Guide to hiring an offshore team for product development.

After founding Solidstudio, Pawel was an originator in terms of pursuing expertise in eMobility. With the build-up of a solid knowledge-base on industry’s needs & wants, he now keeps a close eye on products’ development. He’s also hugely responsible for the business’ side and designs the business models for our products.

Paweł Małkowiak

Hiring an offshore team for product development.

 is of the most effective strategies companies use to achieve strategic business goals. For product development to work, organisations need to build a strategy that involves quality design, reasonable action plan, and well-charted stages of development. Only once all these elements are in place, the company can start looking for the best offshore partner to help realize this goal.

In the context of product development, an offshore company works as an extension of your internal team. Working in accordance with a development plan that you can easily share and communicate helps to keep everyone on the same page.

But why are so many businesses choosing offshore product development companies to help them out?

Benefits of offshore product development.

As local economies become globalized, many organisations consider offshoring product development to take advantage of the most talented workers on the market.

Offshoring product development comes with many different benefits:

It’s cost-effective - by outsourcing the task of developing a product, you’ll be saving up on all the costs associated with sourcing, attracting, and hiring new candidates for the job. You won’t have to spend time on recruitment, onboarding, and training new employees. Moreover, by teaming up with an offshore product development team you’ll be saving up on office space and equipment.

It helps to save time - outsourcing the entire process of product development saves the time and energy of your internal resources. By having someone else build the product, your team gets to focus on the bigger pictures.

It gives you access to top talent - by expanding your talent pool to the entire world, you get the opportunity to work with highly-skilled experts in the industry. Offshore teams often have extensive experience in their field and may have previously worked on similar projects, offering you insights into problems that might arise. Moreover, you get access to a ready-made team that has experience working together already - they have tools and processes in place to make the product development process smooth and successful.

Choosing the right product development outsourcing partner.

It’s essential to partner with an offshore company that is experienced and trustworthy. That means you need to do some research, develop a clear vision for the product you want to build and review the portfolios of potential partners.

It’s smart to create a list where you compile all the critical questions you’ll have for your potential partner. Here are some examples:

Is the vendor experienced in creating products for other companies?

Do they have a quality management system in place?

How do they approach communication, and in particular project transparency?

How much control will you have over the process and team?

What were your vendor’s biggest success and failure over the last year?

Check the company’s portfolio of case studies and references. Be sure to ask for contacts to previous clients and ask them about their impressions. A professional product development company will share these details with you right away - after all, there’s no reason to hide if they did a great job.

Sometimes a face-to-face meeting might be necessary to understand the culture of the company with which you want to team up. Why not travel to the vendor’s office? Have a look around, meet with account executives and project managers, talk to the staff and get the general feeling of the atmosphere at the company.

Key factors to consider while hiring an offshore product development company.

It’s possible to build an effective working relationship with an offshore team - but only as long as you prepare for that type of collaboration. With some careful planning and a thorough vetting process, you’ll hire a partner who will help you bring your product development project to success.

Here are some best practices to get you there:

 - make sure that your internal team has a clear understanding of why you’re entering a partnership and what your objectives are. You can focus on core business processes or simply reduce the workload of your in-house team. Once you know the goal and scope of your project, you’ll be more prepared to hire an offshore team that can help you succeed.

 - lack of communication is the most serious pitfall of offshore collaboration. That’s why you need to check that the offshore team has solid communication tools and processes in place. Consider how working in different time zones may affect your ability to reach the team during business hours. Remember to be clear about your expectations in terms of communication.

 - understand the cultural differences and customs of the target country to which you’re outsourcing. They may impact your collaboration. That’s why so many organisations are partnering with companies located in Central European, and especially in Poland - the professional culture is similar to Western standards.

Are you looking for a highly experienced product development team? Get in touch with us, we’ve developed a broad range of software products and have the skills to create yours in the best possible way.

Outsourcing is on the rise as a global trend in business management. Companies that experience rapid growth often have insufficient in-house resources to take full advantage of their situation and gain new opportunities. Struggling to meet the demands of a growing business, they fail to see the big picture and miss out on their chance to become big.

Expanding development teams is challenging. Fortunately, companies can avoid recruiting new team members by outsourcing a portion of their operations or selected tasks to offshore development companies.

Here’s everything you need to know about 

Why is offshore software development so popular?

The primary reason behind the popularity of offshoring is an opportunity for companies to reduce labor cost significantly. That allows business to boost their bottom line - and that’s something important in today’s competitive market.

Companies struggle to source, attract, and recruit talented developers. Companies are competing for local talent and finding developers with the right mix of skills and experience is very hard. Offshoring offers companies a way around that problem - by partnering with a business in a foreign country, they get to expand their talent pool and take advantage of the local workforce that often boasts high technical knowledge and expertise.

Moreover, by teaming up with an offshore technology partner, companies get to cut on operational and administrative expenses such as office, equipment, onboarding, training, team management, and many others.

Key benefits of offshore software development.

Here are the most important benefits of offshore software development:

Cost savings - in a competitive market, companies can give their bottom line a boost by offshoring tasks and reducing the cost and labor expenses significantly.

Lowering operational costs - reduced staffing leads to a significant reduction in space required to carry out operations. It’s no secret that locations with high staffing cost are also characterized by high real estate costs. With offshoring, companies get to save up on space efficiently and save up on office costs (heating, electricity, equipment, etc.).

Access to specialized knowledge - businesses that rely on advanced knowledge in a specific area of software development might find it hard to source developers locally. By teaming up with an offshore software development partner, they get to take advantage of local resources without having to go through the burden of recruitment.

Offshore software development - how to choose the right tech partner?

Since there are thousands of outsourcing companies all over the world, picking the right offshore partner can be challenging.

First, it’s a good idea to decide on the geographical region you’d like to focus on. In the past, Asian countries like India used to hold the reign in offshoring services. Today, the situation is entirely different. Companies are looking for offshore partners who share their values and can communicate with them easily. That’s why Central European countries like Poland are becoming the new offshoring destination.

Once you know which region of the world you’ll be targeting, start asking for referrals. When checking a company, find out who their clients were and ask about their collaboration. Knowing how the company performs in the offshore setting is critical.

Get in touch with several companies to compare their offer. Decide which outsourcing model fit best to your project and see how it matches the offered services. Verify the company: check their blog, social media profiles, and endorsements.

Pay attention to how they manage projects. Excellent project management is key to the success of your offshore collaboration.

If it’s possible, make a test run of a potential partner regarding technical requirements and expertise. Start small and if the company delivers the project to your satisfaction, consider teaming up with them.

Poland - The best country for offshore software development?

Poland is becoming an increasingly important IT centre for offshoring and nearshoring software development services. Polish developers have university degrees, ample experience in the field, and plan talent - HackerRank placed Poland in the top 3 countries with the best developers in the world.

Moreover, Polish workers speak English and share similar professional values to Western countries, making them an ideal choice for an offshoring partner.

Are you looking for an experienced software development offshoring partner? Get in touch with us; we help companies all over the world take their business to the next level with our engineering talent.

Offshore software development

True cost of software outsourcing - how can you meassure this?

Software development outsourcing is the term used when a technology company is hired to create and build a business’ IT systems. A hugely beneficial practise, outsourcing in this way can help small to mid-sized companies in particular not only gain a competitive edge, but significantly reduce costs and implementation time.

While the premise of software development outsourcing is quite simple and its benefits clear, finding a reputable company to deliver such services can be a challenge. Google ‘software development companies’ and the result is seemingly endless pages of vendors offering their services at competitive rates. So how do you know which of those developers will properly fulfill your needs and offer true value for money?

Knowing what to expect from a vendor, from both a service level and cost perspective is vital before choosing the best 

 for your business. There are a number of considerations that will help you identify a reputable software development company, all of which are detailed here, plus how much you should expect to pay for such services.

Software development outsourcing: What to consider

Outsourcing software development involves a significant level of trust from both parties to work successfully. More often than not, a business will have to share confidential and valuable data in order to get the IT systems it requires. Any reputable software development company will understand this and offer a service that not only meets a brief from technological perspective, but a human one too. To find a tech partner who will do just that, look out for vendors with the following attributes:

 – A reputable software development company will be sympathetic to their line of work being highly specialised, and will therefore help clients form requirements, ask difficult question and make sure all parties are completely clear on the business’ objectives

 – Making sure a software development company has the right skillset to fulfill technical requirements is vital, as any gaps in knowledge could lead to costly delays. A close look at a vendor's portfolio will give a good indication of whether the team possesses the correct skills, across the most relevant technology.

 – The more senior a team, the more business-orientated it is. A good way to gauge experience levels is to look at ‘Meet the team’ pages and see what percentage senior developers account for.

 – While a project might need multiple developers input, it’s a good idea to choose a vendor who will assign developers to one project at a time. Not only will the sense of ownership help increase a developer’s output, but means each project has one firm point-of-contact.

 – Any software development company worth it’s weight will help a client see past the ‘now’ with any technical requirements, and offer the expertise to scale a project up or down as needs and situations change.

 – Developers are in high demand globally, but that shouldn’t mean waiting long periods for projects to get off the ground. At Solidstudio, development can start in a matter of weeks, with the initial planning phase up and running in a matter of days.

 – A quality software development company will stay in regular contact with clients for a project’s entirety. At Solidstudio, weekly and biweekly calls are standard practise. Clients are also invited to join internal communication channels and are welcome to dial into daily standups if they so wish.

 – The last but one of the most important considerations of all. A quality software development company will be completely transparent at every stage of a project’s progression. From planning and implementation, to costs and potential issues, any work completed should be visible to the client, at any point. Be wary of talk of or signs of further outsourcing from within the vendor – this is also a major red flag.

Software development outsourcing: How much should it cost?

So now you know what to look for in an outsourcing software development company, the next big question is how much should it cost? Giving an exact figure here is almost impossible for two main reasons; firstly, because every project will have different requirements. And secondly, creating a digital product is a process of constant change, and therefore an estimate provided at initial contact stages could easily change (sometimes significantly) as the project evolves.

In order to get a realistic estimate, the best first step is to spend a good amount of time considering what your product requirements are and drawing it up into a project specification document. This should broadly outline how the required software should function, in both the short and long term, which will help vendors understand what level of work and seniority is required. It will also help avoid any misunderstandings in the development cycle and costly delays.

After sharing this document and an initial consultation with your chosen vendor before any work is carried out, you should expect an estimate based on an initial assessment of how much work is involved and the level of seniority it will require. Solidstudio has a track record of smaller end-to-end software development projects over a three-month period, as well as bigger, on-going projects and so can quickly offer very accurate initial estimates. These would include costs for:

It is worth reiterating costs can (and almost certainly will) change as a project evolves. Be wary of low estimates, cheaper estimates don’t necessarily offer the best value, and can often include hidden costs that soon add up. Reputable software development outsourcing companies will be completely transparent when it comes to costs, keeping clients abreast of any changes, and ensuring to check before undertaking new work that might add to the bill.

 is often best suited to IT outsourcing. This pricing method means fees are configured based on the amount of time spent on a project, combined with the cost of the effort (materials) used in the process. Solidstudio works to an hourly rate structure of $40-75, depending on the level of seniority required, with management overlay kept to a minimum.

For more information on software development outsourcing, or for an estimate, contact the Solidstudio team!

True cost of outsourcing - how can you meassure this? Read our article to find out.

Software development outsourcing: what to consider and how much does it cost?

T&M contract in IT outsourcing: How it works

The ever-evolving nature of software development can often make setting a fixed price for work impossible. Much like the IT products being developed, pricing models need to offer a high level of flexibility for if and when requirements change. This is the main reason time and materials contracts have risen in popularity in recent years. Often referred to as T&M, a time and materials contract model works out the overall cost of a project based on the time spent on the work carried out, plus any materials used.

But how does that translate in the world of IT outsourcing? In this article, we take a close look at exactly how a time and materials contract works, plus what types of projects it is best suited to.

Time & Materials contract: How does it work?

A time and materials contract is based on the number of hours a developer spends on a project (according to a pre-arranged hourly rate), plus any materials (eg software licenses) used for the duration of said work.

The key to a time and materials contract is flexibility – it can evolve alongside a project, and easily be adjusted as and when requirements change. The level of control this type of agreement offers to both clients and vendors is what makes it such an appealing option.

A highly agile-orientated workflow, time and materials contracts can be hugely beneficial, ensuring cost-efficiency, transparency, and timely delivery of the task in hand. However, this type of agreement requires a level of trust from both parties in order for it to work successfully. Vendors must be transparent when it comes to time spent on a project and regularly update clients with costs incurred, and clients must always be present to discuss requirements and approve decisions, as well as pay the agreed rate. Needless to say, picking the 

In practise, a T&M contract will include milestones of product delivery, all of which are defined and agreed by both parties. Here’s how a time and materials model works at Solidstudio:

The size of the project is initially assessed, before being broken down into small deliverables, each of which will be estimated and carried out subject to a client’s approval.

Developers, UX designer and Project Managers at Solidstudio work at fixed hourly rates of between $40-75, based on their level of expertise, skills and qualifications. Staff best suited are assigned to a project, with the hourly rate communicated to the client before any work is undertaken. Each month, a worklog and invoice according to the specific developer’s hourly rate is sent to the client.

Solidstudio works in agile iterations of two weeks, presenting progress to clients at the end of each iteration. In addition to this, the Solidstudio team also hosts recurring planning sessions with clients to track and measure performance.

Time & Materials contract: When should it be used?

While it might seem like a time and materials contract is the perfect pricing model, it’s not always the best solution. As a general rule, time and materials contracts are most suited to projects, where the scope of the project is initially hard to define or can be subjected to a change. T&M is perfect for when there is no clearly finalized product, and when there is no easy way to divide the project into smaller parts. This contract type lends itself in particular to:

Projects with undetermined or vague specifications

Start-up businesses, with no exact, predefined goal

Projects that need to quickly react to market trends

Outsourcing a development team to work side by side with the internal IT department

Whatever software development you might require, it’s always best to check all pricing options available. For more information on time and materials contracts and how they work, contact the Solidstudio team.

Pros and cons of Time & material vs fixed price contracts.