What is an Offshore Development Centre - (ODC)

Are you looking for an innovative project development & maintenance platform with a low budget? Then, an offshore development centre is a right option for you. Unlike outsourcing, they directly fetch products and services from countries with less monetary value but a great improvement scale. Continue reading this blog to gain more insights.

Today, terms like outsourcing, in-house, and partnership are familiar to every firm because of the increased collaboration culture within the sectors. For example, if you run a plastic factory, you will be tied up with subsidiary or dependent companies that manufacture pipelines, toys, furniture, etc. 

But is it possible to supply or demand regardless of location? Yes, that can be well-executed through an offshore development centre.

Is it so? Undoubtedly, these centres provide better project value for fewer expenses & shipping costs than any other option. Want to know how they do so? Then, read this blog to unravel all the insights!

What does an offshore development centre mean?

ODC, or Offshore Development Centre, is a company that provides software development services through another country. They usually work as your subsidiary firm but manage the assigned work with the best tools and technologies for a low-cost quotient. Some popular options are India, China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Ukraine, and many more.

Also, when you discuss this topic, it's common to confuse outsourcing and offshore development services as the same thing. But in reality, outsourcing’s purpose is to increase productivity and reduce workload. 

Here, cost saving is just an underlying benefit. However, ODC’s primary cause itself is to reduce the company’s expenses by recruiting services & human resources from completely outbound locations.

You have pre-built models like Software Classic, branded ODC, private ODC, etc. So, choose your suitable style. Moving on, let’s see the benefits and perks of an offshore development centre.

How do offshore services benefit your business?

Do you know that 50% of Fortune 500 companies rely on an outsourcing & offshore software development center? It’s because some countries have the best resources that your country’s in-house firms may charge heavily, Not to mention the hiring of a foreign talent pool for the best prices. So, follow this list to know more of its perks:

Reduced costs

As mentioned above, the first and foremost purpose and perk of an offshore development centre is lower costs. Compared to your country, you can get the same service with better expertise, utilities, materials, and all other factors for much-reduced expenses. Also, facilities like office rent, maintenance, and network costs come at cheaper rates.

Easy localization

By collaborating overseas, you can save a lot of money on marketing and localization tests for that country because the software services or apps will already have their standards, specifications, and language options. So, endorsing your product becomes easier and more helpful in the long run.

Talent pool and trade market

Having another country on board means you will get to experience their skills, rich talent, and culture. This may help you fill your performance blocks or issues. Moreover, a foreign country comes with a trade market of international scope for expansion. Similarly, a wider range of profit rates.

Business efficiency

Business productivity and revenue will scale as you possess a team with diverse skills. To put it differently, you will have a separate office with market specialists, managers, PMs, and developers working for you. They completely invest their effort and time to improve your product branding. As a result, success becomes highly inevitable.

These are just a few of the numerous advantages. In the next section, learn the detailed procedure to build an ODC in software companies.

Where & how to set up an offshore development centre?

Setting up a collaboration with offshore development center services may seem like a tedious task, especially for those who are trying this for the first time in an out-domain. However, if you follow the below-mentioned step-by-step procedure, then you will have both sources and a clear reference to work through:

Define your goals and project scope

First, when deciding on the offshore development centre, understand the IT infrastructure services needs, requirements, and vision for the team to work on. Then, define your project scope by choosing the features, tech stack, app complexity, network limitations, customization, and other necessary details.

Decide your timeline and resources

Next, decide whether you need a long-term or short-term engagement with offshore development services based on project scope. Then, choose which domain experts & skills you need in your team. Finally, select a convenient mode between hourly and fixed costs.

Select a development model

When setting your ODC in software companies, deciding your development model beforehand is best. One of the popular options you can choose is Agile methodology, mostly because of its transparent, continuous improvement, & iterative nature within the projects.

Choose your location

Consider some factors like resource availability, FDI policies, labor rate, infrastructure, compliance standards, location benefits, etc. Then, compare among top-tier countries and shortlist. However, if you decide to collaborate in Asia, then India is the best choice to go for an offshore development centre.

Evaluate its local service providers

This step is crucial because finding a dedicated offshore development centre among many options might be confusing. So, make a checklist with questions like industry expertise, software labs, past international projects, resources, company size, etc., then choose one.

Prepare the contract

After discussing all the details, it's better if you have the option to select your team and resources. Because it can give comfort and control at the same time, now, prepare your legal documentation like privacy policies, work permits, NDAs, and business agreements.

Establish infrastructure

Infrastructure is majorly responsible for smooth operations with your offshore team. So, closely check some of its requirements & standards like servers, systems, & bandwidth. Also, check their management policies, backups, exchange protocol, & communication channels.

Security measures

Data and IP protection are high threats while working with remote ecosystems. Even a minor lapse or leakage can cause big financial losses. So, create a detailed security term contract and NDA for clients, development partners, and your internal software team.

Team training and management

Since your collaboration, there will be a chance for miscommunication regarding outcomes and specifications. So, get training for your internal team about their in-house technology, mechanism, workflow hierarchy, testing tools, etc. Thereby enjoy seamless operation.

Get deadlines and team meetings

All the above steps are just establishing a connection. This last phase is highly important to stay content with your foreign team. Regularly have scum meetings on project progress via video chats. Then, give clear feedback regarding your requirements. Make sure you get the project within the given deadlines.

Next, see the challenges of offshore development centres in the following section.

Do software companies face any challenges with ODC?

As much as we praise it, it’s undeniable that the technology has still not evolved enough to provide services without any challenges. But, taking small yet timely measures can surely prevent them to a certain extent. So, explore those risks and issues with a solution below for ODC in software companies:

Time zones

This is one of the open and significant challenges that we can’t unsee while hiring offshore development centres. For example, your company deals with Canadian clients, and you’ve hired Indian employees. That’s why pre-schedule all calls & meetings for both firms to make communication easier.

Miscommunications

There is always scope for the rise of miscommunication and work disruptions. So, better arrange meetings through video calls and give clear feedback to the ODC firms. Express your concerns and try to involve all team members as well for better workflow.

Lack of research

When you want to hire offshore development centre services, then hire a credible local manager or send your team to the location. Then, efficiently research the firm’s reputation, scope, competitive prices, labor costs, etc. Otherwise, there’s a high chance of getting scammed or loss of revenue.

In-house advantages

In-house teams are indeed costly to hire. But, they provide better synchronization & work flexibility than odc. Also, any hardware issues can be solved by them without additional costs. However, with an offshore development centre, you have to take care of your hardware performance and health.

Legality issues

When forging a contract between a partnership, it's not subjective and valid if we draft NDAs and policies based on our country's regulations. So, ensure the inclusion of the host country’s laws and regulative standards, too. This is more of a safety measure not to miss.

Establishing an offshore development centre itself is a difficult task. But overcoming the challenges on top of it makes it more of a questionable choice. So, it is better to merge with a reputed and experienced firm like Appsierra. Let’s understand the above content in the next section.

Appsierra is your offshore development centre for a reason!

Appsierra has been working as a dedicated offshore development center for more than a decade. Our tech solutions meet international standards and are usable across any platform with stellar performance. Also, we render services to negotiable budgets and policies. Thus, collaborating with us means a large scope of advantages like -

Multiple services

At Appsierra, we provide offshore development to multiple software services, including application development, quality engineering, data analytics, cloud management, and many more. Likewise, we use top platforms like AWS, Azure, Salesforce, etc., for developing industry-oriented approaches to ecommerce, aerospace, logistics, retail, and more.

Scalable software architecture

We use auto-scaling infrastructure to make sure that communication stays intact across countries. While we rigorously test the frameworks and systems to reduce the chance of breakdown in extreme conditions like heavy user traffic and load. Similarly, we implement efficient microservices architecture into the project to increase its long-term potential.

Secured and robust communication

At Appsierra, we customize our security firewalls and protocols with updated compliance standards and industry needs. Likewise, we regularly schedule security audits to ensure a safe codebase and environment. In the same way, we employ robust and flexible mediums with cross-border workflow synchronization to provide 24/7 tech support.

Flexible UI development

Our experts employ emerging tools and strategies to guarantee that your app automatically adjusts to foreign audiences as per their native location. At the same time, precision and accuracy will be improved thoroughly. On the other hand, our UI/UX team designs the pages to be highly informative yet transformable based on the screen sizes and connection.

Conclusion

Internationalization with localization is today’s trend. It erases the bounded barriers within countries and combines the firms to share knowledge and technology through an offshore development centre. So, join the bandwagon and expand your venture for an affordable cost quotient with the help of Appsierra.

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