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How to Hire Offshore Software Developers: Practical Tips

IT offshoring has been steadily gaining popularity among US-based companies. And it’s only logical: this way, businesses gain additional opportunities for growth, cost optimization, and transformation. Offshore developers can also bring specialized expertise and supplement your team with unique experience and knowledge.  

So, you decided it’s time to cooperate with offshore software developers. What country to choose? Where to find trusted teams? How to ensure that the cooperation will bring the result you are expecting? How to hire offshore dedicated developers? Altamira will answer these questions in this article.

Easiest Ways to Find an Offshore Development Team

Offshore developers are usually interested in new projects, so it won’t be hard to find dozens of possible options for you. It might be a challenge to narrow it down to one team, as you need to find one that is a professional and cultural fit. 

However, using these sources will help you to have a wide list of potential partners whom you will be able to research further and contemplate their case studies and reviews.

Technical Directories

Almost every tech company is present on at least one of these reviewal platforms like Clutch or GoodFirms. They are extremely useful for businesses that are looking for tech partners. There, you can sort companies by different parameters, like technologies, company size, or industry focus; different listings and ratings are also available.  Directories always fight for the quality of the data they provide, so they are bound to double-check and verify all the info the companies share. Clutch, for example, even conducts phone interviews with clients who want to leave a review. 

Google

Yes, it might be too obvious, and hence you may think that it is meaningless, but through basic search requests, you can reach strong offshore developers. Try keywords like “hire offshore developers” or ”offshore software developers”, and Google will bring you dozens of websites with the relevant companies. Probably, you will also find some blog posts or listings of the best offshore developers that are also worth looking at.

Social media & GitHub

It may be a little unorthodox, but you can use LinkedIn, Twitter, and GitHub to pick a team of offshore programmers. The activity of the founders and employees on these platforms may show their engagement in the developer community and their level of expertise if they have their own tech blog. 

Referrals

Do you want to be 100% sure of your new tech partners? You can try to use word of mouth! If you are cooperating with other offshore or outsourcing partners, for example, production companies or digital agencies, ask for advice. Usually, such companies have a list of preferred tech partners that can cover their development needs.

This option is pretty appealing because it’s like you are going through a double filter while establishing a partnership. The company that refers to a tech partner usually feels responsible for suggesting another team. If the team in question does not live up to the expectations, it will backfire on the company. Hence, they always work with reliable offshore developers with excellent performance.

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Hire Offshore Developers, When You Need...

So when should you cooperate with dedicated offshore developers? With the right partner, this type of cooperation might significantly boost the performance of your company. Let’s look through the main benefits of cooperating with offshore developers.

This option is pretty appealing because it’s like you are going through a double filter while establishing a partnership. The company that refers to a tech partner usually feels responsible for suggesting another team. If the team in question does not live up to the expectations, it will backfire on the company. Hence, they always work with reliable offshore developers with excellent performance.

Fast Development

When you delegate your software project to offshore programmers, you get a result much quicker than if you decide to onboard new employees or assemble a brand-new development team. Offshore teams are usually in touch with each other, so they will get to work immediately and won’t need time to synchronize and learn each other’s working styles and habits. 

Specific Experience and Knowledge

Do you want to create a solution that requires unique skills, and knowledge of rare languages, or technologies? If you decide to go and hire offshore developers, you are more likely to find the necessary expertise faster and easier. There are no location restrictions that can become a barrier, and you will be able to start a project faster.

Lower Cost

The most desirable advantage of offshore development is this one. Yes, hiring offshore software developers will cost you less than any other approach to product development. But at the same time, offshore companies usually provide a pretty good software development quality and show a professional approach to communication and delivery.

Focus on Your Other Business Processes

Every company has a lot of business processes going simultaneously: marketing and sales, production, supplying, strategizing… The management may need to focus their attention on other things, while development is still needed. So, hiring an offshore dedicated team will relieve you from the responsibility of software development, while the project will still successfully go on.

Scalability

Offshore developers can help you grow. If you need to upgrade your software or create a new one, and your internal team doesn’t have enough resources for these tasks, offshoring might be the solution. You can augment your IT department with an outstaffed team for a certain time period and gain great results with optimized costs and time spent.

Offshore Software Outsourcing Trends

More and more companies began to appreciate the value that is brought by offshoring. Fortune 500 companies open R&D offices in Eastern Europe and outsource major projects to local offshore programmers. This niche is blooming and rapidly developing. So, what are the current trends here?

Eastern Europe as a top destination for an IT outsourcing

Traditionally, Asian companies dominated the market of outsourcing, with India being the most popular country to hire offshore dedicated developers. But customers start to explore other options as well. 

Eastern Europe has become a hub for thousands of skilled developers. These markets offer quality development with moderate prices, quality development, and flexible and easy-going people that also usually have good English proficiency. Overall, these make Ukraine, Poland, Romania, and other countries in the region so appealing to US companies.

Increased demand for cutting-edge technologies

Modern technologies showed a wide range of new opportunities for business in any field. Artificial intelligence, IoT, blockchain, and other frontier technologies are now widely used to automate, supplement and support huge corporations, as well as small companies all over the world. 

Therefore, the need for skilled offshore programmers in advanced tech is growing, reflecting the global trend. 

Focus on long-time partnerships

Businesses want to find reliable partners who will be walking along with them for years to come. Companies can be sure that a long-time partner will be there to cover them and guide them through new projects. You are already attuned to each other, expectations are clear and every new collaboration is a well-known path.

Importance of offshore partner expertise

Companies that hire offshore developers understand the value of the experience of their partners. Offshore teams haven’t been just executors for a long time: they have a lot of relevant knowledge to offer, and they are actually experts in their field.

So, the biggest value of such cooperation comes when a customer takes into account the suggestions of an offshore tech partner.

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Offshore Development Hourly Rates by Regions

There are a lot of aspects to consider while you are choosing the country to hire offshore developers. It’s the rates that usually dictate the final decision. 

The average hourly rate of developers in the US and Western Europe stays between $50-200, so the companies want to find offshore developers that can offer lower prices. Let’s look through the main offshoring regions. 

Asia

Asia is a well-known provider of offshore services, thanks to the oversaturated market with more than 3 million developers, according to Accelerance. However, this cooperation may be challenging due to significant differences in time zones (for example, there are twelve hours between the US East Coast and China, and 9 and a half with India). Cultural difference also plays a role and may create misunderstandings that will jeopardize the success of the projects.

Africa

Africa is the most rapidly growing region in regard to software development services in the world. The market is expanding and developing, however, it still has pretty low rates and a big talent pool of software developers. African countries are situated in convenient time zones, so there will be enough working hours to conduct communication in real time. Unfortunately, the region is still flagged as politically unstable, and it is still something that may push customers away.

Latin America

Latin America is one of the most popular offshoring destinations in North America. It’s cheaper, it is situated in the same time zones, it’s closer than any other region we are talking about here, and it also has a big number of experts in the IT field. There is a downside too, of course. Developers here aren’t known for strict discipline, so you may encounter a lot of missed deadlines and disorganization in processes. 

Eastern Europe

As we already discussed, Eastern Europe is highly appreciated by North American companies, due to acceptable prices, west-oriented working culture, and high quality of development services. However, some issues may also arise, such as the focus of the developers will be split between different clients.

Ukraine is one of the most popular destinations not only among European countries but in the whole world as well. Google, eBay, Snapchat, Samsung, Oracle, and many other top players open and invest in R&D centers in Ukraine. The country also has a strong IT community itself, with dozens of hubs, communities, and education centers. 

Dedicated Development Team Model in Offshoring

A dedicated team is the best cooperation model when your goal is to create or work on a big software piece, with dozens of features, integrations, and implementation of top-notch technologies. For example, if you need to create a custom ERP or upgrade your current POS to a new level, then a dedicated team is the right choice for you.

So, what are the advantages of a dedicated team?

  • Cost-effectiveness: if you hire offshore dedicated developers, you have a great chance to save around 10-20% of the final costs, especially if you compare it with the in-house development or the fixed price outsourcing model;
  • Flexibility: usually, you are charged with a defined budget for the work of dedicated offshore developers, but the scope may be changed and adjusted to the processes if needed.
  • Deep immersion: a dedicated team is fully engaged in the project, their focus is fully on your business, hence, the expertise is cultivated and multiplied specifically for your company’s needs.
  • Control over development: dedicated team model presumes more leverage for customers in the main decisions like staffing, management, etc.; a client may manage the team itself, but we suggest you hire a dedicated manager, so you can focus on more global strategies and tasks.
  • Access to the best developers: you can handpick the members yourself and assemble a dream team for your specific project; offshore companies usually provide you with the list of available candidates along with their CVs.

Our Success Stories

For more than a decade, Altamira has cooperated with dozens of clients as an offshore software development partner. Here we collected the most impressive study cases of such projects.

CTRL Golf

Ctrl Golf is an innovative application for golf enthusiasts who want to improve their playing skills and reach a new level. The app became a virtual mentor for players. It works the next way: the players put on a golf sleeve with the IoT sensors, and while swinging, the sensors read and transmit the movement data to the application. Next, the application gives customized suggestions to the player on how to improve skills. 

Our client, based in Texas, US, delegated the development of the Android app to us. Our involvement included:

  • building Android applications from scratch;
  • integration with the IoT sensors;
  • creating custom UI/UX design;
  • quality assurance.

HRDPrint

HRDPrint, a wholesale printing company based in New Jersey, US, came to us with a request to upgrade their current website and create a customized order management system. Lockdown restrictions pushed the company to improve its online customer experience and structure digital activity, and we were glad to contribute to this goal.

Our project consisted of the following actions:

  • implementing the order builder, so HDRPrint customers were able to visualize their orders;
  • create an easy and user-friendly order management system;
  • optimize payment processing features;
  • develop and integrate accounting system for sales department;
  • improve UI/UX design.

In Conclusion

Cooperation with offshore developers is a good way to reach your goals and save costs, extend your business capacities, and access new resources. There are a lot of regional markets, so any company may find the most suitable partner after sufficient research. 

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FAQ

What is the difference between offshoring, nearshoring, and outsourcing?

Outsourcing means a process in which a company delegates part of its functions to a third-party vendor. Nearshoring means delegating work to nearby countries (e.g., if a German company hires a Slovakian company) and offshoring means cooperating with countries located far away (e.g, a US company hires a Slovakian company).

What is the best offshoring destination?

The most popular destinations are Eastern Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Each of them has its own pros and cons, so you will need to do additional research to find a perfect partner.

How to find offshore developers?

You can try Google, social media, GitHub, and tech directories like Clutch to find offshore companies. If you have partners in related fields, like digital or design agencies, you may ask them for a suggestion.

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