5 Reasons to Keep your Outsourcing Close to Home

If you’re thinking about outsourcing software development projects, you’re far from alone. Over the last decade, more companies have embraced outsourcing as a way to meet rising customer expectations, reduce costs, and gain a competitive advantage.

Outsourcing your software development doesn’t necessarily mean you have to go around the world in search of the right partner.

Nearshoring provides the same advantages as a typical offshoring arrangement while avoiding many of the headaches that typically come with that form of outsourcing, since service providers, operate out of nearby countries.

The advantages of nearshore include shared time zones, cultural similarities, and in many cases, the ability to work with English-speaking teams.

Here are 5 Reasons to Keep your Outsourcing Close to Home:

1. Proximity to Talent

Offshoring software development work usually means lag time–teams often operate in time zones 12+ hours ahead of the US–which means they have less control over quality, workflows, and deadlines.

Working across multiple time zones can create tremendous burdens for offshore development, your team is often up and working while you are asleep or not in the office. When you or your partner have a problem, it can take 12 hours to get an email answered, and another half-day before those responses are read.

If you use nearshoring, you can often work in the same time zone as your outsourcing partner. Phone calls and emails can be answered right away, vastly improving communication for all parties.

Traditionally, US-based businesses used offshoring to cut costs, outsourcing entry-level roles with little responsibility to markets with the most competitive rates. However, things are changing and companies of all sizes rely on third-party software developers to support strategic roles with innovative solutions that many in-house teams can’t provide.

2. Cultural alignment

Cultural alignment has a direct impact on the bottom line. Many companies based in Central and South America have corporate cultures very similar to those in the United States. Employee work habits tend to be comparable and the region offers a rich talent pool with plenty of engineers who are just as skilled as those in other parts of the globe.

English proficiency is a degree requirement at most schools in the region, so most development teams are prepared to collaborate with US clients using the same tools they use with internal employees.

3. Dedicated Agile Teams

Nearshore outsourcing allows organizations to work with experts that use mature Agile methodologies, with the right conditions.

With the right tools in place–video conferencing, chat, and a shared digital workspace, nearshore outsourcing is a great way to ensure efficient, high-quality software development and a more collaborative experience than you’ll find with an offshore company.

4. Cost-Effectiveness

One of the most common reasons companies outsource development projects is cost savings.

While offshoring companies often offer lower rates than nearshoring companies, nearshore firms tend to deliver a higher ROI.

For clients, communication and timing challenges can cause delays and increase the cost to complete a project. On the developer side, these issues can have a negative impact on their quality of life–resulting in high turnover and burnout, which in turn, affect software quality.

Cost-effectiveness is in fact the major reason why companies prefer to outsource. Hiring people not only requires you to pay for their salary but also other costs like providing equipment as well as the cost of onboarding a new employee or employees benefits.

5. Expertise

One of the biggest benefits of working with a nearshore web development company is you’ll gain access to a vast pool of experts who work with all kinds of technologies–Java, Python, .NET, React, or whatever you may need.

Nearshoring enables companies to leverage a global knowledge base, having access to world-class capabilities. Diverse and talented individuals, will provide your company with a fresh mindset that will help your business stand up to the competition.

Every company has its own limit on the resources available to it. Many times a company gets stranded with an internal resource crisis and nearshoring can let you gain access to resources not available internally.

Conclusion - Better Results with Nearshore Software Development

Finding and hiring great developers is only the tip of the iceberg. You’ll also need to look at quality, cost, reliability, and process–critical factors that can make or break the success of any software project.

Nearshore software development brings the advantages of offshoring closer to home, allowing companies to avoid many of the risks and hidden costs of outsourcing.

At SOPHiLABS we offer top development talent working in US time zones and seamless collaboration using Agile processes. If you’d like to learn more about our approach to nearshore outsourcing, please contact us today!