Mobile app development outsourcing is a well-trodden path to building your startup or strengthening your business with a mobile application. The global IT outsourcing market is expected to reach $98 billion by 2024, and even the post-pandemic crisis was unable to make outsourcing less attractive for companies.
Is this the right way to develop a mobile app for your startup or business? Let’s take a fresh look at this question.
The Essence and Main Advantages of Mobile Development Outsourcing
In a nutshell, mobile development outsourcing means transferring this task to a third-party vendor who is able to offer more favorable conditions for creating a mobile solution than local companies. As a rule, the main outsourcing destinations for American and Western European tech startups are the countries of Eastern Europe (Ukraine, Belarus), as well as Asian countries (China, Taiwan, India).
Also, the concept of IT outsourcing is often mixed up with IT outstaffing, however, there is quite a clear difference between these two approaches to software development. IT outstaffing means that a third-party vendor gathers the development team for you, while under the framework of IT outsourcing, the ready-made and dedicated team is working on your project exclusively.
Top Reasons Why Companies Outsource Mobile App Development
Here are four main reasons why mobile development outsourcing can be a smarter strategy for your business.
- Access the talent pool worldwide. Unlike local hiring, you can get in touch with the best specialists, whose knowledge, values, and competencies will perfectly match the mission of your future product.
- Save up to 60% of the development budget. A smart approach to mobile app development outsourcing can save more than half of your budget without sacrificing quality. What is more, being able to hire the best talents remotely, companies that outsource development very often get better results than their competitors who work with local developers.
- Focus on core tasks. Mobile app development is not always a key task. The application can be an additional tool to keep in touch with customers and increase sales. In this case, the business owner can focus on the main business strategy while the mobile application is being built offshore.
- Keep distance in post-pandemic reality. This is a new reason, dictated by modern conditions. In addition to the fact that mobile development outsourcing will allow you to save on renting an office and maintaining an in-house team, this is one more way of social distancing. In many cases, the dedicated teams are completely remote, and this does not compromise the quality of the final product.
But Are There Some Limitations to Mobile Development Outsourcing?
Yes, of course, mobile development outsourcing has several limitations. However, they become insignificant if your outsourcing partner is able to organize the process right. The main concerns of the business owners who are going to outsource are usually related to the cultural gap, the mismatch of time zones, and the organization of communication.
However, in practice, cultural, mental, and linguistic differences are almost invisible in the case of the American customer with an Eastern European team interaction. Plus, it’s not that difficult to establish remote communication and control, for example, using Slack, Jira, Trello, and other tools for remote tasks management and instant chatting.
Different time zones also do not complicate the work of the remote team if the process is broken down into iterations – that is, the remote team ends the workday when the customer starts it and can check the result of their work.
Conclusion
Mobile development outsourcing is a great alternative to gathering a freelance team or having your developers in-house.
However, the success of your project will largely depend on the organizational skills of your vendor and the technical background of your dedicated team. That is why you should be wise when choosing your outsourcing partner – the company should be able to organize the development process in such a way that it is really beneficial for you.