Software Development Outsourcing to Eastern Europe: Why is this a Great Direction?
Do you need some software development that will expand your business? Great! See what to look for!
If you are here, it means that you have shown a specific direction on the map. So you probably have strong arguments in favor of outsourcing software development to Eastern Europe.
You probably also have doubts or lack of confirmation of a certain issue. It is completely natural when you transfer software development to another person who is not directly employed in your company.
Please take a look at this blog entry regarding the 5 most common doubts that may arise before outsourcing. However, if you have never had contact with software development nearshoring before, please read differences between nearshoring and offshoring.
What are the most common outsourcing services
From all the activities that a company has to undertake in order to develop, almost all of them can be outsourced to an offshore vendor. It depends on the needs of a company, the size of it and the number (or scope) of projects. When it comes to the most popular outsourcing services, we can distinguish:
Software development
It deals with creating fundamentals of operating systems for computer programs. Delegating software development to IT outsourcing companies you hand over the process of building, coding, documenting, testing, improving and maintaining a software product.
Web & mobile app development
Outsourcing web or mobile app projects is a huge support on the production site. Web development includes creating interactive webpages while iOS and Android development are about building mobile apps for given operative systems.
Marketing assistance
Digital marketing can get you an insight into how to reach your customers and effectively measure their engagement. Marketing campaigns can be run on different channels or several at the same time. Marketing services include SEO, Social Media, Email marketing, Content creating or Paid advertising.
Customer service
If a company lacks expertise, resources or finance for customer support or lead generation it can also be easily outsourced. Due to the highly competitive market, companies face difficulties to find a way to sell their products. What they need is a well-coordinated sales strategy offered by professionals in this field.
Operational outsourcing
Outsourcing business processes may be focused on the company’s accounting, payroll management, legal services, recruitment procedures, and even booking of appointments. Here, outsourcing companies
QA support
Not every company has a well-developed Quality Assurance team. Qualified Testers are crucial for any IT project as it needs to be screened for bugs and functionality issues. That’s why QA support is placed among the most common outsourcing services.
Benefits of IT outsourcing
Access to talented developers from all around the world allows companies to deliver high-quality products without limiting to a certain technology. Outsourcing provides companies with expertise from every needed field.
Significant cost-reduction helps to save in-house resources for emergency situations and provides conditions for a company to develop.
Ease of scalability of a project eliminates any problems connected to expanding its scope and requirements. The size of the outsourcing team can be easily adjusted without you having to find, hire and onboard additional developers.
Focus on primary business processes ensures your business grows in every direction. Delegating a huge part of the responsibility to a third-party provider saves your company time for building the brand.
Improvement in customer service attracts more customers to your business and helps to build the company’s reputation on the market. Thanks to the right customer approach you can expand your client base and reach more leads.
Increased efficiency helps outperform competitors. The support for the development and faster production makes your business superior to those who aren’t aware of IT outsourcing benefits.
The time zone differential makes your business runs 24/7. Deciding on outsourcing services from a company located in a different time zone gives you the benefit of round-the-clock business processes.
Nearshore or Offshore Software Development in Eastern Europe: What is the difference?
One thing is certain, you need support. Perhaps you want to create a project from scratch, you need developers to create some selective part of the project, or you need dozens of programmers for a huge undertaking.
If you already understand the differences between nearshore and offshore, it is a good time to face your current needs with solutions that will help you.
If you have found that you are choosing nearshoring and need 6 programmers for the project, the next step will be sifting software houses.
How do you find great developers in Eastern Europe?
This is an extremely time-consuming process, but if we are talking about a project that is crucial for your company, there is no mistake in the selection of people.
There are many roads today, but the guideline that should lead you to the right people is the experience. A company that shares its experience and shows clients it works with shows that it has nothing to hide, is transparent and knows its job.
Therefore, you should first determine at this stage:
- The industry in which the project will be created,
- the number of developers you need,
- check portfolio, a number of published case studies on their website,
- inspect if they did a similar project to yours,
- check how fast they respond to your inquiry,
- examine if the software house comes from a country that is in the European Union,
- check what was the biggest project they created,
- check if they create solutions that take into account the latest technologies,
- and last but not least, check if they care about your business relationship and your current needs or just about your project.
Finding programmers is very easy. Almost.
There is a lot of talk about a shortage of programmers in the world. But there is only a lack of advanced programmers, juniors are in abundance. If we are talking about a Fintech project that requires stable security, it is worth trusting professionals and looking deeper. Such programmers are unfortunately not easily available.
Which countries considering outsourcing of software development?
Experienced programmers who have extensive knowledge of blockchain or machine learning earn a lot in the US or England. Here – Poland, Romania or Bulgaria can be a great alternative.
Pros of outsourcing software development to Eastern Europe companies
According to the division used by the Statistical Department of the United Nations, Eastern Europe includes:
- Poland – 658 companies
- Belarus – 225 companies
- Czech Republic – 75 companies
- Moldova – 49 companies
- Bulgaria – 156 companies
- Russia – 258 companies
- Ukraine – 1001 companies
- Slovakia – 35 companies
- Romania – 249 companies
- Hungary – 71 companies
Information taken from: Clutch.co
For the purposes of this blog entry, we have identified three countries that are the most common nearshore, offshore and outsourcing software development direction.
These are countries that have a large number of development companies and are in the European Union. These are two conditions that we adopted for the purposes of the text.
Belonging to the European Union
All of these countries must comply with EU laws and regulations, including specific guidelines for strictly outsourcing services. These three countries are developing very well, their political situation is stable and the economy is growing. Restrictions on EU law regarding the provision of services are very rigoristic. Therefore, all companies directly related to IT outsourcing – must have great lawyers who are constantly monitoring EU legislation.
Great level of universities that educate programmers
Poland has for many occupied a high 3 or 4 place in rankings when it comes to development skills. For comparison, Romania recently took 16th place in the TopCoder ranking. The difference is large, perhaps it is due to the extremely high level of mathematics and physics in Polish schools.
Let’s talk in English, okay?
Considering the largest ranking in the world from 2018, it appears that Poland is 13th from 88, Bulgaria 25th and Romania 16th. This is an extremely important aspect, communication is not only about matching the methodology of software development.
Finding the right Project Manager who will be the link between the client and the development team is important. It’s also just language skills.
What is the best country to outsource software development?
The answer to this question is trivial – Poland. It is almost a country that is located in the heart of Europe. The huge number of airports that are located in almost every major city makes it simply a well-connected country.
Do you want your project to be created for 24 hours? A good idea!
Appropriate diversity of time zones, which are similar to yours but not identical, means that your project is constantly expanding. This is a fantastic solution. Outsourcing software development to Eastern Europe will be a very good idea.
If you are in Los Angeles now, there is a 9-hour difference between Poland and 6 hours if you are in New York.
Outsourcing Software Development to Eastern Europe: Wrapping up!
Creating a list of all countries from Eastern Europe would be extremely difficult to convey in an accessible form, which is why we chose only three countries. This comparison was intended to give you a general view of the market and programmers who deal with outsourcing software development.
If you are looking for professionals:
- able to communicate well,
- who have the experience, lots of it,
- who will create your project in accordance with the restrictive legal norms of the European Union
- who want to be in constant contact with you
- who are almost culturally identical to you,
Just simply choose outsourcing to Eastern Europe!