6 Ways to Reduce Time-to-Market with Offshore Development
It can take anywhere from a few months to several years to bring a brand new software product to market. Factors that influence this timeframe include the scope of the software, the budget, and the number of engineers working on the project. Adding more engineers to a development team can reduce time-to-market (TTM) and help software companies reap the rewards of their software products sooner.
However, adding three or four engineers to a team can make the cost of TTM acceleration expensive for many software companies. That’s why outsourcing development to an offshore firm often makes financial sense.
Learn more about reducing time-to-market when you hire an offshore team below.
What is Offshore Development?
Offshore software development involves outsourcing the software development process to a team in another country. Developers in remote locations typically charge less money for their services than those in the U.S.
One of the best locations for offshore development is Vietnam, which has a growing IT infrastructure sector and a highly-skilled workforce. Reasons for growth in the country’s IT sector include a core national educational strategy that invests in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Other popular locations for offshore software outsourcing include Brazil, India, Russia, and the Philippines.
Benefits of using an offshore development team:
1. Fill Skill Gaps in Dedicated Teams
A skills shortage is impacting the future of software development in the U.S. The number of job opportunities for software developers could increase by 22% from 2020-2030—higher than the projected national average growth rate for all job fields (8%).
With domestic developers (and software engineers) in high demand, these professionals can charge significant amounts for their services, making offshore software development a more cost-effective option for many software companies.
Offshore teams let companies tap into a global talent pool without the high costs of U.S.-based hiring. Diversifying your talent pool can be especially helpful for niche or in-demand skills, including emerging technologies like AI / ML, data engineering, and programming languages like Java.
The best offshore software development services connect software firms with English-speaking developers who understand the latest technologies and trends. These developers should have the experience and skills to match your project, including senior-level leadership that can direct a team and act as a liaison with your onshore team.
Read more: Offshore Software Development: 3 Reasons to Invest Now
2. Ramp Up Quickly
It’s not just the high costs of hiring domestic developers that push software companies toward offshore development. Because of strict onboarding and orientation procedures, hiring local developers for an in-house team can take many months. That can slow down software development TTM.
Offshore teams can get to work almost immediately because they don’t have to complete a rigorous recruitment and onboarding process.
Teams are ready to go once you sign with a service provider. The offshore approach avoids common hiring headaches like candidates accepting other offers, time-consuming interviews, and an extremely competitive market. Offshore teams have already been vetted, hired, and trained.That can accelerate development momentum and get software products to end-users quicker, allowing companies to reduce time to market with offshore development.
The best software development outsourcing firms guarantee quality by providing companies with skilled and vetted development teams. These teams have already undergone strict screening processes, meaning the hiring company doesn’t have to do any recruitment work.
3. Take Advantage of Continuous Development
Software companies can develop products around the clock with offshore teams, reducing TTM. For example, offshore developers in Asia will work on development when a U.S. software company has finished for the day.
The U.S. company will work on development when its Asian team sleeps. With this near-24/7 coverage, software companies can execute workflows quicker and reduce time to market by several months.
4. Automate Development Processes
The right offshore development team can help software companies facilitate development by automating and simplifying complicated processes. Offshore providers create efficiencies for clients and build a strong foundation for development, testing, and quality assurance for each delivery cycle. That not only reduces TTM but results in high-quality products for end-users. Faster development cycles also help companies outpace their competitors and reduce overall development costs.
Here are some of the processes offshore software development teams can automate and streamline:
- Testing and quality assurance
- Computer programming and coding
- Object-orientated design (OOD)
- Software debugging
- Software development methodologies like agile development, DevOps deployment, and rapid application
Read more: How to Choose a Reliable Partner for Offshore Software Development
5. Scale Up or Down
Offshore developers can offer more flexibility than internal hires. That’s because software companies can add or remove developers from their offshore teams as they scale up and down without starting from scratch.
Say a software company has five internal developers but needs an additional five professionals during the software testing phase. However, as the product grows, more developers are needed to maintain and support it, more integrations are needed, and the demand for new features increases—offshore providers allow organizations to quickly respond to these needs.
6. Reduce Developer Burnout
Reducing burnout is the key to retaining software developers. Burnout can occur when developers have heavy workloads and a poor work-life balance, resulting in poor productivity and TTM.
Forbes magazine says:
“Understanding the pressures placed on modern software teams is an important first step. Then organizations can take concrete steps to mitigate the occupational hazard, improve work-life balance and encourage long-term retention.”
Offshore outsourcing companies can reduce the burden on core teams by sharing workloads and collaborating on software projects. That can help reduce attrition rates for software companies and maintain mindshare and domain knowledge. In addition, working with an offshore development company can improve the performance of internal teams and result in happier and more motivated employees.
Read more: Best Practices for Hiring Offshore Software Developers
How KMS Helps With Offshore Development
Knowing where to look for qualified and experienced offshore developers can be challenging. KMS Technology expedites this process by connecting software companies with offshore developers for more successful outcomes. KMS is a software development firm with a global reach that finds the world’s best tech talent to fill skills gaps and reduce time-to-market.
Working with KMS helps software companies:
- Find top offshore software developers with the right skills for projects
- Speed up development, testing, quality assurance, and other processes in the software development cycle
- Get products to end-users in the quickest possible timeframe
- Reduce the costs of hiring in-house developers
- Keep development costs low
- Expand the capacity of in-house teams
KMS has served over 200 companies and has 14 years of experience, making it one of the world’s best tech talent providers. We also develop our own software companies in-house.
Finding talented offshore partners has never been easier with KMS:
- KMS works with software companies to define business outcomes, set up a successful engagement, and learn about their specific project management requirements.
- KMS determines the best solution for software companies and creates a plan of action that includes delivery, design, staffing, and technology consulting.
- KMS finds the best-skilled engineers to execute these plans and provides software companies with constant communication and iterative delivery.
- KMS can implement and support a software company’s final product through continuous improvement and by delivering optimal results and advanced metrics.
Reduce Time to Market With Reliable Offshore Development From KMS
Reducing time-to-market means end-users can access a software product quicker, resulting in more profitable outcomes for software development companies. Hiring offshore developers can help reduce TTM and allow companies to achieve their goals. The best offshore software development companies can connect software companies with senior-level developers based on their budget and unique requirements.
Are you interested in offshore development? Schedule a free consultation to discuss your technology needs with KMS.
