IT outsourcing can be a great way to cut costs and increase your team’s productivity. While the global economic landscape remains uncertain, it’s more important than ever before to be adaptable and ensure your business processes are at their most efficient. These days, more and more businesses are choosing to outsource some of their IT needs to some degree. If you hadn’t considered working with a third party before, it’s worth noting that 78% of businesses all over the world feel positive about their outsourcing partners.You wanna learn more about alternatives to increase your team's productivity despite the context? We suggest you access here to book a free consultation with one of our excecutives.
While you might have had reservations about working with an extended remote team, because of perceived geographical limitations, concerns about different time zones and cultural differences, nearshore outsourcing can often be the answer to ensuring efficient high-quality work at a lower price.
Working with third parties will ultimately allow your company to focus on its core objectives and direct valuable resources to the right places, helping your business grow even in challenging economic circumstances.
How does nearshore outsourcing actually work?
If your business opts for nearshore outsourcing, some of the key advantages include working with a professional IT team, in a nearby country in a close time zone (which means 6–8 hours of working overlap), with similar communication styles and approaches to work.
Hiring a company that works in the same language as you do reduces barriers and will help keep tasks streamlined and efficient. With high levels of English proficiency and plenty of talented IT professionals, Latin America is often a popular option for U.S. based companies.
Closer geographical proximity will also help you guarantee efficiency since more in-person visits can happen, allowing easy collaboration.
While you might be skeptical about the efficiency of working with a remote team, nearshore outsourcing can be considered a win-win arrangement for your business as you won’t need to sacrifice high-quality work and you’ll find that your in-house team has more time for other more pressing tasks.
So how can I avoid losing efficiency?
Trusting another remote company with your IT tasks and software development projects is a big step. However, bringing the right partner on board can yield excellent results and boost your company’s productivity. Before you commit to a nearshore partner, take a look at these key factors that should influence your decision.
Security
Ensuring that your outsourcing partner takes cybersecurity seriously is key to ensuring projects aren’t halted or delayed due to detrimental data breaches that can jeopardize a company’s future. Keeping in mind that $3.9 million is the average cost of a data breach, cybersecurity has to be a priority.
A trustworthy company will have no problem detailing their approach before you begin working with them. Don’t be afraid to ask about how they deal with storage, backups, and sensitive data. Before you sign any contracts, it’s important to know their exact cybersecurity protocol and how it will be managed from the project’s planning phase to the end date.
Seamless Communication
97% of employees believe that communication has an impact on how tasks are performed every day in the workplace. Communication is key in all workplaces, but when you’re working with an outsourcing partner, it’s even more critical to make sure you’re all on the same page. Simple misunderstandings can translate into big errors costing you both time and money, not to say your employees’ headaches.
Communication should flow easily between both companies, and your partner shouldn’t be afraid of keeping you in the loop. Check if the potential company uses task management tools like Trello or GitHub for software development, to ensure easy collaboration between both parties. Knowing how tasks are progressing, acknowledging deadlines, and having an idea of who is working on what will help you keep track of your evolving project.
Before you commit to an outsourcing partner, consider their style of communication with your team. Think about how they reply to your questions and if they respond in a prompt professional manner. If the potential partner seems evasive or doesn’t communicate clearly, this should sound alarm bells.
Market expertise
When choosing a nearshore company, it’s also important to make sure to do your research and do a full background check. Look for client reviews that can confirm excellent service and expertise. Scouring the web for review sites like GoodFirms or Clutch can be a great way of tracing the company’s past work and their reputation.
Don’t be afraid of contacting their past clients and asking for a full review of how they felt their services were performed.
An experienced outsourcing partner will be able to demonstrate success with a portfolio and back up success stories with case studies showing how they found solutions for its clients’ IT needs.
The Importance of a Framework
Based on our +24 years of professional experience, we know that managing remote teams is much easier when a working methodology is implemented and followed correctly. Using a structured and organized methodology is how a nearshore company delivers projects efficiently.
At Tonic3 we use agile methodologies, mostly Scrum and Kanban. Why agile? When implemented properly, agile is a powerful tool that helps guarantee efficiency. Applying an agile framework means teams working in different parts of the world can work as efficiently and productively as on-site teams.
Working with this approach, instead of planning or designing an iteration of a product in advance, the product evolves as a result of self-nurturing cycles. Work takes place in short sprints that generally last between one and two weeks, with each team member completing a set of tasks assigned to them.
At the end of the sprint, we submit corresponding deliverables representing the progress made by the team. We meet in person at our Dallas office, your workspace, or virtually to share current progress, any necessary changes, and if there have been any unexpected hold-ups.
We keep channels of communication open, ensuring clients have a say throughout the project. Clients are encouraged to pitch in and give honest feedback, helping to shape the final product. Once the first round is reviewed, the process then restarts, with work done to improve the product in the next round of deliverables.
Frequent demos and product tests are provided so that you can rest assured that there’ll be no unpleasant surprises with incorrect code at the end. This isn’t just an excellent methodology for our own internal processes but it also results in a transparent process that fully engages clients and has them involved from start to finish. In this way, it’s much easier for clients to track progress in real-time.
Constructing a proper feedback flow between clients and the nearshore outsourcing partner is fundamental to maintaining strong lines of communication and mutual understanding resulting in the desired result — successful delivery of the product. Using our software development methodology, clients have more control during the product development process meaning the risk of any dissatisfaction with the product is greatly reduced.
To learn more about how your business can achieve results by outsourcing your project, reach out today and we’ll put together a custom team for your specific needs.
