Another thing companies should consider is a huge tech talent shortage trend that has been fueling the tech industry in recent years. Basically, these are the core factors that enhanced outsourcing the IT services and dedicated developers by various tech companies and IT organizations.

In this article, we’ll talk about the common problems of outsourcing, its main failures, and the most effective practices of how they can be avoided.

It’s time to start!

Why Outsourcing Fails?

Along with implementing the evolving technologies, it becomes more challenging for the companies to develop the whole spectrum of innovative software solutions directly in-house. That is why companies try to build an effective strategy of hiring a dedicated team of developers using the outsourcing approach.

However, it’s not that easy as it seems: according to Deloitte, “outsourcing as a concept is changing from making it run to making the change happen”.

This means you have not only to implement this system but also get the benefits of its performance, as well as successfully resolve the possible issues you will encounter in the process. For instance, the most frequent problems of outsourcing can include:

• insufficient communication between the organization and outsourcing vendors
• the lack of trust with the outsourcing providers
• low expertise in optimizations and improvements
• inadequate risk evaluation and wrong development strategy
• the irresponsibility of outsourced staff

In fact, these are only a few issues that can result in multiple outsourcing failures of any organization. However, if you still think these are only the minor problems of outsourcing that can’t impact the overall situation, the following statistics from Forbes may change your mind: up to 25% of all outsourcing corporations fall within 2 years, and around 50% can fail within 5 years of relationships.

Now, let’s look closer at the potential IT outsourcing failures your company should be aware of to succeed.

Common IT Outsourcing Failures Your Company Might Encounter

After we know why outsourcing fails, it’s time to analyze the potential issues you might face when implementing the outsourcing model into your business. As a part of our discussion, you’ll also learn more from the outsourcing failures examples of the world’s largest companies!

#1 Neglecting the Needs of Your Target Audience

Modern software development is all about delivering the best tech solutions that fully surpass consumer expectations. That is why any sort of product should be customer-centric and provide the most relevant features that resolve specific problems of your target audience. Otherwise, you’re at risk of failing to recoup the financial investments.

One of these outsourcing examples was Subbxi – a tool for generating the subtitles, that has not been published on AppStore after its release. The problem was that the client hasn’t done the research to ensure the app will find its audience.

How to avoid this failure: This IT outsourcing failure can be avoided if the customer-centric basics are strongly baked into the project, always targeted during the planning processes, and clearly outlined in the documentation.

This way you can not only improve the quality and performance of your IT product but also clear out what you expect to get with your product, and why these are important.

#2 Insufficient Communication

The next thing to consider is establishing the communication channels you’ll use to reach the IT outsourcing providers. In fact, the lack of communication can significantly impact the quality of the final software product and cause a list of issues that need additional inputs, which consequently lead to additional expenses on the IT services.

That is why it’s not enough to only implement outsourcing services to your business. More critical is to always track the progress and timely initiate the changes in the process of developing.

How to avoid this failure: To prevent this outsourcing failure, define the communication channels and the frequency of the QA sessions in advance, and also employ the person in charge of the project’s development. The project lead should be the exact mediator between your company and the outsourcing team and be ready to resolve all the issues.

#3 Lack of Clarity

One of the most popular IT outsourcing failures to avoid is the lack of clarity when planning the project and its actual development.

Remember, the outsourcing team will focus on the project documentation when creating the tech product. And, if the outline doesn’t have the clear requirements and instructions of what you expect in the result, you’re likely to get the product that needs further improvements.

How to avoid this failure: To prevent project delays and overpaying for the additional work of your IT outsourcing team, it’s better to state out the clear requirements, goals, and features your product should include. This trick can minimize possible errors and improve the process of software development.

#4 Poor Planning

Another common issue of outsourcing failures you might encounter is insufficient planning – a more global problem if compared with lack of clarity. Poor planning can impact not only the projects your developers are entrusted to create but also the entire process of coworking with your outsourced team.

How to avoid this failure: The detailed analysis of the outsourcing examples has shown that considering the detailed performance of your IT outsourcing team at each stage of the product development is one of the core things to succeed.

For instance, you can start by clearing out the time frames, who and how the progress will be evaluated, as well as the various workflow organization aspects like developing tools, specific requirements, and approaches that are to be used in the process.

#5 Low Quality of Tech Expertise and Inadequate Outsourcing Price

Before the start of any project, it’s essential to find out more about the expertise of your offshore development team. If neglected, this can result in the waste of your time, efforts, and resources needed to get this staff onboarded and when you’ve finally understood that’s not the vendor you want to work with, you need to start all this process all over again.

That’s exactly what happened with the MarketingHelpNet company, which hired an offshore web designer who didn’t possess the required web design skills for creating the functional product, and as a result, the project failed.

How to avoid this failure: Before contracting the vendors, it’s essential to check the references and technical instructions your developers are going to work with. Additionally, to ensure you’ll choose the experienced tech talents for your project, it’s important to research the vendors at a reasonable price and research the case studies before signing the contract.

Guide to Hiring the Best Tech Talents

Having analyzed the major outsourcing failures, let’s now briefly summarize how to find the best talents in the tech industry:

• Build an MVP first to estimate the project value
• Compare different providers, the services they offer, and their prices
• Provide a clear understanding of your product from top to bottom
• Pay attention to the project planning and processes organization
• Set up the realistic deadlines
• Build reliable communication and stay in touch with your developers
• Focus on value over cost, since it may impact the final product performance

With having all these points considered, you’ll certainly succeed in hiring the best IT outsourcing vendors for your business.

Bottom Line

As you can see, analyzing the main IT outsourcing failures is one of the key approaches to succeed for your company or business. Hiring a dedicated development team that features advanced expertise in specific product development, possesses vast experience within the scope, and is ready to contribute to the project success are the must-have options to obtain when considering software service outsourcing.

At Intellectsoft, we completely understand these basics and always look for the most beneficial project optimization opportunities within various industries to make your business out of competition.

Looking for your best team for the next project of yours? Talk to our experts and uncover more insights about IT outsourcing and how you can make the most of it from day one!

The post Tips on How to Avoid IT Outsourcing Failures appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.

In 2021, the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP) in their annual ranking of the world’s best outsourcing companies has named eleven tech companies based in Ukraine, considering customer reviews, certifications and awards, solutions approach, and the basic social responsibility projects of each.

Being listed in these and lots of other international rankings, Ukraine is now one of the most attractive yet prospective outsourcing destinations for the world’s largest and most renowned corporations. The level of proficiency and comprehensive list of tech skills obtained by its developers makes more and more companies switch to Ukraine software outsourcing.

The latest analysis by the State of European Tech has shown that Ukrainian tech raised around $571 million of investments in 2020, and due to the increasing demand in digital transformation, these numbers will only rise further.

In this article, we will uncover why IT outsourcing in Ukraine is so beneficial to businesses, what scopes the Ukraine developers are best for and how to find a reliable outsourcing vendor and hire the best software developers in Ukraine.

Let’s get it started!

The Emerging Popularity of Ukrainian Outsourcing: International Rankings

As we mentioned before, Ukraine has been recognized as one of the world’s best IT outsourcing centers.

By 2025, the overall number of Ukraine developers will reach 250,000, with an overall IT market value of $8,4 billion.

At present, the country had gained compelling positions in numerous international tech-related rankings, including:

• 20th position in the AT Kearney Global Services Location Index
• 2nd rank in the 2020 Global Innovation Index by Wipo
• 1st position for Science & Technology in the Good Country Index
• 1st position for Innovation Input to Output Performance in Global Innovation Index 2020 

These are only a few software development outsourcing Ukraine statistics that justify the tremendous popularity of its professional specialists on the global IT market.

Main Services to Consider for Outsourcing Software Development in Ukraine

Before we’ll dive into the pricing of outsourcing software development in Ukraine, it’s critical to investigate whether or not its developers can fully correspond to all the needs of your company, organization, or business.

Needless to say, it’s no use hiring developers that are experienced in creating the software for the hospitality industry for your eCommerce business. Furthermore, bad hires like choosing the wrong software vendors can result not only in time or progress loss but also can cost millions of dollars for contracting authority!

So, what basic projects can Ukraine developers be hired for?

Custom Software Development

First of all, the strong side of IT outsourcing in Ukraine is developing powerful software solutions for nearly any business from any industry. Do you need the proof? Then, you might check out the famous startups like Petcube, Grammarly, DepositPhotos, and more – originally created in Ukraine, these software solutions are now widely known all over the world.

Whatever project you’re planning to launch, with Ukrainian software developers you’ll surely get the stablest, feature-rich yet effective applications you’ve paid for.

Internet of Things

Any type of IoT device always implies the usage of personal data, which traditionally needs comprehensive protection to minimize the possible threats. Unlike the other outsourcing vendors, Ukraine developers are more competitive in the global outsourcing market because of their extensive experience in working with the personal data of EU, UK, and North American citizens.

Along with governmental personal data regulations of Ukraine (ISO), each company tracks the regulations of the client’s country, ranging from GDPR (EU), PIPEDA (Canada), and HIPAA (USA). At the same time, clients can also initiate the additional data protection requirements: how it’s collected, stored, accessed, and transferred.

One of the well-known IoT projects of Ukraine developers is Ajax System, an IoT security ecosystem that provides wireless security equipment for private and business use.

AI Technology

In 2020, Ukraine has become one of the leading countries by the number of Artificial Intelligence providers in Europe. According to Clutch, at present, there are over 150 organizations targeted on Artificial Intelligence development, which precedes the number of AI companies in most technologically advanced EU countries like Poland, Estonia, Belarus, Germany, and more.

So far, there are over 30,000 software developers in Ukraine specializing in AI & ML development. The Ukrainian software developers have a strong knowledge of Scala, Hadoop and Python technologies, which are considered to be an integral part of Data Science and Machine Learning.

Mobile App Development

If you’re looking for good, experienced app developers, outsourcing software developers in Ukraine may be the right option for you. These programmers perform exceptionally well in creating solid, feature-rich yet functional mobile apps according to all the requirements and your business needs.

Besides, these services are delivered at comparatively low prices: with the average hourly rate starting from $20 to $60, the cost of making an app with the basic features starts from $5,000. In contrast, the same in the USA will cost you from $10,000 – 20,000 and around $18,000 – 20,000 in Great Britain and Western Europe.

Additionally, Ukrainian software developers feature the best ratio of quality and price, provide flexibility in communication and cooperation, and offer innovative solutions that exactly fit your business needs and goals.

Blockchain

At present, blockchain is a comparatively new and innovative technology that requires building solid and functional solutions and is now used in a wide range of fields: financial industry, supply chains, government, healthcare, retail, and more.

However, if choosing a non-experienced vendor for the project in any scope, companies can fail in blockchain technology implementation and get a serious loss of the investments and even the critical data as well.

Hiring blockchain software developers in Ukraine can enhance the security of any type of data, as they have:

• the in-depth knowledge of the major blockchain services
• vast experiences in working with different platforms, such as Bitcoin, Etherum, HyperLedger Fabric (for private corporate networks), and EOS (introduced by Smart Contracts)
• blockchain development language skills, including Go, Rust, Python, C++, and Solidity

With this technology implemented, your business will get more transparency and enhanced traceability for your data, reduce costs and eliminate transaction speed.

Rates for Outsourcing Software Development in Ukraine

Being one of the leading IT outsourcing centers in Eastern Europe, hiring Ukrainian software developers can be a winning strategy for a variety of businesses from different industry scopes. The most popular industries they are involved in include insurance, healthcare, hospitality, finance, eCommerce, construction, and more.

Another great plus of the Ukraine developer is the solid software knowledge, fluent English proficiency, and reasonable price for the IT services. For instance, the average offshore development rates for this region range from $30 to $60 per hour.

However, the overall software development outsourcing Ukraine rates may vary according to the work experience of a certain candidate:

• Hourly rate for Junior Software Engineer: $19 – $25
• Hourly rate for Middle Software Engineer: $26 – $38
• Hourly rate for Senior Software Engineer: $39 – $60

Compared to the rates of countries based in Latin America, Asia, and Africa, you’ll get top-of-the-line innovative software solutions at an affordable price.

Additionally, Ukraine is a home country for over 200,000 professionals, and their number increases with more than 36,000 graduates within this scope annually. These factors make it one of the most attractive options for starting outsourcing software development in Ukraine.

Main Reasons to Hire Ukrainian Software Developers

After you know the overall information about IT outsourcing in Ukraine, let’s now discuss why you should consider hiring Ukrainian developers.

#1 Largest IT outsourcing Market in CEE

Ukraine is the 2nd largest tech hub in Central Eastern Europe, with over 200,000 programmers located in the 5 biggest cities: Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, Dnipro, and Odessa. Furthermore, compared to Poland, it offers more attractive outsourcing rates at the same or even higher quality.

Additionally, it takes 11th position in the rating of top software development outsourcing countries in the world. According to recent research, over 90% of IT services in Ukraine are outsourced, while the remaining 10% develop their own programming products.

#2 Solid Educational Background of Developers

There are around 450 technical universities and colleges with advanced programming courses, and over 36,000 new graduates annually enroll in the IT market. Most of them start practicing their programming skills after the 2nd or 3rd course of their bachelor’s degree, which makes it even more beneficial to be hired after graduation.

Furthermore, nearly all the Ukrainian developers can fluently speak English at the Intermediate (more than 37%), Upper-intermediate (over 35%), or even Advanced levels (around 13%).

This ensures smooth communication yet more productive cooperation between the certain organization and outsourced team of Ukrainian software developers.

These are only a few qualities that significantly stimulate the demand for outsourcing talented Ukrainian developers.

#3 Plenty of IT Service Outsourcing Companies

Most IT outsourcing companies in Ukraine offer Flexible cooperation models within only 1-2 hours away from most European countries. At present, there are over 1,600 companies that provide the core web technologies for software development, including JavaScript, Java, C#, Python, PHP, C++, TypeScript, and more.

Most of these tech companies are founded by entrepreneurs with a global mindset, such organizations are mostly focused on delivering the best results to their contractors and facilitating their success as well.

#4 Impressive Value/Cost Rates

By offering the most beneficial yet attractive prices for the services, Ukraine has already become one of the best IT outsourcing hubs in Europe. It features lower average rates for the services provided and has much more programming specialists within any industry. So, it’s more than possible to hire:

• Junior-level programmer for $570 for 1 month
• Middle-level Ukraine developer for $1800 per month
• Senior-level specialist for around $3000 for one month of work

And, we can reassure you, the software products developed have not only the same quality as those created in other CEE countries. Ofter, Ukrainian software developers provide even better technological solutions for specific cases than can be offered in most international leading IT hubs!

#5 Convenient Location and Time Zone

The geographic proximity makes Ukraine one of the most attractive locations for both nearshoring and offshoring. Placed in just 2-3 hours of flight time from most of the European countries, it allows sharing 7 of 9 business hours with the majority of them.

Additionally, there are always direct flights from Ukraine to the most popular European tech hubs including Berlin, Amsterdam, London, and more. And, the flight ticket can be purchased for as little as $15 – 19.

#6 More Working Hours Per Week

An average full-time developer works around 33 hours per week, in the UK these numbers can barely reach 36 hours, which is not too far from the US workers (37.5 hours per week).

In Ukraine, the majority of developers in tech-related outsourcing companies spend between 40 to 60 hours at work per week. Furthermore, your company can benefit from the public holidays too: there are only 11 paid public holidays in Ukraine, which is 2-7 days less compared to most EU countries.

Of course, that might not be too notable at first, but such a slight working hour difference can enhance up to several months in certain cases of project completion.

How to Find the Reliable Outsourcing Vendor in Ukraine

For sure, when it comes to IT outsourcing, Ukrainian software developers are one of the most beneficial options to choose. At the same time, it’s still critical to learn the most important aspects to consider when choosing the software developing company for hire.

This can prevent the loss of time, efforts, and investments for your organization, and ensures you won’t need to start the outsourcing organization research from scratch.

So, what are the core things to pay attention to when choosing the right IT outsourcing vendor in Ukraine?

• Uncover the local IT industry landscape and the top vendors you can hire Ukraine developers from
• Ask for the portfolio and existing case studies of your potential candidate, explore the major scopes/industries and companies the IT company cooperated earlier with. Remember, you should look not for the company that features the best technological solutions, you should find the one that can provide the exact software products your business or company needs
• Analyze the awards, certificates, and compliances to define whether or not this software vendor can be trusted. As a rule, the outsourcing companies have certifications from the leading tech providers within the same scope (if you’re looking for cloud solutions development, you should probably look for AWS or Google Cloud partnership). Other great certifications to look for are ISO 27001:2013, ISO 9001:2015, PCI DSS, GDPR, HIPAA, and more.
• Define the strong sides of your potential IT outsourcing vendor and why it’s better than other competitors. You should also pay attention to the price/value rate to avoid low-quality outcomes. Additionally, browse the official website, corporate blogs, and social media of the outsourcing company to get a more concrete idea of what types of projects they have already done and what was the quality of their final results.
• Contact the software vendor and estimate whether or not they’re open for communication. For instance, the modern outsourcing companies in Ukraine like Intellecsoft invite for an expert consultation regarding the project or problem you have to get the overall idea about it and whether or not they can help you with the exact services you need.

Of course, that’s only a general list of what should be checked when choosing the best IT outsourcing vendors in Ukraine. Nevertheless, with having all these aspects checked, you can be more than certain about getting the best software solutions for your business.

Conclusion

To sum up, onboarding software developers in Ukraine is one of the most beneficial ways for companies and businesses to obtain innovative technological solutions and approaches at a reasonable price.

The outsourcing companies in Ukraine cover nearly all the scopes within any industry and are able to effectively perform different tasks and provide cost-effective strategies that can not only be identical to the ones offered by local developers but also provide more valuable benefits for your business.

And, you can be sure that with the experienced dedicated development team every new project for your business will surely help it to improve and develop beyond the competition.

At Intellectsoft, our best IT experts empower various companies and their workforces with the latest solutions and innovative approaches. Are you interested in outsourcing software development Ukraine?

Talk to our experts and uncover basic insights regarding any topic of your interest and how your business can benefit from it today!

The post Outsourcing Software Development to Ukraine – A Complete Guide appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.

Before, we were confident that it was possible to outsource everything except the product team. But after a time we began to wonder, why can’t product teams be remote too?

This article will discuss whether remote product management and development are realistic and consider both the pros and cons of each.

Common Reasons for Outsourcing

Every month at Intellectsoft, we speak with dozens of companies that are considering remote development. Most often, they fall into one of several categories:

1. Small to medium businesses that digitize a business model with proven offline results. In this case, the company has a working knowledge of how an online business should work. They simply bring existing business processes online.
2. Companies that scale up existing business processes. This case includes all those who have built successful MVPs but are now thinking about scaling their success by adding more functionality to reach a larger audience.
3. Companies that are working on a one-time addition to existing functionality. In such cases, it makes no sense to hire someone from the outside due to the irregular nature of the development work.
4. Businesses that plan to develop a solution from scratch. Usually, these include companies that need a specific business solution and then long-term support. They do not intend to periodically change the product, conduct dozens of AB tests, and so on. Just building, deploying, and using is their purpose.

Recently, due to COVID-19, more and more companies are doing what was previously considered impossible. They are transitioning product and marketing development to remote.

Why Product Management Is Moving to Remote

Both well-developed businesses and young startups have been resorting to outsourcing for product management. Some of the most common reasons for this include:

• Lack of qualified human resources. Often, teams don’t have enough in-house resources to test new products or research a new segment of users and do it right. This is where remote teams come in handy.
• They need new products or features urgently, and deadlines are on fire. Imagine you’re a face mask production and the pandemic strikes. Now you want to quickly scale production and customer acquisition channels but don’t have enough workforce to do so. That’s when you don’t have time to hire and onboard new staff and need someone who can ship things right away.
• Need solid product expertise for good money. A company has no experience working with developers and product managers. They cannot spend a year and a half on acquiring expertise, hiring personnel, and developing it. In this case, it is better to turn to those who have sufficient expertise.
• The current team is failing and product development needs to be accelerated. If a company is willing to try a product-led growth model, the product manager has to be a seasoned professional. The current team may not be the best fit for the product-led growth philosophy or meet the new requirements for development speed.

The Critical Role of the Product Manager

The position of a product manager has only been around for a short time. There are plenty of definitions of what a PM is. But for all of them, there is one that we can stick to. The product manager is the person responsible for creating and bringing a new product to market.

Suppose you look through hundreds of PM vacancies and conduct an in-depth analysis. Soon, it becomes clear that a product manager is a specialist who works at the intersection of business, marketing, and programming.

At every stage, they control the work on a new product, interact with investors and users, and develop their brainchild after the technical implementation.

As mentioned earlier, the main task is to develop new products in line with trends and the needs of users. Beyond this, there are plenty of other responsibilities and fields of expertise for a PM:

• Collecting information
• Deriving product requirements
• Creating a work plan and distributing roles among staff
• Promoting and selling the product

Product manager’s top skills:

• market research and market analysis to determine the basic needs of customers
• implementation of product lines and testing new ideas
• conducting competitive analysis, comparing similar products through numerous characteristics
• development of marketing communications
• liaising with the sales director to create a sales strategy
• working with clients and the sales department to assess the results of implementation
• formation of long-term and short-term sales forecasts, providing analytics to management
• introducing new products to the market, analyzing profitability (ROI)
• creating a marketing strategy with the marketers
• pricing based on market research, production costs, and expected demand
• scheduling and defining operational requirements

This is a crucial role for any project. So why would a big company’s CEO outsource a product manager or an entire product team?

Reasons for Outsourcing the Product Manager and Product Team

Well, there are a couple of reasons to do so. First, you get world-class experts working on your product. These professionals usually take jobs for a limited period of time tied directly to KPIs or a set of other mission-critical objectives like:

• The number of conversions and sign-ups compared to the current performance.
• Marginality. The actual sales are compared with the planned figures.
• Active users. Evaluate how many people are using the product daily.
• Customer Retention Rate (CRR). The retention rate of new users, which in most cases is even more critical than the acquisition.
• ROI. An indicator of the return on income tied to the cost of advertising. It shows whether the investment has paid off or not.

Delivering these KPIs means that the remote project manager and their development team are responsible for more than just releasing new functionality. They are entirely responsible for achieving specific business goals.

Leading product development experts often command high salaries. Thus, hiring them as full-time in-house staff can be incredibly expensive.

Additionally, product design and prototyping equipment can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, not including the costs of maintenance and repair. Outsourced product development is often much less expensive than in-house design.

And in the end, you are not responsible for your outsourced product team. This is very useful if you are testing a product MVP based on market hypotheses. You can quickly terminate cooperation if the test was unsuccessful and the product-market fit was not found. Most outsourced product teams agree on that with their clients in advance.

What Is the Future of Product Team Outsourcing?

At Intellectsoft, we see a roughly 25% increase in clients wanting to include product managers and analysts as part of their outsourced teams.

Agile development methodology allows for one product specialist to work on 1-3 projects simultaneously, alternating the planning, prototyping, development, and analysis phases among themselves.

The only requirement for organizing a high-performing team of this level is the willingness of stakeholders to adhere to the process and agreed priorities. Remote product teams are capable of quick pivots, but only within extended sprints.

We anticipate that product management and analyst outsourcing will become more mainstream over the next three years in the wake of traditional marketing and development outsourcing.

As skilled specialist shortages and prices grow, availability and affordable prices will become critical factors in attracting these teams to an increasing number of players in the market.

The post Product Team On-Demand: Forget Everything You Know About Software Outsourcing  appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.

And that’s not surprising, as this sphere involves the employment of various IT-service providers, application services, and infrastructure solutions for enhancing the core business processes.

Why do companies outsource? Well, the major reasons for this are to reduce and control the hiring costs, enhance the core business processes and improve the company’s focus, boost the KPI and perform more tasks at tight time frames, etc.

However, before the business gets the outsourcing benefits, it needs to resolve its main challenge — to establish efficient remote team communication.

In this article, we’ll uncover the main business challenges of remote teams communication and also the best practices of enhancing team communication while outsourcing software development.

Collaborating With Remote Software Developers: Main Challenges

First of all, let’s analyze the potential challenges and communication issues companies can encounter when hiring a remote development team.

Having covered the majority of these, it becomes much easier to develop an effective yet efficient business strategy to resolve the existing problems and prevent the issues that might occur further.

Miscommunication Problems

Communication is one of the core factors that have a huge impact on the employees’ well-being and productivity. According to McKinsey’s recent research, the teams who feel engaged in detailed remote communications are nearly 5 times more likely to enhance their KPIs.

Furthermore, the post-COVID-19 realities uncovered that only 32% of employees have experienced the great communication set up from their organizations, which means a vast majority of businesses nowadays still have vague remote team communication.

The miscommunication can not only impact the workflow and employees’ well-being but also result in serious losses for the organizations themselves.

This means great delays in the project development, as well as spending tons of time, costs, and effort for correcting the issues and troubleshooting.

Disconnection Issues

The other huge drawback of the poor remote team communication is that the workers are isolated from the traditional working environment, and need much more time for clarifying the issues and troubleshooting.

Not to mention how the lack of connection impacts the remote team management: it becomes harder to build effective communication with remote teams and regularly control their performance as well.

The thing is the team-bonding moments always happen, especially when working at a large organization since you have some off-work interactions like a common lunch or small talk by a water cooler.

The peculiarities of telework only compound the problem: you need to consider the schedule of each member and find the right tools for team-building opportunities.

Disunion Challenges

The lack of collaboration is another important issue when onboarding a remote development team. It often occurs because of the absence of teamwork, low motivation, and a minor input into the common cause.

As a result, everyone minds only their own business and avoids sharing important ideas and feedback because of that feeling of undervaluation and also the burnout — common issue team members might feel because of the lack of collaborative work.

In fact, by helping employees understand how their work connects to the goals of the company you can improve the company’s performance by up to 10%, according to Gartner. That is why, one of the most essential points while developing the business performance is to improve team communication.

Alienation Feeling

With poor team communication, employees may also feel like a sore thumb because of the lack of live communication and interaction with each other. The stressful feeling caused by the so-called alienation results in increased employee anxiety.

The researches have shown that this issue can greatly decrease working performance, reduce job satisfaction and even lead to resignation. For the global economy poor mental health, caused by insufficient remote team communication, can cost up to $1 trillion per year.

Management Issues

The last and most significant problem of remote communications for business performance is the remote control issues. For the project managers, it becomes even more challenging to organize and control the working performance of each employee, track their progress and define the most effective strategies for the KPI improvement.

As a result, the team members feel uncertain about their work, and cannot interact comfortably with each other — they just try to avoid talking with anyone, even if that impacts the quality of their work.

Strategies to Improve Communication with Your Remote Software Development Team

After you know the main challenges of setting up effective remote team communication, let’s review the ways you can resolve these problems.

Basically, the 3 core factors will matter here: the correct team-building techniques, managers with high leadership skills, and professional software. To lift up the lid for you: the last one turns out to be the most essential for developing the best remote communications.

Use the Right Team-Building Techniques

One of the first things to consider when developing remote teams’ communication is to apply the most effective team-building strategies that can emphasize the importance of each member’s input. For example, it’s essential to:

• Listen to the employee’s feedback or suggestions and encourage them to voice their opinions;
• Brainstorm the ideas of how to improve the workflow and increase the employee’s performance;
• Set up the small talks and engage the team members in the off-work interactions to prevent burnout;
• Organize informal events to encourage better interactions between the team members and managers so no one feels left out.

These simple yet effective techniques can be modified or complemented depending on your organization’s goals and needs. However, the application of even one of these strategies can significantly enhance the productivity of your remote employees and improve business performance.

Develop the Leadership Skills of Your Remote Team

The other method of developing remote communications is hiring a professional manager that features vast experience in remote work optimization.

This person is aware of the most effective team-building tactics and can analyze which of them will provide you with the best performance results and enhance your company’s KPI.

Additionally, the professional manager can guide you in employing the pre-made or creating the fully-customized software for remote communication, a perfect option to establish the production workflow for the telework or outsourcing. Still uncertain about its efficiency? Discover the essential benefits it can bring to your business below!

Employ the Effective Team Communication Software

One of the core options that define the success of the remote team interaction improvement is choosing the right communication software. Such software opens up a lot of perspectives for productive remote work, as it:

• Allows reaching the team members anytime and from anywhere;
• Enables creating multiple working chats (formal and informal) to communicate, share the news and updates, ideas, and suggestions regarding different topics;
• Enhances the time-management with the in-built calendar for the task scheduling;
• Improves the employee management and control (for instance, by showing the current status — online, offline, at the meeting, etc);
• Speeds up the entire working process and improves its quality, so that the projects are always completed in time and are less likely to contain human errors and other issues;
• Prevents leakage of business-related data that can happen if personal challenges are used for corporate communication.

Of course, if some of the features your business needs are not covered by the premade communication software for remote teams, it’s a great idea to launch the custom software solutions.

They will not simply meet all the essential requirements, needs, and business goals, but are also great because of the advanced personalization, painless integration, high security, and cost-effectiveness.

Created by the professional team of developers, such software won’t require the additional costs with licenses or the constant changes, as it can much easier adjust to your business and be used in the long run.

Additionally, the custom communication software can be integrated with other software allowing the remote employees to increase their working performance and productivity as well.

Why Is Team Communication Important?

Setting up the right remote development team communication allows your departments to effectively interact with each other, saving tons of effort, costs, and, which is more important – the time needed for troubleshooting, clarification, optimization, and other pivotal business processes.

For the outsourced remote teams, setting up the is even more critical, as the written communication becomes the main information channel remote team uses to perform various business tasks.

If this outsourcing factor is neglected, the businesses can’t get any benefits from the remote employees at best. At worst, this will lead to an enormous loss of resources, including the time and costs spent on employee onboarding.

Conclusion

Knowing the best practices of how to improve communication with a remote team, businesses can make the most of their employee outsourcing.

The right team-building tactics, professional and experienced leaders, and, of course, the key option — innovative software for remote team communication — are the best methods of how your organization can boost the interaction with remote employees. And, the only thing you need to create professional communication software is to find a dedicated development team for your business project.

Due to the years of experience in the outsourcing industry, Intellectsoft knows how to ensure flawless communication with remote teams. Feel free to contact us if you want to benefit from the best remote team communication tools and set your project up for success.

The post How to Streamline Communication With Your Remote Development Team  appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.

At the same time, however, when you go for outsourcing it’s important to keep an eye on software development metrics. Otherwise, the project may end up elevating cost and decreasing output quality after all.

So what are the most important KPI metrics in outsourcing software development that should never be neglected? Let’s go through them below.

Top 13 Software Development Metrics to Track Your Outsourced Project Progress

Lead Time

Lead time shows how long it usually takes for your organization to turn a draft into a software product. When you want to become more responsive to customers, keeping lead time as low as possible is an option.

Active Days

Active days software development metrics are used to measure how long it takes for your developers to deliver code to the project (not taking into account things like planning or administrative tasks). Active days are commonly used to spot hidden costs, for example, the costs of interruptions.

Production

These software development metrics show the amount of work done, effectively measuring the productivity of offshore development teams. Production metrics will be especially important for those managers who need to speed up their average pace of software development.

Assignment

The scope of assignment shows the code (the amount of code, to be more precise) that a software developer can maintain throughout the year. This metric is generally used to showcase how many software engineers you need to support a software project. Similarly, the scope of assignment can be used to compare teams and their performance.

Efficiency

This metric measures the amount of efficient code delivered by a software developer. Pay attention to a code churn, a measure showing the rate of the code evolution. Most commonly, a code churn of low levels will indicate that a produced code must be highly efficient.

Impact

The impact shows the impact of a code change within the framework of the whole project. Most commonly, a modification in code affecting multiple files will cause more serious disruptions than the update that deals with a single file.

MTBF/MTTR

The MTBF metric is the mean time between system breakdowns, it stands for the average time it takes to fix and recover from a system failure. The MTBF metric is usually calculated from the time you are first notified of the failure. The MTBF and MTTR metrics are used to give a description of software behavior in the development environment. The MTBF and MTTR metrics are also helpful when it comes to measuring the success in recovering and storing data.

Security

The security metrics are generally referred to as the quality metrics of the software. The security metrics should be tracked throughout the whole lifecycle of development. By doing so, you can assure that your project pays sufficient attention to potential threats and security issues.

Endpoint Incidents

This metric reflects the number of hardware (devices) that might have been exposed to the virus during a certain period of time.

Errors Per FP (Defects Per FP)

The errors per FP metric shows the overall quality of the information system. It’s commonly used by software development teams to minimize misunderstandings, in line with implementing new control tactics.

Sprint Burndown

This metric is intended to qualify the speed of work completion, in line with giving a measure to work remaining to be done.

Open Pull Requests

The open pull requests metric indicates the number of requests that were not addressed, thus being left without attention. This metric also shows the efficiency of the team working on the task collaboratively.

In fact, pull requests are request queries shared between team members to exchange ideas and detect potential bottlenecks. Remaining open pull requests usually drive idle time and result in delays or disruptions in the working schedule.

By keeping an eye on open pull requests, the business executives can spot the true bottlenecks, in line with eliminating negative factors on time, driving more balanced resource allocation, controlling the speed of delivery, and sticking to quality requirements.

Throughput

This metric is intended to showcase the whole work output and commonly covers the number of tasks, epics, features, corrected errors and bugs, as well as the ready (written or tested) pieces of code that are ready for production.

How Can Software Development Metrics & KPIs Improve Your Bottom-Line Results?

Knowing what software development KPI metrics are, now let’s see how to improve your project management. By using software development KPIs, project managers and shareholders can:

• Go for more effective project management and planning
• Set the right priorities for every project
• Spot bottlenecks and identify breaches on time.

Effective Project Management And Planning

When used in the right way, software development metrics can help you easily identify the current progress of your project. Focusing on the data about the current team’s performance makes it possible to provide accurate project estimates.

Moreover, accurate figures of software development speed and efficiency help the project manager to easily address overtime, stick to optimal workload levels, track the overall progress, and effectively communicate any arising issues. Ultimately, this helps to elevate performance and qualitatively improve team collaboration and performance.

Accurate Work Prioritization

Software development performance metrics are the core element of accurate work prioritization. By using KPI metrics for all-around analysis, it’s much easier to understand if you need to remake the sequence of tasks when drafting the project or not.

For an instance, insufficient customer satisfaction driven by low-quality software updates could be a result of insufficient regression testing. This might as well be a signal that your team has an excessive focus on releasing new features rather than their quality.

Bottlenecks and Breaches

When it comes to identifying problems, the sooner it is done the better, the easier, and less pricey it’s to address them and do the troubleshooting.

Tracking the above-mentioned 13 software development metrics and KPIs in outsourcing makes it possible to provide a 360-degree view of the project performance, making it easier to spot bottlenecks and address issues in a timely manner.

Now What?

Now, when you know all about the most critical software development metrics and KPIs in outsourcing, maybe it’s time to test them on a real dedicated development team? Feel free to contact the Intellectsoft team, we will be more than happy to answer your questions.

Not sure where to get started? Here, at Intellectsoft, we are serving 20+ different industries to empower companies with the most innovative solutions and cutting-edge technologies.

Looking how to improve your performance across any of the above-mentioned KPI metrics? Now you’re finally in the right place! Please feel free to talk to our experts and find out more about the topic and how your business can start benefiting with the Intellectsoft team today!

The post Top 13 Software Development Metrics and KPIs in Outsourcing  appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.

In its turn, McKinsey shows that cloud data migration assists in capturing value, or reaching successful transformation, winning scaling, and accelerated innovation. But what is this digital know-how everybody talks about?

In essence, cloud migration means the situation when you can refer to the Internet resources and facilitate storing and using your information.

Basically, that’s the typical thing we already do in our social media and mailing accounts in our routine lives.

Nevertheless, shifting corporate data is more complex than checking your Facebook timeline. Thus, incorporating cloud migration into your company can be accompanied by numerous risks and challenges. Check our guide to foresee and deal with them in advance!

What Is Cloud Migration?

In essence, the process of migrating to the cloud involves moving elements, information, and applications. The arrival point is the cloud computing environment, or a particular pool of computer services available on the Internet, ensuring that you can reach your data on purpose directly.

This new storage is useful from the standpoint of providing direct access without the need to set the application up and store it on your computer. It’s just like borrowing a book from a library without the need to buy it.

Mostly, the departure point for migrating to the cloud is the old legacy infrastructure or local on-premises server. The process resembles moving to a more spacious apartment — including all the complex preparation and packaging needed, journey completion, and reaching a more comfortable future life that was worth all this effort.

Like in this real-life example, some things may be left behind during cloud migration or modified on the way. Moreover, you can pick online or offline connectivity, depending on the complexity of the process.

All these things contribute to the high flexibility and adaptivity of this strategic move.

Cloud Types

Basically, these exist 3 main types of cloud you can use:

• Public cloud, or the most common type. This is the computing environment that is owned by a third-party vendor. You can use it for free or pay for what you accessed only. Another advantage of this type is the presence of constant updates.
• Private cloud, or the most secure type. You, as an organization, totally control the cloud. Because of this, you can customize and protect your data in an advanced way.
• Hybrid cloud, or the most beneficial type. This type connects the peculiarities of public and private clouds to ensure the most effective storage for different data types.

Transfer Types

Depending on the data composition and the purpose of the transfer, migrating to the cloud may have 3 types:

• From a local server to a public cloud,
• Cloud-to-cloud migration (moving data between clouds),
• Cloud exit: moving information from a cloud back to a local server.

In most cases, service providers deal with the first type. At the same time, the migration between clouds also takes place to capture the advantages of different cloud types.

If you’re interested in getting a more cost-effective technology, it’s better to go for a public cloud that is easy to scale and guarantees pay-for-use only.

On the other hand, the private cloud ensures extra security and control over your data. In this model, you can also get a hybrid cloud solution.

Check our recent blog post to see how this technology can assist data management in the banking sector.

Network Connectivity Types

Cloud migration best practices can happen both online and offline, depending on the database size and its version update.

In some cases, it’s better to apply an old-fashioned method of downloading information to certain hardware and then uploading it to the cloud — especially if you deal with a large outdated database.

Otherwise, it’s OK to rely on the speed and capabilities of the Internet connection.

Strategy Types

While moving data, stick to one of these 5 strategies to ensure the consistency of the process:

1. Rehost (or “lift and shift”). The easiest way to cope with cloud migration risks is to keep your infrastructure the same but host it on a cloud. In this case, you get Infrastructure-as-a-Service, or the situation when a third-party vendor possesses all the maintenance responsibility for the cloud.
2. Refactor. In this case, companies will choose Platform-as-a-Service to run the existing code on the new platform. In this strategy type, your developers can create and manage apps without the need to learn new infrastructure.
3. Revise. This strategy includes partial rewriting of the existing code base before moving it to the cloud.
4. Rebuild. In this strategy, the existing code base on the platform. Usually, the process takes time since most applications need not only rewriting but also re-architecturing.
5. Replace. You will build completely new applications and ask for Software-as-a-Service from your third-party vendor or make software that is available and maintained on the Internet.

5 Benefits of Cloud Migration

Across industries (including but not limited to banking, insurance, and healthcare), cloud data migration possesses these advantages:

• Cost. Even though reaching the benefits of cloud migration requires extra time and effort, the result saves you money in the long run. Transferring has its cost, but then you won’t need to pay for storing as much as you did before. This is possible it becomes unnecessary to invest in extra IT operations and support previous physical servers.

• Performance. Dealing with cloud migration problems is better than avoiding them because of the limitless computer resources it provides. In particular, this strategic move accelerates data processing, provides crucial updates, and stores all the essential data in one place. All this contributes to reaching better overall performance and user experience.

• Security. Like a server room needed for your old infrastructure, a specifically designed data center will store your new computing environment. These separate IT resources dedicated to your cloud ensure the security of storing the essential information.

• Legacy infrastructure update. There are parts of software, equipment, and applications that are too old but still usable in most companies. In the given circumstances, even the partial migration to the cloud can save the essential data before the next dramatic update and accelerate the processing and bring back the official vendor support.

• Scalability and flexibility. When your business grows, timely cloud migration will protect it from the pains of getting additional servers, networking tools and putting your workers under the stress of coping with the growing loads of data. You can get as many additional resources as needed anytime from the cloud computing environment.

7 Main Risks of Cloud Computing

1. Everything Works Not as It Should

The workload is the primary factor affecting the price tag for cloud migration. That’s why it’s highly recommended to start the process by defining all the data scope for migration at the very beginning. Also, you can apply horizontal scaling or an in-built feature in the cloud that lets it automatically calculate the extra resources on the way.

2. Not Enough Security

Investing in reliable technologies and true partnership with your third-party vendor is critical, considering the increased sensitivity of your essential data as one of the key cloud migration risks.

3. Transfer Costs Rise on the Way

Be careful with estimating the expenses for migrating to the cloud. Frequently, companies forget to count the cost of migration services and don’t prepare the unified dataset in advance to ensure the predictability of the information transfer. But even if you know your data in advance, application dependencies may appear, complicate the migration, and raise the pricing. Finally, you’ll need to pay regularly for maintenance. All in all, developing a cloud cost optimization plan and saving some money on unexpected expenses is always a good idea to cope with cloud migration problems.

4. Your Data Doesn’t Fit the Cloud

It frequently happens that your current legacy infrastructure is old and turns into a migration nightmare. Thus, be ready to replace or leave behind some elements. Remember: understanding your migration goals is the key to preventing cloud migration risks.

5. Information Is Stuck in the Cloud

If you’re considering the cloud exit strategy, it may happen that you cannot get your data from the cloud computing environment. The situation is relevant for already outdated pieces of information you’d better get rid of, replace, or store on your hardware as an external database.

6. You Have No Idea How to Work With the New Data Storage

With time, you accumulate more information, and the absence of tech talent managing the cloud will become a severe problem for your company. That’s why you need to provide comprehensive training and learn how to deal with your cloud computing environment when new elements appear.

7. The Team Did the Job and Disappeared

Finding a reliable tech vendor is always a sharp question. Make sure your third-party partner reveals true commitment and has all the technical skills needed to develop and maintain the result.

Cloud Migration: Best Practices to Avoid the Risks

In essence, you can mitigate most cloud migration risks with a strategic plan pinpointing the process stages and actors. Moreover, it would be a good thing to work with reliable technologies and set clear migration goals.

Elaborate the Detailed Implementation Plan

While dealing with risks involved in database migration to the cloud, always start with the plan. This way, you can protect yourself from unpleasant surprises and the problems that happen while your essential data is stuck in the middle of nowhere. Here’s the rough plan of how to introduce cloud migration wisely:

• Accumulate everything. Prepare everything you need to move in one place in advance. There are always some pieces of historical and sensitive data that you’ll prefer to keep untouched. In some cases, it’s possible to adopt the easiest lift-and-shift method and move the entire data set unmodified — but that’s not always cost-effective.

• Protect the sensitive parts. Provide data encryption and necessary backups.

• Consult with the tech team on software architecture and costs. This step will protect you from unnecessary delays, let you introduce cost-effective automation where needed, and make the overall process more predictable.

• Hire an external service provider. You need the agency specialized in the cloud migration service exactly to get a satisfactory result.

• Keep a close eye on the migration process. It’s important not to rush, constantly check the stability of the chosen network connection, and guarantee the overall process security.

• Provide the required training. Make sure your IT specialists know how to deal with the new data storage.

• Control the performance and quality. Here, the set of KPIs and constant support from the network provider are needed.

Adopt Trusted Technologies

Here’s the list of platforms frequently used for managing security risks of cloud migration:

• Microsoft Azure Stack. The set of tools includes Azure Migrate, Data Migration Assistant, Database Migration Service, Data Box, and Movere.
• Google Cloud Anthos. With Google, you can rely on Transfer Service, Transfer Appliance, Migrate for Anthos, Migrate for Compute Engine, and BigQuery Data Transfer Service.
• AWS-based Outposts and VMware Cloud. Amazon migration solutions include AWS Migration Hub, Application Delivery Service, Server Migration Service, Database Migration Service, and CloudEndure Migration.

If you’re interested in getting extra control over your expenses, you can also use the calculators offered by these companies (meaning Azure, Google Cloud, and AWS pricing calculators).

Define Your Migration Goals

Ask yourself a question, “Why am I moving to the cloud?” and introduce some awareness of the cloud migration process at the very beginning. Then, elaborate on the list of KPIs that may refer to business performance and overcoming legacy infrastructure problems. Creating and sticking to a consistent security strategy is also a relevant step for dealing with most cloud migration problems.

Check Your Vendor

As for any technology-related process, it’s important to find a true tech partner who will assist and prevent all the possible problems proactively. Here is the short overview of the main principles of collaboration with an outsourcing vendor from our recent blog post:

• Always start by checking the relevant experience and set of technical skills,
• Ask for a pricing list in advance and ensure its transparency,
• Be satisfied with your communication channels and quality during the process,
• Don’t forget to negotiate the security terms,
• Set the clear and fixed scope of work KPIs can control.

Where to Order Reliable Migration in Cloud Computing?

If you need a tech partner who can complete the transfer, maintain your information, and protect you from numerous cloud migration risks, refer to Intellectsoft!

In our set of dedicated development team services, you can ask for cloud data migration.  You will get the total tech support needed with detailed planning, transparent pricing, and easy-to-track KPIs in this solution.

Interested? Welcome to talk to our experts! We’d be happy to discuss your project, provide the most cost-effective solution, and share our experience in mitigating these and other cloud migration problems. Let’s get in touch today!

The post 7 Risks in Cloud Migration and How to Avoid Them appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.

Among the concrete measures taken, these firms tend to hire, contract, redeploy, release, and build skills within the current workforce.

In any scenario, investing in software development enlargement will be a costly incentive. For reducing the expenses, it’s relevant to refer to outsourcing and get external executives for a lower cost.

In the given circumstances, ODC (offshore development center) serves as an upgraded solution to traditional outsourcing and promises better operational management, cost-effectiveness, and IT expertise.

Check our guide on getting all the details relevant to the task of establishing an offshore software development center for your business.

What Is a Dedicated Offshore Development Center

Simply put, ODC (offshore development center) is a separate development office, or a corporate branch, situated in another country.

The greatest thing is access to the vast pool of talents you can hire for an affordable price and without the need to manage operational and support tasks on your own. As one of the best offshoring models, it works for any industry and corporate size — and helps you strengthen the weak positions in your business smartly and reasonably.

With a stable link to the headquarters, offshore software development services hold the brand identity and all the standards and principles of your company.

Because of this, it’s hard to differentiate the result your offshore partner and your in-house team deliver. And all this comes at a reasonable cost, as you’ll get the developers more than twice cheaper than building an extra development office on your own.

Offshore Development Center Models

There are 3 main models under which offshore software development can work:

Full-Time Equivalent (FTE)

In this scenario, you get a team that takes the whole responsibility for the project delivered. It works well if you need to establish long-term cooperation where the exact appearance of tasks changes on the go.

Build Operate Transfer (BOT)

This model means hiring a remote team to deliver project tasks and set up processes from scratch. BOT reveals its best for startups and mid-size companies that request keeping intellectual rights over the product made by the offshore software development center.

Mixed Scenario

In this model, you can hire extra IT specialists who will complete the tasks not envisioned at the beginning of your cooperation. The more dynamic your project is, the more relevant this scenario is.

Moreover, an offshore development center can operate on a contractor or customer basis. For the contractor model, you send your requirements to the team, and it completes them as the set of technical and managerial tasks.

In the customer ODC model, the remote team concentrates on coding, while the main office handles the rest of the tasks. Picking the exact model depends on the scope of tasks you have.

The Difference Between Offshore Development Centers and Outsourcing

Firms frequently choose between simple outsourcing and offshore software development services. In the first case, you hire third-party executors in any location to deliver your project, while the offshore development center is the self-managed team situated in another country.

Here are 4 main differences between these two models:

1. The level of dedication. Software engineers who are interested in product excellence tend to choose offshore software development to work. In contrast to developers working on an outsourcing basis, they get a deeper understanding of the corporate service and manage to commit more to the things they do.
2. Costs for scaling. Outsourcing is normally a cheaper option, but offshore development centers are cost-effective to expand your business smartly. The price is higher, but the return on investment justifies this slight overpayment. For more information on fundamental outsourcing pricing models available, check this blog post.
3. Control over the team. If you hire a sole developer, outsourcing gives you a sufficient level of control over the executor. But offshore development centers provide you with more effective tools for successful team management.
4. Access to tech talents. You can dedicate time and collect experience to differentiate a good developer from a bad one while relying on the outsourcing model. In the offshore software development center, you’ll have a service provider with already established connections to the best IT specialists in the country. You don’t need to search for them on your own.

The Typical Structure of Offshore Development Centers

• Software engineers
• QA engineers
• Back-end developers
• Front-end developers
• Web designers
• UI/UX designers
• Technical writers
• Project Manager / Team Lead
• Account Manager

What’s important: offshore IT services won’t need operational officers. All the accounting and HR management is taken on the shoulders of your service provider.

That’s why you can free your head from the micromanagement hassle and concentrate on strategic tasks and vision elaboration.

6 Key Offshore Development Center Benefits for Your Project

• Cost-saving. The solution is always more affordable than enlarging your in-house team. At the bare minimum, you get tech talents from the country with lower hourly rates.
• Same branding. Offshore development services need your corporate policy and standards to ensure the result is compliant with your core brand.
• Domain expertise. The tech talents hired will possess the narrow expertise needed for the particular tasks your in-house team lacks. And so, you’ll get the cost-effective corporate branch that will strengthen your company.
• High flexibility. Offshore software development operates under a flexible pricing model, meaning you’ll pay for the services needed and easily hire new team members once your project starts scaling.
• Cost-effective infrastructure. You’ll get an offshore office with all the facilities and equipment needed. Moreover, operational management is included in the offshore development center service by default.
• Technical support. The offshore software development center guarantees constant technical assistance during the whole project delivery. Being interested in an excellent result, the team is always reachable and collects all the knowledge needed to manage the problems fast and accurately.

The Checklist of Setting Up Successful Offshore Development Centers

1. Clarify your needs

Select the exact location you want to enter to clarify for yourself the cultural specifics of your target audience and the technical skills needed for your product. The exact project requirements can be vague, as the service provider will negotiate the project scope and get the executives required only.

2. Do your research to find a good vendor

Unfortunately, not each firm can offer the full scope of services needed for offshore software development. That’s why it’s important to get a provider who possesses expertise in this exact service to save you time and nerves in the long run. While picking the vendor, consider the portfolio, testimonials, and English proficiency, among other subjective factors.

3. Make sure the provider knows the local market

The key to success in establishing an offshore development center is getting local tech talents in the area you’re interested in. This way, you’ll get a team with a deep understanding of your target audience in terms of its cultural and social specifics.

4. Make costs flexible

You’ll pay only for services needed in the offshore development center model and get the bill with detailed descriptions and transparent pricing.

4. Get legal support

For signing the contract, you’ll need your lawyers. Get the ones who know the national laws and can introduce the best terms in your agreement with the service provider.

5. Recruit and establish an office

Either together with your service provider or on your own, get the office space where your team will work. Also, elaborate and negotiate the candidate profile, the team size, and the equipment needed.

6. Interview the candidates

Make sure you can see the people you hire in your own eyes and agree on each team member who will work for you. This is important since the team is an integral part of your company.

7. Agree on the operational management

Decide on accounting, HR payroll, salaries, and other important terms on which your offshore development center will function. Your service provider will manage everything in the future, but you need to negotiate an accurate environment.

For more useful tips, check our recent blog post on how to build effective collaboration with an outsourcing vendor.

When Does It Make Sense to Invest in Offshore Software Development

Not each business needs offshore IT services. At the same time, their advantages are suitable for any industry and business size — that’s why establishing your own offshore development center may become necessary anytime.

Condition #1. You Need Engineers with Narrow Expertise

Getting a new in-house team member is tough once you know whom you need. This way, getting talented developers offshore is a fast and accurate solution. Once you refer to the service provider, you articulate the tech stack and the technology needed, and your tech partner finds the exact specialists that can deliver the result.

Condition #2. You Need to Scale Fast

The offshore development center service solves the problem of hiring several talented specialists at once for further business expansion. This way, you can get developers native to the new market you’re about to enter.

Condition #3. You Need to Delegate the Project

Hiring an offshore development center is the best way to guarantee the excellent delivery of the project you’ve been working on and concentrate on more important business tasks.

Working as a unified team highly interested in your corporate good, they will invest all their effort and tech expertise in the job done.

Condition #4. Project Security is Your Key Concern

Since offshore development centers operate as the corporate branch, the executives share the security standards applied in your firm. You will sign an NDA with the team and put it in a physically secure office after hiring.

Best Locations to Set Up Offshore Development Centers

Ukraine

Ukraine is considered as the top choice for setting up an offshore development center, as the experience of Grammarly, Samsung, and BigCommerce shows.

With professional education and numerous IT companies to get relevant experience, Ukrainian tech talents are highly valued in the world. Many of them join in-house teams in the companies situated in the USA and Europe, while the rest prefer to stay in the country and work in an offshore development center.

India

This Asian country is known for cheaper pricing and numerous centers already established. These factors make this location attractive for companies like Google, Adobe, and IBM. However, getting a reliable vendor is tough in India since the average service quality level is lower than in Ukraine. Moreover, the latter country doesn’t possess that striking cultural differences and that big timezone gap.

China

As the second popular Asian country for outsourcing services, China is steadily getting more clients requesting offshore development services. You can consider this option seriously too, especially if you’re aiming at expanding to the local market.

Romania

This Eastern European country is the choice for companies like Nokia, Microsoft, and Intel. Romanian vendors have a reliable reputation, so you can request their services too.

Find a Reliable Partner for Offshore Development Services: Ask Intellectsoft for Help

Since software development outsourcing is a risky incentive, your offshore development center should have a reliable service provider. Generally, the lack of trust, cultural miscommunication, and insufficient control are the main obstacles to fruitful cooperation with a chosen vendor. That’s why the step of getting a true tech partner is so crucial.

If you’re searching for a company capable of offering reduced operational expenses, possesses a pool of tech talents, can introduce flexibility in pricing and scalability, and guarantees true devotion to your project, we can help.

We, at Intellectsoft, assist companies of different sizes and working in different industries with our outsourcing services. Check our option to request a dedicated development team and talk to our experts to find out more about the offshore dedicated center solution. Let us be your true tech partner who will help your business to start benefiting in the long run!

The post The Basic Principles of Setting a Dedicated Offshore Development Center appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.

For example, as Deloitte Insights reports, the digital supply chain enhances the traditional model but brings in new challenges in the case of improper implementation. In this context, a proper product discovery process is the solution that minimizes such risks.

Product discovery is the process aimed at establishing a sustainable link and bringing true confidence in the products you make especially while collaborating with an outsourcing software development team.

In this post, we’ll describe what this activity is and provide a step-by-step guide for you to implement it in your company.

What Is Product Discovery?

In essence, the process of product discovery stays at the heart of any customer-centric approach.

In practice, it’s a flexible period during which you and your outsourcing team concentrate on finding the right thing to do without considering how to build it at the moment.

Through a given number of iterations, this way to discover new products unlocks the link between your product and its right audience.

In addition, this time is needed to bring more confidence into the concept and not lose its sense during actual development stages.

There are two main dimensions to define discoveries in products:

1. Problem space. Providing the set of problems linked to research and alignment.
2. Solution space. The outstaffing team searches for the solution through creation, ideation, validation, and refinement to comprehend the users’ problem accurately.

Among these two types of activities, your partner team should dedicate the most time to the problem space, or the process of prioritizing, defining, and detailing the complete set of problems your users experience.

This is needed to provide the substantial groundwork for understanding the real scope and intensity of their “pain.” In simple terms, it’s all about the disciplined methodological seeking for getting the deepest understanding of the users’ problems.

How Long Should the Discovery of Products Last?

There is no given amount of time needed to do the thing right. In reality, the stage of discovering new products frequently goes in parallel with the product delivery activities, connected with actually building the product.

In this case, product discovery activities happen every time something goes wrong with the product understanding.

To give you a concrete recommendation here, you should participate in the process as long as needed to become confident about making the right product.

What Is a Discovery Workshop?

The discovery workshop is the preparation stage for creating a new product. Basically, this is the meeting where defining and planning activities happen between a company and its outsourcing partner. The common process involves:

• determining the validity of the idea,
• setting the full scope of the project,
• describing the core functionalities,
• making considerations on preventing issues,
• defining success indicators,
• planning the production.

As you can see, most of the things done refer to the product discovery process. That’s why each meeting here can be a discovery workshop.

Generally, the discovery workshop meeting involves a value-producing team, budget holders, and holders of mission-critical assets. In practice, these roles can be played by different specialists in your company.

Who Should Be Present during the Product Discovery Workshop

There are three main groups needed at any meeting under the discovery workshop category:

• Team members who are directly involved in the product discovery (core lead);
• Fellow product teams who can occasionally participate and bring in some fresh ideas on the given process stage (collaborators);
• Visionaries who check the conclusions made align with the corporate mission (supporters).

The exact team roles in your company of these people can be different, but the presence of all these three groups is crucial for elaborating the complete picture.

For example, you can invite a Customer Support and COO during the problem space stage, but find the exact solution together with the CEO and development team. It depends on your product scope, team size, and how well you know your target audience.

6 Key Steps to Define Discoveries of Products

As we’ve mentioned above, there is the problem space and the solution space for the discovery of products. In this section, we’ll describe in detail which 6 activities happen there.

1. Alignment (Product Space)

In the alignment stage, the role of a Product Manager becomes critical. This team member is responsible for clearly articulating the importance of product discovery, expected outcomes, and when and why certain team members are needed.

Otherwise, the overall product discovery process makes no sense from the very beginning.

Persistence and trust are the most challenging things at this stage. It’s crucial to distinguish the corporate aims, personal ambitions of each team member, and the real-life problems of your audience.

It’s the task of the Product Manager to reach not total agreement but compromise on the commitment to investigate the real customer pain.

2. Research (Product Space)

Once the product discovery team is set up and all the roles are clarified, the research of user problems starts. Your team members should ask as many Why-questions about the challenges your users face as possible at this stage.

Here, the presence of customer support is highly valuable as these employees talk to your clients every day and have tons of observations about their pain. Think of other contact points with your customers, and invite those workers too.

Basically, even a room made in a hotel can share a lot about your guests’ pains once invited to a discovery workshop meeting.

In methodological teams, you can pick among behavioral, qualitative, quantitative, and attitudinal research techniques. Combine them in a way that suits your product discovery aims the most.

In the end, the more people, questions, and methods you involve, the closer you come to the truth.

3. Ideation (Solution Space)

The ideation stage opens the solution space in your product discovery. It’s crucial to maintain the broad picture achieved at the problem space now not to fall into serving corporate ambitions.

Here, your ability to arrange effective brainstorming sessions is crucial. Frequently, they turn into regular department meetings where the loudest team member speaks a lot, nobody argues with the CEO, and most of the crowd is too lazy to talk.

As a Product Manager, you need to create a comfortable environment for people to share their ideas freely. They shouldn’t criticize each other and wait for your final decision.

Of course, you can try clustering identical ideas and voting, but turn this meeting into a creativity-and-smartness competition. Brainstorming means elaborating the articulated ideas together, not fighting to become the winner of a game.

4. Creation (Solution Space)

Building a prototype is a pragmatic way of turning your ideas into real-life situations. At this stage, focus on simulating the experience and consider it as the method of idea validation that happens out of your conference room.

All the convergence and divergence activities are important here, meaning the constant involvement of the development team in making the necessary steps timely and elaborating the product steadily.

5. Validation (Solution Space)

After making a working prototype, the idea elaborated requires validation from the standpoint of resource allocation. Simply put, it should prove to be good enough to dedicate the time, money, and workforce needed for its implementation.

Also, you should discover that product change since the initial planning is not dramatic. It’s high time to come back to the fundamental questions asked during the problem space stages to establish the sustainable link between the idea elaborated and the observed customer pains.

The final aim of validation is strengthening the confidence in the need for making the right thing chosen.

6. Refinement (Solution Space)

Finally, the results you obtained after the discovery work done need refinement. It means polishing the concept and making it easy to execute by all the team members involved in making the product.

That’s the final stage of collecting everything you’ve found on the way of product discovery and putting it together in a shiny product.

Does My Business Really Need Product Discovery?

In reality, all product teams discover their products to a certain extent — the problem is not knowing how the process works and not digging deep enough to touch the users’ hearts actually. Our experts would be happy to teach you!

We, at Intellectsoft, provide a set of software development solutions to companies worldwide. Also, we empower corporate workforces with innovative approaches. Let us help your Product Manager guide your team with our product discovery platform!

Talk to our experts to get the consultation on the product discovery peculiarities and arrange the date of your discovery workshop.

If you want to check our work, you can find the results of our workshops in the recent blog posts on digital health strategy and about the webinar for proactive retailers. Let’s discover your great products together no matter what industry you are in!

The post How Product Discovery Can Make You Proud of Your Products appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.

From a simple and effective method of saving costs, outsourcing now is a perfect chance for business development. According to PwC research, along with hiring the best talents of any industry worldwide, companies are looking for the valuable profits of multisourcing.

Divided by the countries, industries, and companies’ strategies, outsourcing now is a complex type of business. It provides smarter suppliers, improved automation, and a long-term relationship between the company and vendors.

However, along with the various benefits of this option, it also has a lot of pitfalls businesses need to consider before starting implementing an outsourcing service.

In this article, we will cover the basic things to know and effective tips for effective outsourcing vendor management.

Things to Consider Before Partnering Up with an Outsourcing Company

It goes without saying that any business has its own goals to achieve and weak points to develop. This is why considering the outsourcing vendor becomes a real challenge for most companies nowadays.

IT outsourcing companies, for example, need to demonstrate a deep knowledge of the specific software, when a company in a certain industry requires experienced partners who are aware of the latest trends related to their field and services.

But what should you know before choosing an outsourcing partner?

Experience of the Outsourcing Vendor in Your Industry

The global market size of outsourced services has skyrocketed to $92.5 billion and is expected to reach $100 billion by 2025, according to Statista.

With such a huge potential presented by the outsourcing market, more and more companies of different sizes and various industries started providing outsourcing services to companies abroad.

In such a competitive area, the employees try to find the exact organization which possesses deep experience in the current industry.

Without it, there is a high risk of getting poor quality of services, and great losses on time and investments. As a result — you’ll need the contract with a new outsourcing vendor and start the project from scratch once again.

Checking the real experiences of the outsourcing vendor can greatly assist in hiring professional developers that are aware of the projects and trends of your industry.

Pricing Questions for the Services

It’s essential for the outsourcing vendor to provide a clear pricing list for the services provided and the general steps needed for the project to be successfully completed.

However, sometimes it happens that providers may hide some expenses for making more attractive offers. As a result, you will get a great discouragement after getting some unexpected costs that weren’t listed before, or the payments for services you didn’t use at all.

To prevent that, make sure the outsourcing provider is honest and clear with the services and pricing policy in the contract. Otherwise, the partnership will be doomed.

Communication Channels Quality

To establish the most effective workflow, the outsourcing companies should also provide you with a clear plan of your communication.

According to Clutch, communication between the company and outsourcing vendors is one of the most critical challenges for this business.

The prior outsourcing process is mostly related to technical tasks, including accounting, IT services, and digital marketing. That is why communication with the developers is a key component of fruitful cooperation.

To ensure the outsourcing partner will provide you with effective results, agree on the communication channels that will be comfortable for both parties.

Security of the Outsourcing Services

Usually, outsourcing vendors act as the employee source for various companies, which can put your company at risk of losing valuable information or other intellectual property.

To minimize these, a provider should guarantee the safety of your data and software.

Additionally, including the privacy policy to the contract, and try to cover all the possible risks with it. Make sure the outsourcing vendor takes full responsibility for the confidential data control to reduce the risks of it being shared with third parties.

Location of the Services

According to the parties’ location, there are different types of outsourcing to consider:

• Onshore outsourcing. That type refers to the vendors located in the same country as the company partner.
• Nearshore outsourcing. This type refers to the partners located in close time zones. For instance, the nearshore location for the US outsourcing vendors would be Mexico or Canada.
• Offshore outsourcing. This type implies outsourcing to far-away countries with a considerable difference in time zones. A great example of this for the US would be Central Eastern Europe (CEE) outsourcing countries.

For sure, the CEE countries have already proven their high-quality service performance with the vast number of IT outsourcing companies.

One of the leading countries that provide the high-educated and skillful talents that will help you to develop your products at the highest level.

At the end of 2021, the software engineering workforce is expected to increase to over 220,000, according to Medium.

So far Ukraine remains one of the leading IT outsourcing countries to consider because of the numerous talent pools and respective companies located in the biggest cities such as Lviv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, and Kyiv.

Tips to Build Successful Collaboration with Outsourcing Vendor

To find the best candidate from the list of numerous outsourcing companies, you should follow a well-planned strategy that covers your main goals, needs, and expectations for your future outsourcing partner.

To ensure you’ll get the most of your outsourcing process, here are some really effective tips to consider while looking for your next vendor.

#1 Find Out the Clear Scope of Work

Before starting any project, it’s essential to figure out what exactly your company needs and what you expect to get from the outsourcing team of developers.

#2 Establish the True Potential Of Your Potential Vendors

To pick up the best outsourcing company, evaluate their working performance due to the following criterion: skill sets, technical knowledge, awareness of the latest technological trends, experience in solving the challenges (in your industry and in general), etc.

This will help you to find out the real skills of each vendor and its competitiveness among the other candidates.

#3 Discover the Case Studies From the Previous Projects and Clients’ Feedback

Due to the high competitiveness in this area, no business is willing to work with a partner who has a bad reputation on the market or rigs it to get more companies on the client list.

Knowing the real situation of the outsourcing vendor can greatly reduce the risks of the missed deadlines, lost time, money, and human resources for the company.

#4 Discuss the Clear Budget

To make sure you won’t be disappointed with the price list after the project is done, ask your outsourcing company to consult you with the basic plan of the services for your project.

This way you can plan the expenses ahead, won’t spend more than discussed, and find out the exact services you will be provided during the contract period.

Conclusion

Outsourcing vendor management can be a great challenge for companies in any industry. However, knowing all the pitfalls of this process can greatly assist in choosing the right candidate for the cooperation and make the most of it.

Outsourcing a dedicated development team will help you to reduce the costs for the project’s development, hire talented workers and set up a productive workflow within your company.

Our professional team at Intellectsoft, empower various companies and their workforces from different industries with innovative solutions and approaches.

Are you looking for a team of IT talents to perform your project? Talk to our experts and discover more about its effective development and how your business can start benefiting from it right now!

The post Collaboration With an Outsourcing Vendor: Things to Consider and Main Tips appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.

However, that’s not the only one, since more than 70% of respondents say that outsourcing provides an excellent opportunity for different companies to access the talents. 

The reasons why more and more organizations look for software development outsourcing are even more specific. Companies now accelerate the digital transformation, cloud technologies, and innovative solutions to automate the workflow and increase the return on investment (ROI).

However, to have a deep understanding of software development outsourcing, it’s critical to be also aware of the IT outsourcing risks companies can face during their employment.

Here we have covered the main insights about the problems of outsourcing and the ways they can be avoided. Let’s get started!

Types of Outsourcing Software Development and Its Advantages

To start with, outsourcing software development includes different models with specific characteristics. And, though all these have different outsourcing methods, each is targeted at providing the most profitable solution for the various organizations. 

#1 Onsite Outsourcing 

The model is used for employing talented professionals for a certain period of time to work in your company. 

Benefits: This type helps to fill the lack of talents and improve the workflow efficiency inside your office. Besides, there is a great opportunity for the quick integration of a new worker to the existing team of developers. 

#2 Onshore Outsourcing

The type which defines outsourcing of services to a provider within one country. The difference between it and onsite outsourcing is that the employees perform the tasks outside of your company. 

Benefits: This type allows to minimize the expenses for the office space but always keeps the workers engaged with the company project. 

#3 Nearshore Outsourcing

Indicates the outsourcing services that are performed from the country nearby, which offer lower labor costs due to the economical development of a country. 

Benefits: Just like onshore outsourcing, there might be a slight time difference between the countries, which allows establishing a more productive workflow with paying less for the labor.  

#4 Offshore Outsourcing

This type defines the outsourcing services provided from long-distant countries with a considerable time difference.

Benefits: Offshore outsourcing can be one of the most profitable ways for hiring talented employees on a temporary or permanent basis. 

#5 Multisource Outsourcing

This type refers to a mixed way of outsourcing and is commonly used for hiring professional developers around the world. This model is used by different organizations to make the most of the multiple outsourcing providers. 

Benefits: Get the best of the best around the world at a considerable expense for their work is the most common benefit for this type.

And, according to Deloitte, the main reason companies employ outsourcing models is cost-efficiency. After a project or a specific task is completed and the company doesn’t need the additional employee resources, the outsourcing is finished, thus saving the expenses for the permanent workers. 

Potential Risks Related To Outsourcing Software Development

Along with the types of outsourcing, it’s significantly important to find out the risks of outsourcing to be aware of. As a rule, they include:

• Weak management. One of the most common problems of outsourcing is the low management quality. It can lead to poor performance results and poor profit for the company. 
• Untrained staff. The risk of having troubles with a fresh-hired staff from a third-party provider can lead to the huge time and cost loss for teaching a new worker adjusting to the unknown tools and specific software. 
• Outdated skills and technologies. Outsourcing in IT also requires constantly following the trends in this industry to provide the best services to the clients. Without that, the companies will spend investments for getting nothing done at best, or showing poor progress at worst. 
• Hidden costs. The companies usually underestimate the management costs, including various expenses for the relocation, setup, and many other issues, thus getting the poor quality of the work done as a result. Also, they expect to get the ROI in the first year or even less, which is nearly impossible to be completed even by a high-professional vendor. 
• Lack of learning. Software development outsourcing should also include the organization’s learning to ensure the best performance and better prospects for development. A company and the outsourcing supplier should create a sustainable relationship that covers the unified strategy for both in-company and outsourcing talents. This way IT outsourcing risks will be mitigated, and the companies will work on the same wavelength.

All these and lots of other risks related to the technology, skill, or innovative solutions can significantly reduce the outsourcing efficiency for the company from any industry.

Without having all these outsourcing benefits and risks considered, there is a high possibility of losing huge investments, time, and resources. 

5 Ways To Avoid These Risks  

However, all these risks don’t mean outsourcing does nothing for the companies.

According to Deloitte, it still remains one of the most popular ways of getting the same quality of the services done, engaging more talents on demand and significantly reducing the expenses at the same time. 

In general, there are lots of tips to resolve the common problems of outsourcing. Here are the most effective and usable ones: 

Improve the Management Control

As soon as your company decides to employ the onboarding processes, it’s important to establish a reliable connection between your team and the hired IT developers.

Define the communication channels and provide the project details your team has worked with. Remember, the outsourcing process is aimed at helping organizations accomplishing various tasks and projects, not to compete. 

Additionally, divide the tasks and responsibilities of each member of the development team, set up accurate deadlines, and offer the report system for the performance tracking.

Learn the Employees’ Experience

Before you start working on a permanent basis with your onboarding team, make sure their skills level perfectly fits the tasks and the criteria you expect they will perform in further.

For this purpose, outsourcing experts suggest the trial outsourcing periods for checking the performance of the team. This way it becomes easier to check whether the vendor’s outsourcing services can be used for your company projects. 

Furthermore, to minimize the software development risks you can also send the trial task to be done for a set period of time.

After it’s completed, you can estimate the potential of your workers according to the work done and whether this team is worth onboarding. 

Provide the Requirements for the Technologies Employed

Any company has a concrete set of tools used for completing various projects, communicating with the departments and team members, etc.

If you’re planning to employ any type of onboarding for your company, it’s critical to make sure that both teams of developers use the same software for the performance of the various tasks. 

To ensure that, provide an opened access to the list of tools and software needed for the work. By using the united set of tools, the team members can easily share and access different materials without converting them. 

Analyze the Front to Back Costs

The outsourcing costs could also have some hidden points companies don’t really pay attention to.

However, according to PwC, this can greatly influence the quality of the services performed, as not only the developers’ work should be covered but also the management and coordination, hardware and software updating, inventory coverage, and logistics should be included in these costs. 

Outsourcing is a dynamic process that requires constant changes, updates, and improvements. With having all the costs covered, it becomes much easier to cover software development risks and provide an effective outsourcing process to your company. 

Enhance the Organizational Learning

Last but not least, outsourcing software development risks are also connected to the lack of communication and learning between different departments.

The reason for this is that lots of companies don’t know how to provide effective learning or simply give up on this process, passing the responsibility to the outsourcing vendors.

As a result, the first months of cooperation are full of misunderstandings and low quality of the work done. 

However, by incorporating organizational learning, companies can easily keep the in-company and onboarding workers aware of the latest updates in the company.

Besides, large corporations like Apple, Google, and Amazon have been using these training sessions during different workshops to improve the skills of each developer, enhance the team spirit and build the managing skills of every participant.

This simple type of training has led to performance improvement and better workflow organization as well.

Conclusion 

To sum up, software development outsourcing has pretty many risks to consider, which might be challenging at first. However, after a deep understanding of the onboarding processes, companies can simply overcome these problems and get the most of this process implementation. 

Needless to say, that the key component of any software development is having a dedicated development team. We, at Intellectsoft, know this as no one else does. Our team is here to empower companies and their workforces with innovative solutions and approaches. 

So, if you’re looking for an experienced team that can help you with your project or idea development, talk to our experts right now, and discover how your business can start benefiting from it today!

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