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Offshore Software Development: Reasons Why Outsourcing Is Beneficial For Startups

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Outsourcing| Offshore Software Development: Reasons Why Outsourcing Is Beneficial For StartupsOffshore outsourcing is a popular software development strategy in modern tech. From global corporations to nascent startups, more businesses consider looking for programmers abroad.

As a startup founder, you may be new to outsourcing and wonder why it has been so hyped lately. In this post, we will examine the benefits of choosing offshore mobile application development.

7 Reasons For Startup Owners To Outsource

The impact of outsourcing is especially evident for early-day startups that would otherwise struggle to hire skilled talent or complete their projects. Broadening the talent pool helps you get a fresh perspective on the project, ensure it appeals to international audiences, and, most importantly, cut development costs.

Let’s have a closer look at why startup owners should choose offshore application development services by examining their seven most impactful benefits.

1. Lower development costs

The startup field is highly competitive. According to statistics, out of all new businesses, only 10% make it past the early days. There are a lot of external factors you can’t control – the worldwide economic landscape, the demand for your service, or a powerful competitor that decided to penetrate the market.

To protect themselves from investments with no return, startup owners look for the cheapest ways to bring the project to the market and validate the idea.

The high potential of outsourcing as a cost-saver has to do with lower labor costs outside main tech hubs – US, EU, UK. Take a look at the average software developer salary in some countries worldwide:

  • US – $71,000
  • Germany – $52,600
  • South Africa – $23,750
  • Ukraine – $11,000

Data source: Payscale

The difference in salaries between American and Ukrainian developers is astonishing – thus, hiring professionals from regions with a lower median salary allows business owners to afford complex projects under a reasonable budget.

2. Flexibility

Hiring an in-house team is not the fittest strategy for a nascent startup founder – you will have people depending on you and salaries to pay. In case a project was not as successful as you had hoped, you’ll have to fire team members – that is definitely not a rewarding experience.

Similarly, if a project takes off unexpectedly and you lack the workforce to maintain it, expanding the team and filling in empty spots will be a time-consuming and expensive process.

Choosing outsourcing spares business owners all staffing trouble. Depending on your budget, ambitions, and the project’s performance you can scale the offshore development team up or down in just a couple of hours. Outsourcing teams typically have a pool of developers you can request anytime, without having to spend time on screening, interviewing, and onboarding hires on your own.

3. Higher personal efficiency

Managing a startup team is a full-time job that will not allow focusing on promotion, developing new product concepts, or researching the market. Instead, you will need to troubleshoot corporate misunderstandings, have regular conference calls, fill in tons of paperwork.

Outsourcing helps business owners stay focused on high-priority tasks – be it promotion, product design, or market research. An outsourcing team will be the one to manage the team, deal with taxation papers, and oversee product development.

4. Leveled playground

Small startup owners often struggle as they have to compete against well-oiled teams, with established toolsets, project management, and maintenance frameworks. While a business founder is finding his groove with the team, more experienced competitors build products much faster, maintain them better, are faster and more efficient in client communication.

By outsourcing, you can get experienced developers and project managers on board, while paying a junior developer salary. An offshore mobile application development team typically has years of product development experience, is familiar with the best industry practices and standards. Thus, by choosing to outsource, you decrease the quality gap between you and experienced competitors and ensure high user acceptance rates.

5. International perspective

Other than being a powerful time-and-cost-saver, outsourcing is a reasonable strategic decision for business owners targeting international audiences. By looking for developers abroad, you will be able to get different perspectives on the concept, make sure it resonates with people across the globe, and adopt the best of worldwide software development practices.

Outsourcing gives startup owners a better understanding of whether the product will get traction, which features are necessary according to international developers, and what some ways to market the product abroad will be. As a result, you will be more prepared to promote your product abroad and penetrate new markets.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, startup owners need to be mindful of how they allocate their budget and try to make the most out of every cent. Outsourcing is a lossless way to cut software development costs since you don’t compromise the product’s core features. Other than that, this model gives you flexibility, freedom, and a possibility to do what you do best, entrusting skilled professionals to handle software and mobile application development.

How Much do Software Developers Make in 2019?

StrategyDriven Talent Management Article | How Much do Software Developers Make in 2019?
 
Software developers have always been in high demand, but in 2019 the appetite for developers has just increased as new innovations and applications emerge. With this high demand comes a corresponding rise in salary expectations.

So how much can a software developer expect to make in 2019?

It’s not a simple answer. Not all software development jobs are alike; some are more specialized than others, which is reflected in their pay. But there are so many different types of software development specializations these days that it’s a challenge to keep track of them all and how much they pay.

That’s why we’ve put together a handy table below, with the most common types of software developer roles as of 2019 and what they earn.

StrategyDriven Talent Management Article | How Much do Software Developers Make in 2019?

*All figures based on Ziprecruiter estimates

Notice how in the above chart that the more specialized roles are able to receive a much higher average salary than the more general roles as they get more experience. The outlier seems to be blockchain developers, who receive disproportionately higher starting salaries due to both their rarity, the difficulty of the subject matter, and the current hype surrounding blockchain development.

AI and machine learning developers have similarly high salary prospects. The starting salaries mentioned in the chart are misleading. Actually, only a small percentage of jobs pay at this low range. Salary ranges begin to spike at $78,500 – $91,000 for AI developers (19% of jobs) and $70,500 – $100,499 for machine learning developers (17% of jobs).

The starting salary of cyber security engineers is also misleading. 30% of surveyed cyber security engineer jobs actually begin at the $83,000 to $108,499 range. This reflects cyber security’s vital role in an increasingly digital world, especially in large-scale enterprises with massive amounts of data.

Video game developer salaries in 2019 are also higher than in more general developer roles, however, there is a culture of overwork inherent in the industry which is a definite trade-off for anyone seeking a position in that field.

Note that engineering roles have slight but significant job differences from your standard developer: engineers don’t just code. Software engineers help develop processes and apply engineering principles to solve client needs, which means understanding the big picture and taking a strategic approach. It requires an additional skill set beyond mere programming and is reflected in the salary. The right software engineer will help ensure your development projects don’t fail, which attributes to their high demand and salary requirements.

So there you have it. We hope this chart will be helpful in either choosing a career in software development or switching to a different specialization in mid-career.


About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Shane ZilinskasShane Zilinskas is the Founder and CEO of Los Angeles software development agency ClearSummit, and the Co-Founder and CTO of TuneRegistry, a music rights SaaS platform. He also provides consulting services to startups and enterprise companies. Prior to working in the agency space, Shane built news media backends and part of the FAA’s air traffic control system. He has a B.S. in Computer Engineering from UVA. He has a passion for efficiency and combining the best tech and design to solve complex problems.

Twitter: @clearsummitapps