Tips on Selecting the Right Software Offshore Company for Your Upcoming Project!

What would be a better choice when it comes to architecting a mobile app or a website for your business?

Hiring an in-house team? Or offshoring to a tech partner?

Well, this decision entirely depends on what your requirement is, what type of software product you want to build, whether you want just a single product or a number of products, your budget constraints, and similar other questions.

If you want to design world-class software products, hiring an offshore software development company would be the best choice. Besides, if you decide to hire offshore software development services in India, you will benefit all the more. You will get faster market releases, cost-efficiency, reduced team management efforts, better project visibility, high-quality products, a competitive advantage over others, and much more.

So in this blog, we have explained some practical tips and tricks for choosing the right software development firm. Please read ahead to know more.

Actionable Tips to Consider while Choosing the Right Offshore Software Development Company!

Enlisting Project Requirements

Before approaching a software outsourcing company, you need to list down your requirements according to your goals and objectives. This list of well-defined requirements will help you to narrow down your search. For making this list, you need to keep these fundamental questions in mind- Do I need a mobile application, or a website, or both? Do I need one or more software products? Do you want a complete product or want to redesign an older product of yours?

Verification and Background Check

You need to verify using several tactics whether the firm you are going to work with has the required experience, and expertise in the required services. Their core competency must be in delivering software services. This can be verified by connecting with their clients, checking their social media pages for reviews, checking their ratings on authorized sites, etc. Go for a background check by checking their credentials and certificates and see whether the company has been progressing in recent years or downsizing.

Agile Development Methodologies

Make sure that the offshore partner you select follows the agile development process. The Agile Software Development model is essential for proper management of the project, especially during the pandemic. It ensures benefits like

• enhanced ability to implement changes on the fly,
• accelerated delivery of projects,
• better transparency,
• improved quality,
• time predictability,
• lower costs

Scalability of the Product

You need to make sure that your software provider will develop a scalable product for you. The product needs to be future-ready so that additional features can be added to it and its capabilities can be molded as your business grows. So check if the software provider offers customized solutions. Also, enquire in advance whether there are any additional or hidden charges for this.

Intellectual Property and related Agreement

The tech partner must mention clearly in the agreement that the intellectual property of the project, i.e. all the project data will be given in your custody, once the project is over. This will ensure data security and assure you that your property will not be leaked in any condition.

Communication and Transparency

Make sure that the company to whom you outsource your software project has an advanced level of tools for transparent and continual communication. You need to ask them questions like- ‘How often will there be follow-up calls?’ and ‘Will the company set up extra calls if required?’ This will help you understand if the company can establish strong communication with you and avoid miscommunication.

Flexibility in Pricing Structure

Choose a partner who offers several pricing models for you to select one that perfectly suits your needs. There could be pricing models such as-

• dedicated development team model for directly

hiring the offshore software developers for the project

• fixed-price contracts for smaller or medium-sized projects
• T&M model for hiring an expert professional temporarily.

Key Selection Criteria for the Right Software Outsourcing Company

The offshore development firm should rank high on overall performance, teamwork, scalability, on-time delivery, security, etc. across various verticals of its clients. It must offer the following services for a software product so that you can focus on your core business.

Development of Software Product: The development firm should offer end-to-end software development services right from initial architectural design to its release. Their team should have knowledge of both partial and full product life cycle development depending on the specific requirements of the clients.

Product Modification: As and when required by the clients, the offshore vendor (usually ISV- independent software vendor) should provide product enhancements or add extra features.

Project Migration: The offshore company should be capable of migrating the projects involving a complete process of a developed client-server product to web-based technology and migration from older technology platforms to advanced ones.

Testing and Quality Assurance: It is a must that the offshore vendor should provide testing and quality assurance services for the software product from modular and unit testing to integrated functionality and performance testing.

Maintenance of Product: Once the development and testing of the product are complete, support and maintenance is required from time to time. So, make sure that the vendor provides product maintenance services as well.

Final Thoughts

Choosing an offshore technology partner is quite a tough job, especially in today’s competitive business world. There are countless top-notch software development outsourcing companies in India and all over the world. Yet, businesses ranging from a small company to a Fortune 500 company prefer offshoring their software projects mostly to India due to the 360-degree services that they can offer.

So, in this blog, we shared some vital tips to hire an offshore software company, along with some selection criteria. We hope that they will be helpful to you in finding the right offshore tech partner.

Martha Jones is a Project Manager at Biz4Solutions with 14+ years of experience in Project Management, Quality Assurance, and Test Management in IT-related services. She has expertise in various domains like Healthcare, Finance, Transportation, etc.