitations
- Nearshoring may not always be the least expensive option regarding development costs.
- It ultimately depends on the country to which services are outsourced and the associated cost of living.
- For instance, Eastern European developers may charge between $50-$99 per hour depending on their expertise, whereas developers from Asia usually demand more than $35 per hour.
Nevertheless, even though offshoring may provide the most significant cost savings, nearshoring has the advantage of operating in more convenient or comparable time zones.
Significant Differences Between Offshore Vs. Nearshore Outsourcing
Now that we know about nearshore and offshore outsourcing, let’s compare the significant differences across different aspects.
Timezone
Regarding outsourcing, the time zone difference between nearshoring and offshore is significant. With nearshoring, it is possible to have teleconferences within working hours or meet in person. However, the distance may be an issue for offshore outsourcing partners as these can be eight or more hours away, making it difficult for real-time collaboration.
Specialist Selection
Nearshore vs. offshore outsourcing differs in the available talent pool. With nearshoring, clients are limited to traditional domestic solutions. At the same time, those seeking offshore outsourcing have access to a much broader collection of skilled personnel that they can recruit from all over the world.
Nearshoring may limit your search to 5-10 potential candidates while with offshore outsourcing, it can expand to 30-50 experts for your required skills. Additionally, finding highly specialized personnel for projects that may not be readily available in the local market is often easier with offshore outsourcing than nearshoring.
Cost
Nearshore outsourcing is a cost-effective solution compared to offshoring. Developers in London typically receive an annual salary of $70,000, while those in Eastern Europe can be hired for a more economical rate of $36,000 annually. Although offshore outsourcing manages your development work to countries such as India and China can be cheaper, nearshoring allows for a more substantial saving while still gaining access to low-cost labor.
Essential Culture Differentiation
Hiring offshore developers brings about various cultural differences, which can cause problems. For instance, US businesspeople commonly take a direct approach to communication. While those from China tend to be more restrained in expressing themselves, presenting logistical issues while working together.
Things to Consider for Selecting the Best Offshore Vs. Nearshore Outsourcing
When considering nearshore versus offshore outsourcing, keeping in mind certain things helps you select the best outsourcing.
- Deciding which skills are needed in the ideal employee for the project is essential.
- After identifying what you need and deciding your budget, research solutions on the market and compare the different talent pools of nearshore or offshore companies.
- Also, it is crucial to stay in contact with the developers in either type of outsourcing.
- In the case of offshore outsourcing, having a project manager to be the eyes and hands of the client is needed.
- Cultural differences can be expected, so it is essential to understand that somebody working differently does not necessarily mean they do a lousy job.
- Finally, rules and regulations should be set to maintain order. For guidance on this, a reputable outsourcing firm can help you.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, it is essential to carefully consider the type of team and project when deciding between offshoring and nearshoring. Both methods can deliver outstanding products with the latest IT tools and techs, but you should consider the cost and cultural needs when making a final decision.
Offshore solutions are more cost-effective and efficient for companies to introduce their products to global markets. At the same time, nearshoring provides a better fit in terms of cultural compatibility and can benefit highly specialized projects like video game development.
