Why Offshore Software Development Is Your Best Bet?

You’ve heard horror stories from colleagues about offshore endeavors gone wrong. From companies who boast huge cost savings to companies who advertise “We do Englesh” there is certainly room for error. But what if you found a partner who had spent enough time in the software development saddle to work out the kinks and curate a model for offshore development that actually worked? Too good to be true, right? Wrong.

Zibtek has been in the proverbial saddle for long enough to know what works when it comes to successful offshore software development. Instead of direct-to-India outsourcing, Zibtek’s team includes a US-based project manager for every project to facilitate communication and ensure deliverables at every step of the development process. We have a team of dedicated developers in India, who we’ve built long-term relationships with to make communication easier. This helps us to assign the perfect developers to your project without the need for constant re-vetting.

Here is why offshore software development continues to be your best bet:

No new infrastructure required

One huge advantage of hiring an offshore software development company is that you do not need to create and manage a development team at all. Project start-up can takeoff more quickly if you do not need to consider the infrastructure and the setup of your own development center.

Time zone differences working with people overseas

This is a benefit or a problem depending on how you look at it. It is always desirable to have some overlapping between the local and remote work hours so you can meet and resolve issues quickly. Besides that, you may greatly benefit having a team with some hours ahead or behind your local time.

Shared responsibility

Risk management in software development is usually underestimated by most non-IT companies. When deciding to outsource a given component, the parties agree on what has to be done, and the impact and risk management is shared among them. Managing and mitigating the risks produced by the development can be handled better by the offshore company as it is part of its core business to do so.

Open communication

Clear communication in any work environment is paramount but it is especially important when offshoring. You need a partner who speaks clear English, can be available to work during your waking hours and is readily available and responsive to all communication channels.

Zibtek provides a US-based project manager for each software project. This project manager is your liaison between what’s going on stateside and what’s being developed abroad. Using all the latest communication tools and some old trusty’s (can you say smoke signals? Just kidding) we pride ourselves on being super responsive and attentive to Skype messages, email, phone calls, and yes, even smoke signals. Want more on communication best practices? Check out our post on overcoming communication barriers with your offshore team.

Active Management

The next crucial ingredient for offshore development success is continuous and consistent management. We think of this piece as a two-way street. We’ll provide you with daily updates from your developers and full access to our team’s calendars for any time you need. What we need from you is to play an active role in your product’s outcome. If you provide our engineers with plenty of feedback, we’ll deliver exactly what you’re after.

Finding the Right Partner

Finally, the most important part of offshore development success is picking the right partner. We know deciding who and where to outsource your development to is a time suck. But, it’s time well spent if you truly vet candidates and find a company that can help you not only develop software but helps scale your business. Maybe your product needs a few tweaks and is a good fit for a local freelancer. Maybe you’re more comfortable having in-house developers work on your core product. And maybe your product is the perfect fit for outsourced software development. If the latter is the case, Zibtek is eager to augment your existing team or to become your full-time development team.

If you’d like to learn a little more about Zibtek’s way of doing offshoring right, don’t hesitate to reach out. For lean, agile, rapid development with the hottest coding around, it’s hard to beat outsourcing through Zibtek.

At Zibtek, we offer custom software solutions for businesses of all sizes. Our digital strategy, design, and custom software development solutions have helped a wide range of clients to meet their goals—ask for a free consultation to find out whether we can do the same for your business.