The IT outsourcing industry is a flourishing and growing field that helps businesses cut costs and scale up their services while working remotely. At present, quite an extensive number of companies have realized the benefits of outsourcing internal IT projects to remote dedicated teams.
Due to this, there is a lot of demand for remote software development services. IT outsourcing firms now work endlessly to fulfill clients' needs because businesses are adopting cloud services and their applications to scale up, connect, and collaborate with their employees and customers.
According to Gartner, as many as 88% of the companies worldwide have introduced the possibility of work from home after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic. As it turned out, hiring remote employees is an excellent idea. And if you are wondering why — we invite you to read this article.
How COVID-19 changed the rules for software development?
According to McKinsey Global Survey, COVID-19 has speeded the adoption of digital technologies by several years. The pandemic forced entrepreneurs to introduce new strategies and practices, allowing them to operate freely without the need for face-to-face meetings. The key changes include mainly:
1. Increase the importance of technology and the use of modern tools
First of all, to work efficiently in remote teams, companies must use appropriate tools. This applies to solutions to:
communication (e.g. online instant messaging);
online meetings, including remote onboarding integration of new employees;
signing contracts (use of electronic signature etc.);
tracking working time;
task and project management;
analytics and data visualization; and many others.
2. Reduce the geographical distance between customers and business partners
Moreover, also meetings with clients and business partners took the form of online meetings, which significantly reduced the importance of geographical distance. This new situation made the companies more open to cooperation with foreign companies because nowadays, the geographical location of the contractor is no longer important. It is confirmed by the results of the above-mentioned study, according to which companies confirmed that at least 80% of their customer interactions today are digital in nature.
3. Wider choice of employees and business partners
The aforementioned reduction of the importance of the employee's or partner's location has resulted in companies having much greater possibilities to establish valuable cooperation. This is particularly important in the case of experienced software developers who are still hard to find on the labor market. Thanks to the possibility of remote cooperation, the entrepreneurs can find specialists with a profile and skillset perfectly suited to their company's needs.
Why remote software development is the future?
Speeded digitalization caused by pandemic showed that remote software development is the future of product development. Why? There are several reasons for this.
1. Huge talent pool
The first and most important advantage that makes remote software development the future of product development is, of course, unlimited possibilities of searching for new employees. As an employer, you don't have to limit the search for employees from the nearest area — you can search for them all over the world!
According to a McKinsey survey, 87% of organizations are experiencing or expecting to face a tech talent shortage within the next few years.
The solution is to look for remote employees, especially in countries where the shortage of programmers is relatively low. A good direction is Ukraine, which has 20,000 IT specialists and provides around 16,000 IT graduates per year.
2. Costs reduction
Hiring a remote IT team also reduces costs. Product owners can look for service providers from the regions where rates are more competitive.
However, the lower costs of an employee do not necessarily mean lower quality. Offering a remote job offers a better chance to find talented specialists on the market. For example, if you decide to look for employees in Central and Eastern Europe, you can work with some of the best programmers in the world (the confirmation you will find in point 6).
3. Speed up the recruitment process
As an employer, you surely know how difficult it is to find a good and qualified IT specialist. Recruitment processes take months, which also generates high costs and frustration for HR departments. Expanding the search to other countries is a step that will allow you to shorten the process of searching for new candidates and make HR departments' workers easier.
4. Improve efficiency
According to the CoSo Cloud Survey, as many as 77% of people who work remotely claim that they're more productive during working from home. People are focused on their tasks, have fewer distractions, and what's more, they want to show that they perform their duties properly. These results show that remote working is the future of many sectors, not just IT.
5. Maintain a competitive advantage
If you don't decide to hire remote developers, you risk losing your competitive advantage. Nowadays, most digital companies choose this option because it is a very important issue for employees who just enjoy working remotely and can't imagine returning to the office. After a pandemic, remote work opens many opportunities, such as working from any place in the world. Lack of such an opportunity in your organization may result in big problems with finding valuable employees.
6. Access to world-class developers
Do you want to find world-class software developers who will help you build a top-quality product? If you decide to hire remote workers, you will have this opportunity.
As we mentioned before, one of the best directions both to outsource IT services and hire software developers is Central and Eastern Europe. Why? For example, according to Hackerrank, software developers in Ukraine are in eleventh place among the most skilled software engineers in the world. If you decide to build your software remotely, you will have the opportunity to work with the best specialists from this country without the need to offer them relocation.
7. Create a diverse work environment
Nowadays, building a culture of diversity is extremely important. A remote team consisting of employees located in different countries can learn a lot from each other with valuable tips. It is also a factor that shows that you are an open and forward-thinking employer who is focused on development and innovation.
8. Perfect choice for small and medium-sized companies
If you are a start-up owner, you should consider outsourcing your software development services. This is a great option if you need the support of experienced software developers in specific product development.
Currently, depending on your company’s location and direction of hiring, you will probably encounter two terms: offshoring and nearshoring.
Offshoring is one of the most budget-cutting methods of outsourcing. It means outsourcing the processes to vendors from distant countries, such as India or China, where the talent pools are vast, and the expenses are low. The biggest challenge of this option is the timezone as well as a cultural difference.
Nearshoring means outsourcing to a nearby country. This option allows holding face-to-face meetings more frequently, at a lower cost. Moreover, cultural compatibility is higher, which facilitates work coordination and reduces the risk of misunderstanding.
How to make remote software development work?
Remote working is a prominent part of the work at 2muchcoffee. Our employees can work from the office and remotely - depending on their preferences. Our team works effectively, which is proved by a significant number of satisfied customers. So, what is our recipe for effective remote working? Here are some tips that may be useful for your company.
Use of the best tools for remote teams
The key to effective remote working is good tools that facilitate processes such as this:
communication in a team,
onboarding new employees,
workflow,
classification and status of the tasks.
Regular online meetings
In remote teams, clear and regular communication is essential. That is why we meet every day for 15-minutes daily meetings, during which we talk about issues that come up in a project. The principle is simple - it has to be short and concise.
Building a culture of trust and support
Remote working, especially for beginners, is a real challenge. To help them find their way in the new reality, you need the support of more experienced colleagues. At Ideamotive, we make sure that every employee feels an important part of the team, in which we trust and support each other.
Final Thoughts
Switching to remote work was associated with many challenges. However, as it turned out, it was a much-needed change, which gave many new opportunities and made software development in a remote team almost mandatory.
If you're looking for a software developers team that will be perfectly matched with your industry, technology, team dynamics, and company culture - contact us so we can answer all of your questions.