The field of software development is diverse. Software development isn’t all about the code. In fact, coding is a part of the overall development project lifecycle. Irrespective of what kind of software application product is being developed, outsourcing or not, there are a series of phases or processes that are carried out during the software application development. Companies, including outsourcing firms, have between four and six phases for their projects.

The typical software development phases would be as follows.

1. Project initiation

   The initiation phase is the approval process of the project details.  Generally, it is when the project manager is defined and when it commences. Later on in the next phases, the project manager’s effort along with other responsible individuals for the project will define the overall schedule and other project-related needs.

2. Systems engineering

   In this phase, the work begins by establishing the different requirements for all necessary system elements and then allocating some to a subset of these requirements to develop the software. This system is essential when software must be compatible with other elements such as databases, hardware, and people. Systems engineering also includes the gathering of requirements at the system level with a small amount of top-level design and analysis.

3. Requirements analysis and definition.

   This phase begins by analyzing what exactly must be done to complete the project. After project initiation, the software development starts with the identification of the requirements noted in the systems engineering phase and ends with the formal verification of the developed software in line with those requirements. The requirements gathering process is focused specifically on what type of software is being developed. To understand the nature of the programs to be built, the software engineer needs to understand the information domain for the software, as well as what are the required functions, different behavior, performance, and interfacing. It is in this phase that the requirements are formally documented so it can serve as a solid foundation for software engineering. This phase also defines the functionality and the performance of the proposed program and system.

   Generally, it is the requirement analyst’s duty to take care of the requirements in any software development project.  Based on the different types and levels of software requirements, the analyst prepares the document with different specifications for both onsite and offshore before and after the project transfer.

4. Levels and Types of Requirements

   • Functional:

     These are the requirements that specify how the software system should perform, how the data in the program can be manipulated.

   • Non-Functional:

     These are the requirements supporting the primary and functional requirements. Non-functional characteristics like software quality can define the product output.

   • User Requirements:

     These are the requirements that define what the software system must-do for the users or the market to perform their different tasks and objectives. Sometimes multiple user-level requirements exist to satisfy more than one business requirement.

   • Interface:

     These are what define data or information flow from the software to different external devices available like fax, printer, shared resources, and other software applications that are connected outside the main software product.

   • Performance:

     They are requirements that deal with system performance such as how the system should react in different instances and how should it respond to user interactions.

   • Data:

     These requirements deal with the manipulation of data and where it should be stored etc.

   • Security requirements:

     These requirements are the most important when the project is being sent overseas or offshore where security risks are very high. These requirements deal with all the possible security issues in the project

   Requirements validation and management come next. This is the last step in the process of requirements development wherein the identified requirements are validated to ensure that they are clear, complete, and are written correctly for customer satisfaction. This step may lead to the iteration of the other steps in the software development process if there are gaps, defects, and other issues. One of the validation mechanisms that can be conducted is peer evaluation of the document that contains requirement specifications. Peer evaluation is known to have the highest priority in the detection of possible software gaps and defects.

   Requirements management is the tracking of the requirements from the start to the deployment of the project.  It is composed of a different set of activities that will assist the project team to identify, track and control requirements and changes at any time throughout the software development project. This also involves an analysis of the requested changes, approving or disapproving the changes needed, and implementation of those changes. Requirements management also takes care of keeping and tracking consistent project plans and status in the ongoing software development process.

5. Design and Development.

   The design and development phase represents the “how” phase. It is the longest phase of the project and is the most expensive when it comes to cost. This is where most of the project expenses are allocated. The product architecture is developed, and this is also when the design is broken down into detailed information until the software modules can be specified and the coding process begins. Details on computer programming languages, environments, packages, machines, distributed architecture layering, application architecture, platform, memory size, algorithms, global type definitions, data structures, interfaces, and many other engineering details are all established in this phase.

   During the design phase, S/W Design Interface Analysis, S/W Design Evaluation, Software Design Traceability Analysis, and Test Plan Evaluation are also carried out. Depending on the design method being implemented, the design model comprises a data design, an architectural design, component-level design, and an interface design. Data objects are translated into data structures that reside within the software itself.

   At a higher level of concept, data design may lead to the definition of a database architecture or a data warehouse.  In software applications, the data architecture will have a profound influence on the software architecture that will process the data objects and structures.  At the program component level, data structure design and the associated algorithms are required.

6. Testing and Integration

   Software testing has been identified as the basic form to identify defects for the majority of software projects. In general, software testing is a one-step software process that is often viewed as destructive rather than constructive because of its nature. Software testing is also done as a defined process of software system execution to determine its compliance with the specifications noted during the first few phases.

   The testing phase starts with creating different test cases to demolish the built software system. Once the coding has been done, the program testing begins. The software testing process focuses on its logical internals, assuring that all possible statements have been tested, the functional externals are uncovering errors, and ensuring that the defined data inputs will produce actual results that meet with required results. After the first phase of testing is done, the product is integrated into its operating environment. The phase typically ends when the users or clients sign off on the user acceptance or agreement results.

   Any software engineering project can be tested in two different ways. The first testing is to check whether each software function is fully operational, while at the same time searching for errors in each different function. One good example of this is black-box testing. Second testing is where the internal operations of defined functions are tested. This is the most commonly known example of white box testing.

   Unit testing begins at concentrating on each unit, function, or component of the software system. Then the spiral progresses outwards to integration testing where the design and software architecture are tested and investigated carefully. Moving more outwards of the software system spiral is the validation testing that concentrates on the validation of the different requirements against the software requirements that is being constructed.  Finally, the system testing where the software is built is tested together with the other components like hardware peripherals and shared resources that can be connected to the software once it's ready for launch.

7. Deployment and Maintenance

   The deployment and maintenance phase is the installation of the software product into the different production environments available. The software project is officially over at this point and the finished product enters the software maintenance period. The software will undergo different changes after it is delivered to the customer, so the software support and maintenance re-applies each time of the preceding phases of the existing program rather than a new one.

   In some outsourcing environments, each phase starts with the same processes and ends with the implementation of that phase in an outsourcing environment. When the total software application is developed and tested by the offshore team, the application is then deployed into a package and is finally sent to the client’s location for final testing. Field testing is usually done by the client’s personnel and the feedback is obtained and sent back to the service provider's personnel from the client for next processing.

   It is very important to choose the right software application development partner when it comes to outsourcing. Businesses must make sure that the partner they are working for offers maintenance and support services to avoid future conflicts in the product should the need arise.

How much does it cost to develop a mobile application? How much will it cost to outsource it?  Quite often business owners find themselves trying to answer these two questions.

The advantages of a mobile application are clear, however, these advantages come with a cost to pay. The cost of application development is mostly based on different variables such as platform, complexity, and features. Different target audiences and the different markets expect different features in the applications; which changes the cost to pay for the development. Understanding the needs and expectations of the target market before launching the application means business owners can avoid unnecessary costs.  On the other hand, it is also a fact that application development is an investment where different requirements and preferences will determine the exact cost of investment and final price of the product. For example, a mobile application that is completely standalone and one that requires a back-end server built and an application wouldn't cost the same amount.

Each mobile application development process involves different factors that collectively influence the final product cost. Mobile application development cost breakdown comes down to:

Mobile Platform: IOS or Android, or Both

The most popular mobile applications in application stores are either based on Android or IOS operating systems.  Android and Apple application users are basically two different target market groups, business owners can choose to build an application compliant with both, which will increase the cost.

Android stands forward in Asia, and Australia while the IOS platform is mostly used in the United States and Western Europe. Aside from location, the behavior of the target market should also be considered in choosing what mobile platform to use.  For example, if developing a paid mobile application, the IOS platform would be a better choice, as a study shows that Android users are not as willing to pay as IOS users for applications. Typically, businesses tend to start with the IOS platform and then enlarge the number of users by making either a different stand-alone or hybrid application version for Android.

Design

Design determines the application’s functionality, which helps have more users. Success in graphic design steals the heart of users. Beauty is not for free. We advise you not to economize your application by sacrificing the beauty of the design. Invest in your icon and interface elements like tabs, buttons, etc. for a long-term win.

User experience is the king in application design, as people love effortless applications. UX design determines the engagement and conversions of your efforts and investment in application development.

Mobile application design is another business even for designers. Be sure to contact a designer who knows the requirements and guidelines of mobile applications. You may need to pay more, but just be willing to pay this amount for developing a successful application with a perfect UX design that will make you earn money.

Application Development Stages Cost

Having a ballpark reference for how much the different stages of a mobile application development allows companies to allocate the cost properly.

The pre-research stage can be considered as the cheapest stage among the application development stages. According to Clutch – B2bB analytics company, 51% of businesses spent up to $5,000 in the pre-research stage, 22% of them went above the spent up to $10,000 and 14% spent around $10,000 to $25,000. For the design stage, 32% of businesses spent less than $5,000, but only 9% spent over $50,000 on the mobile application design. Most business owners stay within more than $5,000 but less than $50,000 budget.  The actual development of the application is the major stage in the process. This is where all the coding happens to create every required feature the product is supposed to have. 9% of the respondents spent below $5,000 in developing the code while 33% spent within the $5,000 - $50,000 budget range.

Finally, for the application deployment stage, 30% of the business owners who participated in the survey spent less than $5,000 for application testing and launch it in the marketing while the other 31% remained within the $5,000 - $10,000 budget range. The rest of the respondents went over the $10,000 threshold to complete the mobile application testing and deployment stage.

Testing and Deployment stage

Each type of mobile application has different product development cost associated with it due to different level of the application’s feature and complexity. Features like built-in user analytics, backend server maintenance, and support, CMS support, shopping cart or social media sharing, and networking features can significantly affect the final cost of the product.

Application Maintenance Cost

With all the costs due to developing a mobile application, businesses usually skip the application maintenance cost. Although it can significantly lower the total project cost, leaving the mobile application after the launch, without support and maintenance is not a smart move. To keep the application attractive and useful to the market for the long term, application maintenance costs should be considered carefully.

The basic application maintenance includes hosting and monitoring, engagement and marketing, and updates and licenses. These are all necessary items to keep the mobile application valuable to the user and keeping these also means additional costs per year as maintenance and support is not a one-time thing.

“Like with any other software product, mobile applications cost has a maintenance component. The industry average accepted cost to maintain software is roughly 15-20% of its original development cost. The maintaining process cost can be broken down to the cost of hosting, monitoring, engagement, marketing, updates, and licenses.”

Business Apps

Hosting and Monitoring

To calculate a mobile application backend data hosting cost, parameters such as backend (API) requests, bandwidth per MAU, and bandwidth per user are taken into consideration.  Mobile application monitoring is as essential as the back-end hosting for it to succeed. To monitor a mobile application’s performance, different mobile analytics platforms are available for both businesses and developers to use. Each mobile application product developed will have its unique market and user behavior, there it is not possible to come up with an estimated monitoring cost but contacting possible partners and prospects in the industry can surely provide a benchmark range for the cost.

Engagement & Marketing

“Regardless of the features integrated into the app, you must make people understand that you can help them and that you are there whenever they need your services. There are various techniques that make mobile marketing vital for any brand”

App Samurai

A mobile application marketing cost can include different activities to engage the mobile application userbase. Mobiles and mobile applications, by their nature, allow businesses to create a long-term and solid relationship between themselves and their customers. There is no one-size-fits-all in mobile application marketing.  Effective mobile marketing will need additional costs for testing, and the best strategy may or may not be that costly.

Application Updates and Licenses

Application updates play an important part to keep the mobile application valuable to the user base.  Each mobile application released on an application store, either for Android, iOS, Windows Phone, or other platforms not mentioned will always have updates released.

It is a fact that launching a perfect mobile application is not possible. Subsequent application updates, may it be for performance or user engagement are great tools for the user base to keep patronizing the application. An actual mobile application update release in the application store can take around one hour or two but the time that it takes to develop this update significantly varies and is hardly dependent on the mobile application features and complexity.

Cost of Hiring Application Developer

Outsourcing mobile application development is also very popular not just because of lower cost but because of the quality as well. Once the business decides to hire a mobile application developer(s), the question of how much it will cost them comes up naturally.

"So according to the Indeed.com data, to hire a US-based mobile application development company to need to pay $107,000 / year, which is $10,000 more than the number we established in January of 2016 – $97,000. After converting from a local currency to USD, we see Canada and Australia following the US with $82,000 and $80,000 respectively. In countries like India, it is way cheaper to hire an application development professional – only $4,400 a year, which is explained by the difference in North America, Europe, Australia, and India economies."

• Indeed

The cheaper cost of outsourcing is really tempting especially after the high-cost breakdown, but of course, the price tag and lower cost shouldn’t be the ultimate deciding factor for a business to hire a mobile application development team. It is also important to take note of the company’s feedback from previous clients, level of expertise, and communication strategy as well.

Given that both Android and iOS platforms have a user base engagement adoption and engagement rate, it is a smart strategy for businesses to develop a hybrid or a stand-alone mobile application for both platforms simultaneously. The right software development outsourcing companies can make business ideas become a reality. 

Businesses are becoming more competitive every day.  Most of the world’s businesses never stop improving not just their services but how they managed their workforce as well. But how do businesses utilize staff augmentation to deliver project goals?

The industry’s most successful businesses are utilizing staff augmentation to control both planned and sudden changes to the business. Any kind of staffing for businesses, whether managed or augmented is highly complex. Getting the right number of individuals with the right skill set base for both temporary and long term is surely a process that’s complicated enough to give the human resource team a headache.

When to Consider Staff Augmentation?

When should a business consider staff augmentation for a software project? Although different situations can give different answers, most staff augmentation development projects fall into one of the following categories of consideration:

1. The business is unable to retain or hire enough skilled staff to meet its normal workloads.

   Since the 1990s, the United States economy created a scarcity of competent and skilled technical staff to handle software development projects. For corporations that were installing large software suites, the situation was aggravated by the demand for IT staff with this proficiency. Other businesses also have a recurring problem of retaining a qualified workforce for a variety of reasons. In these cases, a temporary staff is brought in to fill the existing gaps. They can be viewed as contractors, used until the project completion, or until permanent employees are hired.

2. IT projects need skilled staff for a specific part of the project.

   For large-scale software system development projects, the IT department might need more coders, testers, and designers more than what it currently has. Rather than hiring full-time permanent staff that will entail higher costs, businesses can use contractors to fill in the gaps. Similarly, many businesses used different outside service partners and providers to assist with their software development projects. Unlike the first case, which had an indefinite period, this use of staff augmentation is for a definite period.

3. The business seeks flexibility in staffing.

   Some industries and companies have a history of boom-and-bust staffing. As the businesses and country’s economic conditions change, major projects are cut to adjust, and staff levels are reduced to make the ends meet. To avoid having to occasionally dismiss employees, businesses tend to keep a core team and use contractors when needed during high times. Although they are paying more daily for the contractual staff, they avoid the higher expense, stress, and pain of severing full-time and long-term employees.

4. IT sector requires specialized knowledge and skill set.

   The field of Information Technology is divided into different industries. Each needs its own staff with specific knowledge and skill set. In most cases, there will be a shortage of staff with the desired skills. While full-time outsourcing is an option, hiring through staff augmentation who will work together with the in-house team will provide knowledge transfer and on-the-job training as well. A primary advantage of this method is the fact that short-term staff augmentation results in a long-term upgrading of the in-house team’s skills.

5. The business wants to retain everyday control of all staff.

   Outsourcing is undeniably successful for businesses, but it is also a fact that there are still some businesses that are not compatible nor comfortable with the complete transfer of tasks and responsibilities. For these situations, staff augmentation can fill the gaps in staffing and expertise levels, without going through a complicated cultural shift. The primary advantage to staff augmentation is the flexibility it gives the businesses and the in-house IT department. Due to the ad hoc and short-term nature of hiring contractors, the team can move on quickly with the project, bringing on additional skilled staff for specific projects and removing them once the project is complete. This flexibility advantage extends to the actual hiring decisions.

Although staff augmentation is an outsourcing method, it has the highest cost among the other outsourcing options. Although this does not affect limited-length projects such as the provision of specialized skills during the project’s critical phase, the use of contractors for semi-permanent staff augmentation can become a challenge.

Benefits of Staff Augmentation

• Avoiding Recruitment and Training Costs

  The recruitment process can be extremely costly. Sourcing skilled applicants, screening the right candidates, and finally hiring and training new employees can be a daunting task for the recruitment team. It is more than what it looks more specifically for hiring in the IT industry as the candidates need to be highly technical and experienced at the same time. Providing other benefits and training to these new employees can harm the business’ budget even more, especially if these employees later realize that they don’t fit for the job or much worst, decide not to stay during the training period. Staff augmentation gives businesses the opportunity to bypass this tedious hiring and training process, saving both the cost, uncertainty, and effort put into the hiring process.

• Filling Specialized Roles with Required Skill Set

  The demand for specialized skill sets is increasing as fast as the IT industry is evolving. To stay competitive businesses, need to meet this demand that may be required for one specific project or business need, but not necessarily for the whole business itself. Staff augmentation provides a way for businesses and IT teams to fill these gaps without the commitment to engage the new members of the team and to utilize the same skill set again in future projects. Staff augmentation method can end as soon as the project is completed or if the company needs it. This can save businesses from an intensive recruitment process and make it possible for them to get the help needed temporarily at a much lower cost.

• Expanding Industry into Foreign Markets

  No owner starts their own business without looking to expand. Setting up the business’ next location whether in the same country or overseas can be a daunting task, especially if the future of the business in the next area is still unclear. Staff augmentation offers businesses the opportunity to have local contract workers familiar with the foreign location to assist with different legal matters in setting up the business as well as other potential problems that may arise when starting to operate in a new business location. Additionally, there is no commitment to pay for the existing employees’ travel costs for nor there is a need to disrupt local operations as the hired contractors will take care of what’s needed to be done for the expansion to be completed.

• Retaining Overall Control over Projects

  As mentioned above, outsourcing may be the cheapest and best way to handle different IT projects, but it doesn’t mean that it’s for everyone. There will be some businesses that would still want full control of the project regardless of the team composition. All outsourcing projects can be risky, although most are successful, there is still a handful that ends in failure. Staff augmentation can fulfill the company’s need to maintain full control over the projects compared to complete outsourcing.

  Staff augmentation also allows the interaction between the contracted staff and the internal employees as they work together to complete different projects. This is one biggest advantages of this method as communicating directly within the working team is easier and solving the problem could be faster if there are issues that need to be addressed. This can save time, while also making current employees feel more valued and less threatened by external aid.

• Scaling the Team to the Current Project Needs

  While being short-staffed can be problematic, being overstaffed can also be a tough situation for the recruitment team. Having to lay off full-time and talented employees can be emotionally taxing for all the parties involved and can tarnish a company’s reputation if employees come to feel that they are not as valued as they thought they would be. Staff augmentation gives businesses the opportunity to temporarily add team members to ramp up the project production and end contract as soon as the required variables are met or when the project is completed. The boundaries, expectations, hiring, and project duration are already set from the get-go, avoiding unnecessary conflicts should the contract end earlier than anticipated. Businesses, as well as contractors, need not worry about emotional stress that can be brought by dismissal as there’s no commitment and expectations set.

  Staff augmentation can solve many staffing problems, but at the same time, it also raises several concerns. Utilizing staff augmentation can help you meet business demands efficiently without a negative impact on your internal staff or company reputation. This may or may not be the right outsourcing method for your current project, but it can surely be one of the best options available.

  Different outsourcing companies offer both managed services and staff augmentation to meet the different needs of businesses both locally and internationally. With both benefits and concerns, staff augmentation brings, business owners, need to carefully consider what they really need for the project to succeed.

Both offshoring and outsourcing started as a cost-cutting measure, but businesses that know how to create real and sustainable value routinely use these two sourcing strategies for far more strategic ends-to gain capabilities and strengths that they don't have or can’t have in-house, or to strengthen the existing ones that they already have.

Outsourcing began small. Firstly focused on finding a cheaper alternative for manpower, outsourcing has grown from telemarketing and data entry to more complicated and skilled functions like digital marketing, account, human resource and IT functions like support and software development. More than 70% of the companies outsource a business process or a specific function to a third-party contractor. From its early introduction in the manufacturing industry to becoming a universal strategy with as many uses and definitions, industries will always have a business function that can be outsourced.

“About 50% of executives state that reducing costs is the top reason for outsourcing”, which includes those that sent their IT offshore. As with manufacturing outsourcing, the offshoring of IT and application development services has developed its own set of risks and hidden costs as well as falling short on providing expertise in areas lacking in the client organization.

Michael Corbett, The Outsourcing Revolution.

Software Development Projects for Outsourcing

In this new world, developers no longer need to design a unique algorithm for each problem. Most work focuses, instead, on generating datasets that reflect desired behavior and managing the training process. Pete Warden from Google’s TensorFlow team pointed this out as far back as 2014:

“I used to be a coder,” he wrote. “Now I teach computers to write their own programs.” 

Forbes

• Application Development

  Outsourcing application development can be done from different perspectives. Businesses can choose to outsource the whole project from planning to maintenance stage or to outsource certain phases like low-level coding, system architecture design, software quality assurance testing, up to development and implementation of additional features to the existing application. While most businesses choose to outsource the project from the start, there are still cases where minor to major modifications of existing applications are required to meet certain business requirements.

  For this type of software development project, it is usually not enough for the outsourcing service provider or partner to just deliver the developed software or finish product but also to give the clients the support and maintenance services after the main product is launch the market.

• Systems Integration

  Integration refers to the summing up of different activities in order to achieve a vital goal. Systems Integration refers to the linking of current applications or mechanisms to a shared architecture to achieve the intended functionality.

  In order to implement this, outsourcing service providers must be well-equipped with the technical expertise, industry knowledge, and experience to meet the client’s request. These functions are not usually found within the in-house team. Therefore, system integration is usually done by a third-party contractor. This is done to maintain the business’ edge in the highly competitive market.

• Database management

  Good database management plays a significant role in the success of the business. Smart companies store and treat their database with utmost care and security at different locations as it is needed for critical tasks. Outsourcing service providers streamline this task by implementing a database management system and process at the user’s location. Database outsourcing packages also offer services like data cleansing and migration on top of the basic services like data storage and retrieval.

Benefits of Outsourcing Software Development

During recent years software development outsourcing has been adopted by more and more companies. Most of them state that this is only to reduce costs, and some say that this is due to the technical expertise. According to a survey, the cost reduction is the major factor which is influencing a lot, for this, it can be observed that the average annual salary for an engineer in the USA is $70,000 during the year 2004, compared with $13,580 for an engineer in India.

• Cost

  Lower cost is the most recognizable benefit of software development outsourcing. But is cheaper cost the only major benefit to the companies or are there any more benefits?

  When software development is outsourced, the business doesn’t need to through the tedious and costly recruitment process of hiring and training highly skilled individuals for the project. The work will be handed over to the team of developers who are already experts and experienced in that trade

• Scalability

  Outsourcing providers offer businesses the flexibility to increase or decrease the project resources depending on the demand of the project. This flexibility doesn’t come with fixed costs or additional investments.

  During peak business seasons, some applications may require more updates and support more than others. It's impractical for businesses to consider purchasing new technology to handle consumer demand and training junior developers to perform minor applications updates. However, outsourcing these functions to software development companies eliminates these obstacles. A software development partner already has a team of developers who are already fully trained to handle these kinds of situations and are prepared to solve more complicated problems should the need arise.

• Risk Management and Operational Capacity

  Most software development companies have their own system and tools to manage the risks that can happen throughout the application development cycle.  Contracting an outsourcing partner to maintain established software and applications systems and transfers can efficiently manage the risk of fluctuating resources and operation capacity that can occur at any time throughout the software development process.

  Even though outsourcing software development risks have increased over time, many businesses continue to manage their relationships with their outsourcing partners at arm's length.

  Companies like the toy manufacturer Hasbro accomplish this by viewing their external relations as strategic partners tightly integrated with their domestic operations or overseas subsidiaries. That's a major reason why Hasbro was largely unaffected by the toy industry's lead paint crisis in 2007. Among its sourcing safeguards, the company prequalifies and continually monitors its overseas factories to ensure that quality management systems are in place. The risk of a quality issue arising can't be totally eliminated, of course. The key is to limit potential problems and act quickly when one occurs to keep it from happening over and over again. - Forbes

• Increase Internal Focus on Core Business

  Most businesses do not consider the recruitment process and managing a team of software developers among their revenue drivers and core competencies. Leaving these compound activities to an outsourcing partner removes a major distraction and frees up time in the calendar that the business owner can spend on more critical tasks at the heart of the main business such as research and planning, product innovation and development, and more activities that give the business its competitive advantage.

  This has been the major benefit for many of the businesses that outsource application development nowadays. Some companies have included policies where third-party contractors can be hired temporarily if the required skills cannot be produced in-house. As software application development requires intensive experience and highly skilled workers, the majority of the companies choose to outsource.

• Additional Financial Benefits

  In addition to the lower cost of getting an outsourcing partner to perform the software development job, outsourcing can shield the business from different payouts and high overhead including in-house employee benefits, government taxes, service and maintenance fees for infrastructure/facilities, and legal or administrative support for government regulations.

• Technical Expertise and Quality

  Software development outsourcing can provide businesses with top-of-the-line technical expertise that is not currently in their current technology portfolio. This plays a significant role in developing a new service or application product.

  Outsourcing software development also highlights the quality of work. The majority of the businesses that have tried outsourcing these services can attest to the fact that the quality of the software application product produced is incomparably good compared to the works done by the in-house IT team.  Many of these businesses mentioned that they can collaborate with the offshore developments partners and can perform the development 24 hours round the clock because of the time difference. For instance, in a business with different locations, for example in the United States and Asia, the offshore development team stops the work while the team in-house can continue to start where the other team left off. This also means that quality is never compromised as there will always be enough allotted time to complete, test, and adjust projects whenever needed.

  Improving the quality of the code not only generates higher value, but it also helps to protect the business investment in the light of new requirements that may arise in the future.

• Exposure Process Expertise

  Having an outsourcing partner for software development naturally, expose businesses to the best practices of the software development cycle and project management. These best practices are tested and proven by not just the current outsourcing partner but of the software development industry in general. Outsourcing software development gives businesses a new light in terms of processes that might not even have been explored.

  Scaling the remote team with the goal of developing a more solid solution and including ample time for thorough product testing will greatly increase product stability and lead to a much better user experience.

Outsourcing seems to be the word that entered the Information Technology industry for good. The process guarantees flexibility and can save the company unnecessary expenses because they will only need to pay for the services they require. Also, it eliminates the continuous need to hire and train new employees. Offshoring is another type of classic outsourcing model. It is an agreement between two companies, where one agrees to provide services for the other. It is usually in two different countries. As the main model, its biggest advantage is lower cost, in comparison to in-house services.

Offshore software development outsourcing (OSDO) is an emerging concept in the IT industry which aims to develop high-quality application software at low cost in low-wage countries. In OSDO, a contract-based relationship between a vendor and a client is established, whereby the vendor(s) organization agrees to work in developing either full or partial software applications and requirements for the client’s organization and take remuneration in return.

Fundamentally, offshore and outsourcing providers need to evolve their business practice and approach from being only just a provider to a partner in order to meet the high demands of innovation in today’s market without sacrificing the quality of work.

As you probably have noticed, all of the above mean almost exactly the same thing, regardless of the term

Software Development Outsourcing

Mixing cost-effectiveness with remarkable quality of software application development? Yes, this is exactly what outsourcing can provide different businesses with.

Software development outsourcing is not a new concept. Outsourcing has taken a giant leap forward in helping the company make the most out of their budget and existing resources, without the need to hire a new additional experienced programmer to implement their ideas. In “The Outsourcing Revolution”, the author, Michael Corbett, reported, “About 50 percent of executives state that reducing costs is the top reason for outsourcing”, which includes those that sent their IT offshore.

The globalization of both online and offline resources has led to a dramatic increase in cross-country business operations. According to “The Outsourcing Institute”, published in 2004, the global software industry is one of the industries that experienced exponential growth since the 1980s. Many firms are finding offshore software development a sustainable alternative to in-house software application development not just because of the lower cost, but also to solve the problem of being unable to hire and retain qualified and expert programmers together with the growing need to transition swiftly from project initialization to actual system application installation.

Another change will be visible in outsourcing software development application is measuring the effectiveness of sourcing relationships. The traditional client-vendor relation is changing into a partnership. Although lower cost is the main reason for outsourcing, it is no longer only cost-efficiency that matters, but also the impact that the outsourcing model has on the overall business. For example, Managed Services Model allows the Client Company to focus more on their core business – i.e. getting leads, making sales, improving internal processes, whereas the outsourcing partner, being more independent, can manage the investment, benefiting the client in the long run.

To reap the benefits of outsourcing software application development, the client company has to do a lot of work in the beginning. Planning ahead double-check everything is a must. Communication and proper management of resources will work well together with the outsourcing model if done properly.  Just like in any other relationship, for the outsourcing process to succeed, both parties, the client and the outsourcing partner, have to be committed. The key to outsourcing success lies in choosing the right partner.

5Cs to Successful Outsourcing of Software Development

CONCENTRATION ON THE GOAL

Goals trigger behavior. Allow your outsourcing business partner to implement their own way of working. Having a clear and compelling goal mobilizes their focus toward actionable behavior leading to success. Trust that they only want what’s best for your business. Goal setting helps you align focus with behavior because you get feedback on your progress. The actions you take—or avoid—offer clues about your values, beliefs, challenges, strengths, and weaknesses which allow you to course-correct as necessary and reset your goal achievement strategy (and subsequently, your focus) – Forbes. Concentrate on what you want to achieve with outsourcing your software development, not on how you want it done. Trust that your decision in choosing them is right. Your outsourcing partner can take of that for you.

COMMITMENT

Your commitment as the client can have very tangible effects on the final product of your outsourcing partner. Trusting is one, commitment is another. Yes, outsourcing is allowing your partner to work in improving your business processes and returns. However, no matter how good your vendor company is, no matter how much expertise they have, you still need to remain involved, because nobody knows your business as well as you. This will also eliminate the problem of miscommunication in events that the output is different from what is actually expected.

COMMUNICATION

Communication is the holy grail of the outsourcing model. The main goal of outsourcing is to grow the business at a lower cost. Sadly, efficient communication becomes only the second priority and far too often gets lost somewhere along the way. Focusing on the lower costs of outsourcing software application development alone will not make a difference to any IT business unless there is an actual understanding of what is going on, what the goals are, and what is the output expected in the process. “Sure, any project manager will know the importance of communicating so that expectations will—at least in theory—match the deliverables. In reality, even if the project managers do it all by the book, it is still often a limited audience that gets the information”. – CIO. For outsourced partnerships to really succeed, the clients should clearly express their expectations in the process, which will empower the outsourcing partner to deliver the best service possible. Be specific and realistic about what you want to achieve.

CHOICE

One of the various conditions of a successful business is to be able, in the long term, to focus the effort and the resources on the core company activities. There are constant drip stories in the news announcing the march of outsourcing. What may not have changed is that organizations frequently might not have the right mindset when making a decision on how to choose an outsourcing partner.  It is important for the client to look for an outsourcing partner with knowledge and expertise, driven by facts and who will always try to deliver software applications developed according to the latest industry’s best practices. Aside from experience and expertise, it is important that your chosen partner is also able to understand your business and have similar goals on what you want to achieve for it.

CONTRACT

“A good contract is important to outsourcing; this is an indisputable statement.” - by Galina Levitin and Dr. Sara Cullen, Senior Consultant, Cutter Consortium. The contract is the legal basis of the outsourcing agreement and therefore of fundamental importance. A good contract is often the key to a successful IT outsourcing partnership. The contract defines the liability, rights, and expectations of both the client and the outsourcing partner. Most of the time, it is often the only solid mechanism for regulating the relationship of the parties. An appropriate business contract agreement can be crucial to the success of outsourcing software application development.

Is Cost-Effective Outsourcing possible?

Yes, it is possible. While cost reduction remains the main driver for most software development outsourcing decisions, there is clear evidence that quality improvement and innovation are becoming more important than it was before. If you push cost savings too hard, the quality and innovation in your software will suffer.

So where’s the breaking point?

Avoid body shopping. In other words, while most of the clients think to outsource that there is already a cheap option, the truth is, they are not really getting value for their money. Invest in testing. Cutting testing time directly results in poor quality services and below standards software application output, which in turn makes unhappy customers who will consider the project as a failure. Additionally, a lack of proper testing can actually end up costing more as it takes much longer to fix poor code in the future than to release it correctly in the first place. This might be a challenge, but resist the urge to cut testing time or at the very least it is also the outsourcing partner's responsibility to discuss the possible consequences to the client if in case application testing and troubleshooting time is cut off.

Most importantly, establish a relationship and communicate. If you have a transparent relationship with your business partner, it is more likely to happen that the possible problems are discussed even before they actually happen. The most important thing in order to succeed in software application development outsourcing is still believing and trusting your developer that they will deliver.

Mobile technology is the fastest-growing technology platform in history. With smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices outnumbering desktop computers, changes in how customers access and share the available information are inevitable.

The unremarkable growth of mobile technology has become a powerful and efficient tool for businesses to accelerate and achieve project objectives and development goals. Since its development, portable technology has been reshaping communications processes, society, and the global economy. The revolution has been a turning point in human history. For the first time, customers are given a relatively inexpensive and convenient option to connect with other people no matter where they are or what time of the day it is. Today, customer experience for mobile is more important to businesses than you might think.

Whether it’s web or mobile, user experience is the key to an application’s success, perhaps with good reason. Mobile application development has been a popular choice to meet the demands of mobile-savvy customers. Since Apple launched the very first iPhone and Google’s Android release, businesses can now take advantage of these and other available technologies to catch up not just with the evolving market but with their competitors as well. As more users turn to mobile devices for their daily activities, the demand for mobile applications is not only on delivering web content but also on performing more advanced mobile app functions.

Typically, when a company decides to develop a mobile application, they have either identified possible business opportunities that are previously untapped or they are trying to win against their competitors. Whatever the reason is, they will want the application built out and released as soon as possible. There are different mobile development technology approaches that businesses can choose from – native, web, and hybrid mobile app development. The trade-offs between each approach can be measured in terms of performance, functionality, overall cost, and user experience.

Native Mobile Development: Application Functionality, Performance, User Experience

Native mobile application development uses different platforms and operating system that is greatly dependent on the tools and technology required by the project. These apps are developed in very strict-to-stick programming languages and other tools for the specific device or platform. For example, the programming language to develop an application for iOS is objective C (recently swift), for Android it is Java, and C# for Windows is required. It can fully integrate with the capabilities of both the OS and the hardware on which it resides. In theory, a mobile app developed using this approach has the advantage of faster performance wherein the in-app interaction and look are consistent with other native apps on a certain device. The end-user is thus more likely to understand how to navigate and use the application faster.

Functionality and Performance

Native apps have direct access to all the mobile device’s available features including the ones that are unique to the platform. These include motion, proximity, location, audiovisual censors, and graphics hardware. Most Mobile devices may include unique security settings, peripheral interfaces, and touchscreen functions that are only available via native app libraries. Since native apps run directly on the platform without abstraction layers or intermediary containers, native applications are expected and can run with the highest performance possible. Native IDEs offer the best runtime optimizations as well.

User Experience

The ability to directly access the components of the User Interface in specific platforms means that native apps can seamlessly blend with whatever the operating system environment is. Given that native User Interface layout and functionality match the platform, this eliminates any possible disruption to improve user experience.

A Quick Look in Web App Development

Websites have a restricted set of abilities as opposed to hybrid and native applications. These restrictions are enforced by the browser, effectively sandboxing it away from the mobile operating system. Recent developments with mobile browsers have exposed more device capabilities through HTML5 such as the camera, geolocation, and others.

Telerik

Web application development is in an entirely different environment than the native app. The development used the same tools and programming languages used in websites such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), HTML/HTML5, and JavaScript.

These applications can run on the mobile platform but instead of using the Operating System directly, these are running through the mobile web browser. Thus, these applications can run on multiple platforms as long as they are compatible with a device’s browser rendering engine. Most of the web applications run on both the device and a backend server at the same time. The degree of partition between the server and the client can have a significant impact on functionality, performance, and application maintenance. Web-based applications boast the lowest cost possible among the three mobile application development approaches.

Functionality and Performance

Although web-based applications’ libraries are able to access different mobile hardware capabilities, the LCD approach is necessary to code through abstraction layers. Because of this, the application must execute a step that is entirely removed from the actual OS and hardware making the performance the lowest among the three mobile application development approach.

User Experience

The ability to mimic an Operating System platform’s native UI/UX features will always have a meaningful gap compared to a native application, but that gap is gradually shrinking thanks to improvements in HTML5 and JavaScript.

Hybrid Mobile Development: Application Functionality, Performance, User Experience, and Cost

Hybrid mobile app development makes use of websites packaged into a native wrapper. It is a successful attempt to get the best of both worlds. The hybrid development approach combines native development with web technology. It is a web app built in HTML5 combined with JavaScript that loads most of the website's information as the user navigates the mobile application. The result is a very powerful alternative approach to building mobile applications based on website technology but function and look like a native application. Therefore, the hybrid mobile app approach offers a mechanism to turn web-based apps into mobile apps that could be compiled into different binary executable files, and could be downloaded from App stores onto different users’ devices, and could be run both offline and online.

Hybrid application development can give developers the freedom to use their skills in web development skills like HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript to develop a mobile application. This approach also boasts app structure, feedback and interactivity, color and animation and typography, and in-app branding. Once the development is complete, the applicant can be compatible in different platforms by editing the targeting segment for a specific platform. Basically, you build the mobile application once and then you release it across multiple platforms.

Functionality and Performance

Depending on the partition of a hybrid mobile application, there is no reason that it cannot compete with the functionality in terms of feature and on-platform device access that native applications enjoy. A hybrid app can match the performance of native apps for the portion of the application that runs natively, most especially in offline mode.

User Experience

The hybrid mobile app approach offers a mechanism that turns web-based features into mobile applications that are winning in terms of usability. This makes the user experience seamless since there is little to no adjustment needed to navigate the app.

Native Mobile App Development vs. Hybrid Mobile App Development: a Debate

User experience is the key to an application’s success. Fifteen years ago, many executives disagreed with this assertion (some still do), perhaps with good reason. At that time, most websites had a poor user experience so it was not a differentiator. Consider how Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Yahoo’s websites looked 15 years ago, for example.

YmediaLabs

To summarize, the native approach excels in the device's access and performance but suffers in updates and high costs. The web approach is much simpler, easier to update and the less expensive option but has limited functionality and cannot achieve the exceptional level of user experience that can convert the market to loyal customers.

The hybrid approach provides a middle ground which, in many situations, is the best of both worlds, especially if the developer is targeting multiple operating systems. Choosing the right mobile app development approach greatly depends on what the organization needs and different parameters such as timeframe, budget, and target market, available internal and external resources, required functionality, and infrastructure. This approach makes use of the device’s capabilities to its advantage.

There are distinct and clear pros and cons for both hybrid and native mobile development approaches. One-source code, easy updates, speed to market, cross-compatible web technologies, availability of resources, and of course lower initial budget costs make hybrid mobile applications very appealing. However, with 4G network coverage on most phones today, a seamless hybrid app experience is actually possible.

One thing is clear: most companies today face an obvious and hard trade-off between application functionality and providing a seamless user experience together with the considerations in development costs and time to market. All of the approaches and metrics should be taken into consideration in order to arrive at a decision that will achieve business goals, satisfy the target market, and accomplish time to completion and application requirements for usability and functionality.

As the shift in technology continues to affect businesses, Information Technology (IT) companies have been looking to increase their competitiveness and agility to overcome the increase in demand. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) has provided solutions not just to overcome short-term capability deficiencies but to also accommodate the impact of hiring with staff augmentation and managed services. Although both are cost-effective and viable solutions for IT businesses, these two processes have unique differences that companies should consider before deciding on which one will work best for their business. What is Staff Augmentation? Staff Augmentation is the addition of temporary staff with specific expertise and qualifications to the existing team, thus becoming part of the in-house team working on a certain project. Some businesses might consider this as a practical solution for one-time or short-time projects that don’t justify the hiring of a new team member as an executive hire that may require extensive training to do the job. Managed Services, also known as MSP is where a third-party contractor remotely manages the client’s IT projects and infrastructure. The operative distinction that sets it apart from staff augmentation is its proactive delivery services, as compared to reactive IT services, which have been around for decades. Their roles have evolved over the past decades from simply maintaining legacy systems to taking full responsibility for patches repairs to developing new software applications and cloud services to data security services.

Staff augmentation processes have evolved to address short-term resource constraints, headcount limits, and budget restrictions. Instead of aligning your staff to the processes with a team of third-party contractors, you can closely integrate staff and manage your business resources with existing processes. Adding an in-house staff, even though temporary, can fill in the gaps in specialized skill requirements allowing you to take advantage of both internal and external resources available.

With augmentation, companies can easily add or subtract resources to meet the demands of any project at a certain time. This also avoids the cost of investing too much in internal skill development and the liability that comes with being one of the direct employees. When you’re on a tight deadline, being able to assign the right resources quickly is sometimes the only option you have in order to complete a job on time. The temporary nature of staff augmentation helps your existing staff feel comfortable with inevitable negative changes within the organization. They will feel less threatened and it’s easier for them to lean and adjust into new workflows with the help of a few new individuals rather than outsourcing an entire project, introducing them to an entirely new process.

As for the challenges, price discussions for staff augmentation services typically center around different rate cards and are decoupled from productivity and various service dimensions beyond a number of hours worked and capability classifications. Because of its nature, staff augmentation represents higher labor costs as compared to managed services. On-boarding and training augmented individuals into an organization with a compartmentalized understanding of different divisions can be challenging and will require more internal resources. Skilled employees’ learning processes and training take time and may not be scalable across the organization’s current standing as additional resources involve an increase in visibility and management.

In this case, you can’t skip training the temporary staff as it will help you speed up the process of understanding the current standing and goals of the project. Overcoming the company’s flaws in internal processes will be a gradual transition among the different individuals in your existing staff. Compared to other models, staff augmentation doesn’t normally meet high internal resistance. Change is always difficult but it’s essential to address it to fully benefit from the industry’s best practices. Staff augmentation has its place in an IT department’s arsenal. It is relatively low-risk in general. Even in a managed services model, an option for staff augmentation is available for selected services at specific points in time. However, when staff augmentation becomes the de facto and only operating model for an IT organization, it creates an ineffective form of outsourcing that involves high cost, high risk, and low commitment. If the company’s management team has effective communication leaders and needs a flexible staff that can quickly adapt to new responsibilities in a changing environment, staff augmentation is the way to go.

Managed Services: Benefits vs. Risk

Today, the managed services (MSP) business model presents a huge opportunity not just for big businesses but for small ones and start-ups as well. A well-managed service partner can help your company in several ways. This may or may not include management, maintenance, monitoring of the systems and infrastructure Hiring an MSP can propel your company to streamline the workflow and dedicate more staff to mission-critical and sell-related tasks. The primary benefit MSP partner is providing its clients a third-party monitoring and maintenance assistance, which is designed to prevent unexpected interruptions in system availability that can cause huge losses in businesses. This increases system uptime, which ultimately increases employee productivity and company profitability. The best value of managed services is the income predictability and the consistent utilization of expert technicians, who can forestall possible problems or discover them early, rather than relying on the customer’s report of an emergency. When the customer has a problem, the MSP team will always be available to solve the problem, as part of the monthly service fee.

On the relative contrary of the augmented staff, managed services can spare you costly onboarding training and interruptions. The managed service business model drives a measure of value based on planning, as both parties must define the requirements of services and performance on a per criteria basis. Therefore, the service fee is tied to the partner’s work outcome. Should the service requirement fails or disappear; the associated costs react in kind. This business model will help keep the business’ expenses manageable and predictable.

However, the challenges, lack of experience, reseller uncertainty, end-user anxiety, and the tepid economic recovery are stopping solutions providers from taking full advantage of the opportunity offered by managed services providers. Furthermore, as modern technologies continue to evolve with increasing rapidity, it can grow even more difficult for organizations to capitalize on the managed services opportunity. Internally, getting a managed service partner can make your existing staff feel threatened. According to The Balance, to date, the 14 million outsourced jobs are almost double the 7.5 million unemployed Americans. Forbes also added that a new survey from Pew Research has shed some light on job security in the United States as well as the top factors American workers feel most threatened by. Today, the vast majority of Americans feel confident about the security of their jobs, though some do have a sense of foreboding amid several emerging threats. 8 out of every 10 adults think increased outsourcing of jobs to other countries hurts American workers, according to Pew. Although the nature of engagement may vary in terms of different assets and services, between staff augmentation and managed services, the latter is the more scalable, reliable, and secure option not just for the long-term but for short-term projects as well.

This takes out all the possible worries a company might have when they are unable to meet unexpected challenges along the way. If the business needs a more consistent, long-term, and committed approach, then managed services are the right way to go.

What Outsourcing is Right for You?

In an increasingly complex networking environment, IT management needs a strategic approach to make sure that the company can handle the competitive nature of the industry. The choice of a suitable model can be a tough decision. The essential difference between staff augmentation and managed services is that in staff augmentation, the cost comes with the input while in managed services; the cost comes with the outcome. An input is simply the undertaking of an activity with no commitment that the activity will result in the desired outcome.

Linked to managed services is a service commitment. With the staff augmentation business model, the only service commitment of the staff is the number of hours worked. Under the managed services model, the provider assumes and takes responsibility for all of the possible risks of meeting the service commitment. This makes the value creation and the difference between the two models huge.

For most companies, the complexity of the IT industry makes it that there’s no right choice between the two models. Even as organizations are becoming increasingly globally competitive and sophisticated – leveraging one model over the other altogether is not the best choice. The balance between staff augmentation and managed services exist, thus, it is possible to optimize the benefits of both models. There might be instances where staff augmentation is the right execution needed, and surely, there will be chances that getting a managed service provider is the best possible approach. There can be even situations where the combination of both business models is the only way to go.

Outsourcing in the Philippines has been long talked about ever since the early 90s. The industry’s remarkable growth marked the start of a new era for business processes. "Most entrepreneurs have great talents but many times they think they can do it all," Laura Lee Sparks, owner of Legal Marketing Maven says. Gone are the days where business owners need to manage everything end-to-end. Technology has made outsourcing a lot more conducive for business owners, big or small, by making them focus on the income-generating part of the business while having other professionals offshore to handle other aspects of the business to keep it running.

Being the 2nd largest English-speaking country in the world is just another of the country’s feat when it comes to outsourcing. The Philippines is named as one of the top outsourcing hubs in the world for a reason. To date, the Philippines have been boosting its global competitiveness in the latest World Economic Forum (WEF)’s Global Competitiveness Index to rank up to five more notches compared to the previous year’s ranking. The Philippines also got the highest ranking in the macroeconomic environment followed by market size and business sophistication in the annual ranking of institutions, policies, and factors of productivity done by WEF. There will always be possibilities in the shift of demand, but the country’s professional workforce also boasts its high percentage of literacy the more competitive the demand is.

Outsourcing in the Philippines is no longer just an industry; it has become a culture of growth and continuous competitive advantage and adaptive professional experience that can never be duplicated. The optimistic movement in the international market leads to flocking opportunities in the country giving the outsourcing field a strong momentum to do more than just basic office jobs and back support. From its humble beginnings in customer service, outsourcing in the country has taken a big leap to take on more challenging roles like accounting, web design and development, digital marketing, and software development.

Outsourcing Software Development

Software development is a fast-changing field. Software architectures, languages, containers, tools, and methodologies are being programmed every year. This makes the tools that we’re using today obsolete by next year or even earlier. Hiring and retaining talent of this high caliber is the biggest challenge faced by tech companies - whether it’s about the hiring methods, cost, or criteria. Although this part of the business is as important as the others, owners still need to focus on the income-generating part of the business paving the way to outsourcing these functions to a more economic and productive way that will benefit the business in the long run.

Being the biggest segment in the E-services industry in terms of both local and international players, the software development and maintenance sector comprise more than 450 outfits offering a variety of services including analysis and design, programming, prototyping and testing, reengineering, conversion, customization, installation and maintenance, training and education of system software, middleware, and application software. These services are offered not just to local businesses, but most especially to foreign counterparts, even competitor clients such as the US, Australia, Europe, and Japan.

Outsourcing software development can be as challenging as it can be as rewarding at the same time. Disasters and scare stories of failed outsourcing ventures have been on top of the news at some point thus, business owners and IT managers are apprehensive about outsourcing these critical functions of the business. But this was all a long time ago. In fact, 2017 Statista Outsourced Statistics showed that 64% of businesses are outsourcing their software application development and 51% of them outsource the maintenance of the said software application.

Hiring an on-site software development expert is expensive. The US pays its developers some of the highest salaries, yet 40% of these businesses plan to increase their business outsourcing spending. Of those companies, 64% cited software application development as the main reason. For businesses in countries such as the United States, Australia, and United Kingdom, and other first-world countries, it only makes financial sense to outsource.

Outsourcing Software Development in the Philippines

Outsourcing doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing endeavor. To cope up with today’s fast-changing business environment, it is very important to get things done faster than your company’s on-site team would normally be able to do. While it is obvious that it’s not possible to rush a complex software application development project, outsourcing can make things less complicated.

The Philippines is known to be one of the most competitive countries when it comes to outsourcing. Filipinos as a virtual workforce are teeming with highly competitive and capable individuals, which is why it is a favorite outsourcing destination among small and medium-sized businesses all over the world. The continued growth of the information technology-business process management (IT-BPM) industry in the country which includes offshore software development and maintenance is seen to continue. The Philippines is no longer just a call-center hub, where offshore talents can only offer customer support back end. It’s evolving as the information technology business center where individuals armed with high-caliber knowledge of the ins and outs of any industry can be found.

The Philippines has been providing first-rate software development products and services to markets such as the US, Europe, Japan, and Australia for more than two decades now. The industry experienced robust growth in the 1990s when foreign investors began to take advantage of local programming expertise. The country’s pool of software developers is now equipped with extensive experience in the field – from software development to software maintenance.

Local software firms are believed to face a more serious challenge to find the right target market niche and upgrade their capabilities to compete against other outsourcing countries. The country’s education and government system are facing these possible challenges head-on by creating new curriculums and adjustments that focus more on the new technologies that can benefit software programs not just for outsourcing but for the country’s development as well – combine this with the hardworking and strong-willed characteristics of the workforce, you’re sure to get your money’s worth.

Understanding the Filipino Work Culture and Its Impact on Outsourcing

Work and office cultures are exceptionally different in every country. No bias aside, Filipinos are known to be one of the most hardworking and loyal workers around the world. Whether a Filipino works in an executive office as a rank and file employee or manager, a blue-collar worker in a manufacturing plant, or a volunteer for a government agency, there’s a common workplace etiquette that transcends industries. Companies that have Filipino workers can attest to how efficient and reliable they are. This is evident with how millions of them can be seen showcasing their talents whether it’s on-site or working online. How can Filipino work values work well with outsourcing? Hiring someone offshore will certainly come with challenges. It will be an overstatement that all of the businesses that tried to outsource succeed. It is very important that the outsourced part of the business is handled well with someone who is professional and capable to perform the necessary tasks requested. This is where Filipinos come in. Known for having an impeccable work ethic compared to others, having a Filipino handle whatever you need in the business will leave you nothing but more time to focus more on the more important part of your business, thus, exponentially growing your business in return.

If you’re thinking that the job you are about to outsource is complicated such as software application development, the Filipino workforce has more than enough pool of talents with a wide array of experience in the area. Although it is a fact that some may not be as equally known as the others, you are still in good hands as most Filipino workers are willing to learn and accept the challenges you give them. With them being naturally proactive, strong-willed, and knowledge enthusiasts, they will become the expert you’ve been waiting for in no time. Filipinos are the most family-oriented individuals you will ever meet. They value their job as much as they value their family. This only means that they are treating you as part of their extended family. They will make sure to take care of what’s yours, in this case, your business, and make sure that it will do well. As a team, they will surely make you feel that you can rely on them whenever your business meets more challenging situations.

Filipinos are sincere and loyal. Although this may mean literally nothing in a business perspective, this workforce will always be willing to go beyond what they are asked for. They value good relationships, whether it’s personal or professional. Trust comes naturally with their work ethics. This means that they will get the work done not only because they need the money but they know how important your business is to you. If your goal is to build a successful business, you will have to hire the right people. The hospitality, warmth, and friendliness combined with a high level of professionalism of Filipinos make working with them a rewarding experience. Businesses hire Filipinos not because they are the cheaper counterpart, but because of the work output, they bring to the table.