Offshoring

Whether you’re nearshoring or offshoring, all you’re doing is outsourcing to companies close-by, or really far away. And outsourcing is not an easy business operation. 

To start with, where do you look for providers? You Google, and you look for aggregator platforms for B2B companies. This is why we maintain a profile on Clutch, why we run a blog, even why we wrote this page you’re on – we want to be easy to find. That’s the first sign of a good provider, if they care about their brand and online visibility, they’re probably a serious company. 

Verify your providers before you engage in cooperation. Look at reviews, at their portfolio, ask to be referred to clients that already work with that company. If possible, use the software they built, even if you don’t have the technical expertise to analyze if it’s built well. 

Once you start working with a company, overcommunicate. Be clear, don’t be afraid to repeat things. Keep asking if you’re not sure of something, and keep driving your point until you’re 100% sure that the other side understood you. It sounds banal, but if you think about it, I’m sure you’ll realize that people don’t do this enough in everyday work. 

Don’t mix up overcommunicating with intense micromanaging. When you try to micromanage an outsourced project, you create bottlenecks. When you overcommunicate, you’re only doing your best to make sure everyone in the project is on the same page. 

Flexibility is the name of the IT game. There’s a wide variety of project management methodologies and frameworks. Asynchronous communication is a standard. Project management tools make sure that everyone gets the information they need, at the exact time they need it.  

Yes, it might be harder to jump on impromptu calls, or even do daily / weekly calls. If regular calls are important for you, your provider should be able to meet you halfway. But the better approach is to really take advantage of all that project management tools have to offer, and get used to asynchronous communication (especially when it comes to low-priority exchanges). 

There are some project management methodologies where there are no calls at all, not even chatrooms or emails, and the whole project team communicates through GIT, Jira or Trello exclusively. This is an extreme approach that we don’t prefer, but it is absolutely doable and quite efficient when done right. 

We like to maintain a personal touch and communicate with our clients regularly, so even if you’re on the other side of the world – you'll be confident that we’ve got your back. 

The IT industry is one big melting pot, where people from different cultures adopt the one true culture – Nerd culture. We have our own language, our own way of life, and internationally recognized and respected ways of doing our work. 

So, cultural differences are rarely a make-or-break issue for offshore projects. Still, it’s good to be sensitive about this when you communicate with people from a nation whose customs you don’t know. It goes for both sides of the engagement, so if people at the company you’re working with don’t make an effort to understand your point of view, it might be a red flag. 

When you decide to do offshoring, you’re opening yourself up to take advantage of the global talent pool. It won’t do you any good to choose a provider too quickly. Take your time and make sure you’re picking the right company, because they might become your long-term go-to development partners. 

Without geographical limitations, you can build a hybrid team with developers from several companies based in different countries. Who’s going to stop you? Or you can use offshore developers to support your in-house developers in crunch times, or when you’re lacking specific expertise on your team. 

You can find developers with the exact skills you need, working in the exact tech stack that your project requires. Offshoring is the best way to reduce the issue of programmer shortage.