Outsourcing is regarded to be one of the best ways to save time and money for entrepreneurs, not only in the IT industry. First of all, it provides flexibility, as you might need certain services only for a particular project and therefore avoid hiring permanent employees. Secondly, you are able to get skilled experts every time you require a specific service. Moreover, diversifying your team can increase its efficiency.
While there are many reasons to consider outsourcing as an extension to your business, a lot of questions arise and one of them is simply “how to start?”. Today, we are going to get you through the world of outsourcing and show you what should draw your attention.
Define what exactly your company wants to achieve
Based on that, you must decide whether it’s better for you to hire an individual developer or look for an outsourcing partner. It depends on many factors, such as complexity of the project and work capacity. You can often reduce the time spent on meetings and bureaucracy by cooperating with an individual freelancer, but only if their experience, skills and accessibility satisfy your requirements.
Furthermore, you should consider what type of outsourcing suits your organization best – onshore, nearshore or offshore? The first one refers to the process when you cooperate with a company usually located in the same country. The second one means that your contractor comes from the country neighbouring to yours. The third one equals your business partner being in a very distant location.
While cutting costs by offshoring is a great advantage of this solution, there are more reasons to reconsider, e.g. you should take into account some financial, legal, and cultural factors as well as time zone differences that can potentially affect the cooperation.
Where to look for your outsourcing company?
There are many ways. The most known and kind of an obvious one is Google Search. Although you should pay attention to the keywords you type in so that Google can give you the most relevant results.
You can also use online marketplaces to search for candidates (for example Clutch or, in case of looking for freelancers, Upwork). Don’t forget to ask your colleagues about recommendations and to use your social network to get more testimonials from other entrepreneurs.
The perfect vendor is…
Not easy to find, we’ll give you that! IT project cooperation is often a long-lasting one as results are seen in a long-term. This way is more profitable for many companies. How to find the best business partner and what does it really mean in case of developers? Checking if your candidate or potential company is not only well-experienced but also trustworthy and reliable, is essential to the success of your project.
So, do remember to check the organization’s history: how long it has been present on the market, how many employees are hired and what the dynamics of their growth is.
It is also vital to know what kind of projects they completed before and if they are experienced enough in the type of service you need – you can find that out by checking what skill set their employees have.
The next important factor is communication. If you want to have fruitful collaboration you should get along very well. Excellent language skills and general understanding are substantial, but the right chemistry is warm-welcomed, too.
Before making a final decision, you should check your candidates’ references. Don’t hesitate to ask for testimonials concerning previous projects and find out if they have been cooperating with the same clients for a longer while. If the company, or a selected freelancer, have some case studies to present, get familiar with them: read them carefully and verify. This way you can learn about provider’s credibility and skills.
Check out candidate’s portfolio and pay attention to details as well as to an overview. A portfolio can say a lot about team’s creativity and being up-to-date with the latest technology trends. It’s simply about your impression at this point. Trust your gut feeling, but double check it with data you gained.
How to select a suitable contractor?
One of the best approaches is to go through this difficult task with the help of a Request For Proposal. Describe your organization, project, challenges, budget, timeline and, most important, your idea and technical requirements of the project in one document and deliver it to potential, pre-selected vendors. Once they reply, you can review the candidates based on information you get. Thereby you can compare companies in a transparent way and decide considering all factors and priorities.
It’s easier to start when you know what you need and where to look for it. Once you find the most accurate vendor, you can build business relations which can last for years and result in many success stories.
Congratulations on deciding to outsource your IT services! If you would like to find out more about outsourcing (and nearshoring in particular), visit startnearshoring.com.
