LTS QA

Outsourcing software testing can bring you many benefits in terms of cost, flexibility and test expertise, but to choose a reliable software testing company, you have to thoroughly understand your business, alongside in-depth research of the IT outsourcing vendors. In this article, Lotus QA will walk you through the strategic guide to choose the right software QA company for your business.

 

1. Have a clear checklist for the software QA company

Before deciding what software QA company is for you, the foremost thing that you must do is to have a clear checklist of what you want from the vendor. It will be divided into technical and non-tech features. If they can meet these needs, you can proceed to the next step of this guide.

 

 

a. Technical features:

 

The scope of testing

Your scope of testing can be the entire testing department, a product line, a single product, a product release or just a function. By determining what parts of your product that you want to outsource, you have formed the first picture of the QA vendor you want. For instance, if it is just a product release or maintenance release, you know you should go for small or medium-sized vendors for a better price.

 

Testing skills

Another important feature that you must put into consideration is the skills required from QA engineers. Testing skills include technical skills (test planning and test execution, testing tools, programming languages, frameworks, etc.) and domain experiences. With the formation of what skills you need, you have already narrowed down the candidates that can work with you in the testing project.

 

 

Type of testing

What types of testing you want to outsource can be determined by many features. In terms of the quality aspect, you can choose between functional testing and non-functional testing. In terms of testing methods, you can choose between manual and automated. All in all, this varies as you decide which approach you want to apply to your project.

 

Lab facilities

You need to know what kind of facilities are required in your testing project, how many appliances, what platform, what OS, etc. Once these have been decided, you can ask for a test lab from the vendor.

 

Software testing model

The software testing model will determine how you and your outsourced team are gonna work together in the future. The most popular software testing models are:

• The waterfall model, in which the testing process is distributed into separate steps, and the result of one phase works as the input for the next phase in sequence.
• The V model, in which the development and testing activities are carried out side by side
• The agile model which follows iterative and incremental steps
• The spiral model, which includes planning, risk analysis, engineering, and evaluation steps

These testing models give you different advantages and disadvantages. Knowing the right software testing model for you will help you find the right vendor that has experience with the particular model.

Read more: 7 Tips for Effective IT Outsourcing Management

 

b. Non-tech features:

 

Security measures

One more important thing for the sake of software QA outsourcing is the security measures to be applied throughout the project. With a stringent security process and necessary measures, your data and information can be protected from data leaks and breaches. You need to find vendors that have already had a security process but are still willing to make customizations to fit your needs.

 

 

Language and communication method

Communication is another important thing that you need to clarify with the vendors. Since your team will be most likely to work remote (often nearshore or offshore), you need to know what language you want to communicate with the vendors and your preferred communication method. Make sure that you get to sit down and have a real conversation with the outsourced employee to sufficiently know their language ability.

 

Team scaling capability

One objective for you to hire a testing service provider is to build a team quickly. Therefore, you need to figure out how long will it take them to fill the positions you require. Moreover, you also need to see whether they are open to scaling down the team sizes if you plan to change the testing scope.

 

2. Consider vendors that are partnered with prestigious testing institutions

When looking for the right software QA company, you might see many “dazzling” advertisements on what the vendors are capable of. But the thing is, what effectively proves the vendor’s capability is the partnership with prestigious testing institutions and the international-recognized testing certificates.

 

 

The most popular testing organization is perhaps ISTQB – a non-profit destination for software testing companies to earn their recognition. They have a professional standing in the world’s testing industry, giving certifications for the syllabi developed and reviewed by leading testing professionals.

Besides the certifications for individual testers, you should also look for vendors that have engaged in the ISTQB® Partner Program. This program shows the commitment and competency of the whole vendor in software testing only. And you can also check for what kind of testings the vendor is capable of.

 

3. Reference check with vendor’s clients, portfolios and domains

Alongside the certifications for the testing competency, another important feature that requires your attention is the reference check with other clients of the vendors. Read the reviews, testimonials and case studies to know what the vendors can do to you, then you can decide which vendor to go with.

 

 

For clients and case studies, the most direct way to know these is to ask from the vendors. They will always have a well-designed and well-documented kit to provide you with their strongest clients, showing you their skill sets, solutions and strengths. Through these documents, you can have a quick undertaking of what domain they focus on and their experience in different domains.

There are several listing sites that provide you with real testimonials for particular projects. Seeing the vendors’ work from other points of view can give you the overall picture of what each vendor can offer.

 

4. Find the vendors with a clear process

 

Testing process

A testing process comprises of different steps, from requirement analysis, test strategy, test viewpoint environment, test case/test script, test execution to test report. When choosing a software QA company, you need to make sure the vendor you’re considering has these basic steps and that they are committed to following these steps closely.

With a clear understanding of what testing process you may engage in, you will have in mind the level of compatibility between your business and the outsourced testing team.

 

 

Besides all that, you need to know the input from your side and the output from their side to know what you can get after the whole testing process. By staying result-oriented, you will have fewer difficulties when managing the testing process.

 

Communication process

Communication keeps the project running coherently and cohesively. The communication process is a vital feature that contributes to the desired output of the testing process. It’s like a bridge that can connect many steps of the testing process.

 

5. Consider rate cards and biddings from different vendors

You can always request rate cards for hiring the QA engineers from the vendors. To make the best out of this, you can ask from onshore, nearshore and offshore vendors. By doing this, you now can grasp the average price for testing in different parts of the world. This strategy can help you know the price differences among regions and the amount of money you can save when outsourcing.

Through detailed rate cards and biddings, you will know that with a certain price range, what the vendors can offer you, so that you can narrow down the potential service providers for your testing projects.

 

6. Request for a small pilot

Perhaps the most practical strategy for software QA outsourcing is to request a small pilot. With this, you can gain a clear perspective of:

• The practical understanding of how the project goes when outsourcing to a software QA company, including the challenges, the working method and the working process.
• The overall sense of compatibility. This is not necessarily limited to the technical aspects. Indeed, it should focus on the communicative traits, the cultural norms and the integration between teams. Any difficulties can be seen and therefore addressed right away.
• The costs for that small trial to be put in place, hence the overall cost for the whole testing process can be roughly calculated. The outcome of the pilot project will be live evidence of how the team will work in the future. How they comply with the project’s requirements, how well the team members perform, etc. will come clear.

 

 

7. In conclusion

Choosing the right software QA company for a strategic and successful testing project has never been easy. In fact, many companies, no matter big or small, have admitted having many difficulties choosing a suitable vendor for QA operations.

To answer this vexed question, it all came down to the matter of understanding your needs and the testing market, including both the technical and non-tech matters.

 

8. Lotus QA – Top destination for Software QA company

At Lotus QA, these bugging questions will be addressed through a thorough checklist to help you put the pieces into one complete picture of how to choose a software QA company.

 

 

Lotus QA with one of our focuses on quality assurance can provide you with the best outsource software testing service. At Lotus QA, we can ensure you of:

• High Security: LQA not only follows stringent procedures of ISO 27000:01 for optimal security and international standardized process but also flexibly adapts to clients’ requirements
• Quality Human Resource: we ensure staff competency through strict rounds of interviews, on-job orientations, continuous learning & development for the most suitable QA staff.
• Flexibility: We provide different working models to allow clients to choose or change the plan at any time.

Contact us for more guidance on this:

• Website: https://www.lotus-qa.com/
• Tel: (+84) 24-6660-7474
• Fanpage: https://www.facebook.com/LotusQualityAssurance

For a software or a product to function smoothly, software testing is of paramount importance, but not any company is capable of having an in-house testing team due to limited resources. Instead, an outsourced software testing appears to be a viable solution. Let’s find out more about the 6 reasons why you should choose software testing outsourcing.

 

1. Cost-effectiveness

Building an in-house software testing is very costly. For example, according to Indeed, the base salary for a software testing engineer in the US is $87.5K per year, with an average cash bonus of $5000. This varies within the country, and it can even reach the point of $152,163 per year, which is a lot.

On the other hand, thanks to geographical pricing, the base salary of nearshore, offshore is 50 to 70% lower than that in the US. For instance, the average salary of a Vietnamese software testing engineer is $650, which is only $7800/year. By choosing a software testing service provider in Vietnam, your company can now reduce the testing cost by a lot.

 

 

As you can see from these statistics, there is a huge gap in the cost range between an in-house testing team and a nearshore/offshore team. With an in-house team, the employer not only has to pay a large amount of money to hire an average software testing engineer but also pays for additional compensations such as cash bonuses, healthcare, annual benefits, etc. And this does not even include the HR operation costs and costs for testing tools, which can add up to thousands of dollars. But with a nearshore/offshore team, you don’t have to worry about these costs.

 

2. Flexibility

Another reason why you should choose software testing outsourcing is the flexibility it offers, including fast team scaling and quick adaptation to project requirements.

 

Fast team scaling

Outsource software testing offers you the benefit of a fast team scaling, as you can ask for a team of 3-5 testers and hire them within just 2 weeks. Whether it is manual testers or automation testers, you can still get the team members that you want in a small amount of time. This is also applied when you want to scale down your team to match your business trajectory.

 

 

Quick adaptation to project requirements

In this ever-changing market and disruptive advances of the IT market, the case of changes in project objectives and requirements is very common, causing headaches for business leaders when they want to switch up. With this change in the test objectives, your in-house team will find it very challenging to adapt due to the demands for new technologies, the use of new tools, etc. In contrast, the outsourced test team can quickly change the personnel and replace them with those of required skills and hence, adapt to project requirements within a few days.

 

3. Faster time-to-market

Time-to-market is one of the most important factors that will impact your product’s efficiency, revenue, market shares and competitiveness. The last thing you want for your project is the delay. But with an in-house team, a delay is very likely to happen because recruiting, training and onboarding process can take up a large amount of time for your business, not to mention the testing process itself.

However, with an outsourced software testing team, the first thing that you will never have to lay hands on are the recruitment process. The vendor will provide you with the perfect candidate that can work on your project right away.

 

 

They will also be responsible for creating and accurately following a timeline that is optimized to suit your own targets and business. Certain measures will be taken to ensure that timeline, and there will be no unnecessary delays, endless searches for the right tools, etc.

 

4. Access to expertise

Software testing outsourcing companies have their own talent pools with many QA experts who have many years of experience working with different testing tools, systems, test environments. They also has what it takes to understand your domain, whether it is healthcare, finance or education to give you strategic advice.

 

 

For IT workers in general and software testers in specific, acquiring and attaining talents of high expertise level is very difficult. This is because, besides the high salary, your company has to have the reputation and additional benefits to recruit one tester with experience and skills, which requires a lot of effort and money.

But with outsourcing, the outsourcing vendor will hand the CVs that include the technology and skillsets you need directly to you, and you will have the benefit of choosing the most suitable candidates.

 

5. Focused operations

Software testing is a vital part of the software development life cycle, but it is not necessarily a core function of your business. By outsourcing software testing activities, your core business operations are now untangled of the recruitment and operational activities for the new testing departments, and you will have more time and focus on your important operations.

 

 

The testing team will be in the good hands of the vendor, who has experience in managing an outsourced testing team. All you have to do is to check regularly on the progress of the testing team and spend time on what can really create the edge of competition for your business.

 

6. Unbiased perspective

When it comes to software testing, cognitively biased perspective is a common issue, leading to biased test analysis, test cases and test execution. Put it simply, an in-house team will know the basic information of the software development process, hence knowing the potential defects coming up. Although this kind of information can help testers detect the most obvious bugs, their point of testing is now drawn to the apparent hypothesis, making them unaware of the alternatives and other defects.

 

 

This is the reason why we need an unbiased perspective from external test experts. Since the product-related information is missing, the testers can dig deep into the documents and have multifaceted perspectives towards the products. Thanks to this, there will be no bugs missing, no in-attentional blindness, no biases in test cases and test execution if handed out carefully.

 

Our final thoughts

Deciding whether you should choose an in-house or outsourced software testing team requires much consideration of many aspects. But if you are leaning towards these features, outsourcing software testing is definitely your answer:

• Cost Savings
• Flexibility in team scaling and project adaptation
• Faster time-to-market
• Large international talent pool with expertise
• Focus on core operations
• Unbiased perspective in testing

 

Software Testing Outsourcing with Lotus QA

Lotus QA with one of our focuses on quality assurance can provide you with the best outsource software testing service. At Lotus QA, we can ensure you of:

• High Security: LQA not only follows stringent procedures of ISO 27000:01 for optimal security and international standardized process but also flexibly adapts to clients’ requirements
• Quality Human Resource: we ensure staff competency through strict rounds of interviews, on-job orientations, continuous learning & development for the most suitable QA staff.
• Flexibility: We provide different working models to allow clients to choose or change the plan at any time.

 

Interested in our software testing outsourcing services? Contact Lotus QA for consultations from test experts:

• Website: https://www.lotus-qa.com/
• Tel: (+84) 24-6660-7474
• Fanpage: https://www.facebook.com/LotusQualityAssurance

Whether you should do IT Outsourcing is still a controversial matter that you just can’t simply decide in a day. However, there are some cases that you should definitely consider outsourcing IT functions for your business.

 

1. Outsourcing IT functions to reduce cost

With IT Outsourcing, it is often recommended that you outsource the functions that are easy to train and easy to specialize in. It not only helps you get the IT talents with proficient skills but also saves you a great deal of money, thanks to geographical pricing.

Due to the impact of Covid-19, the economy’s main focus now is the numbers, the cost saved and the overall profit. As a result, cost reduction is becoming increasingly critical when you choose to outsource your IT operations. According to a survey of Deloitte, 70% of the participants said that their priority in IT Outsourcing in 2022 is to reduce cost. For those who have applied IT Outsourcing, the average they can save with this approach is 40%.

 

 

To be more specific, IT Outsourcing helps you reduce labor costs, recruitment costs, infrastructure costs and operational costs. For example, it would cost you about $157,570 a year, including taxes, to hire a software engineer in the US. But with an outsourcing vendor, the cost drops to $50,000 a year.

 

2. Little technology expertise

According to a survey from Clutch, 26% of companies outsource mostly in the hopes of working with an expert, demonstrating how expertise is a valuable commodity for small businesses.

Many businesses don’t have the time and effort to recruit and maintain IT staff as the technical work is often temporary. Especially for a company with little to no reputation, subject-matter executive recruitment is very difficult because the project may not be attractive enough, or the scope of work is small with no further expansion.

 

 

When you choose to do IT outsourcing functions, you get to access a large talent pool of great experience and expertise. These talents have already received comprehensive training and certifications for professional growth, which can provide you with the touch of an expert’s view. Besides this, you can also use a range of technologies and get assistance whenever you need it.

 

3. Speed up time-to-market

The current pace of the IT market is getting faster and faster. People now demand constant updates of new features, faster releases, etc. To meet these growing demands, software developers have to do something to have a faster time-to-market, and IT Outsourcing is just the answer for this.

 

 

So how can IT Outsourcing speed up time-to-market? Here’s why:

• You can outsource different functions of the IT department at the same time. For example, you can outsource the software development to one vendor, and software testing for another vendor. Since the development and testing process can be done simultaneously, the wait time is shortened, hence faster time to market.
• You don’t have to spend time on training new recruits as the outsourcing vendor has already taken care of this for you.
• You work with experts when you outsource your IT functions. Their experience and proficiency will contribute greatly to the speed of the project.

 

4. Struggle with IT recruitment

IT recruitment has been one of the biggest challenges when you want to build an in-house IT team. The problems that you might stumble upon are:

 

Limited local talent pool

The talent shortage is an alarming issue. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the US alone, by the year 2026, the shortage of IT engineers will be more than 1.2M. So to recruit enough team members, you have to seek the IT talents in other regions, most ideally Asia and Eastern Europe.

 

Too much time and effort to attract talents

An employer has to do a lot of things to impress and hence, attract talents, including employer branding, training programs, benefits, etc. Building these can take years, and many businesses don’t have the resources and time to do this. So they outsource the recruitment process to the third party to unburden them from the hard work.

 

 

Too much cost to maintain an in-house IT team

Besides the relatively high salary, the employers also have to take care of benefits, healthcare, sometimes accommodation so that the talents will stay with them. Again, it is very costly, so many businesses can’t do it and they outsource it to a third party.

 

High turnover rate

Sometimes a business just can’t ensure that the employees will stay with them forever. Especially in the IT market in which the turnover rate of talents is very high, disrupting the whole project. But when outsourcing IT functions, you can replace that staff with another one in just one or two weeks. The vendor will be responsible for providing suitable IT talents for you.

 

Read more: Top 8 Challenges in IT Recruitment Faced by Tech Giants

 

5. Too much time and effort in management

What can you do when you have a heavy IT workload but most of them are non-core functions? The best answer for you is to outsource them.

For a business that is overwhelmed by the workload, outsourcing helps them move some activities to external people so that they can concentrate on the main functions. Here third parties play a key role by acquiring the tasks.

 

 

With IT Outsourcing, you and your staff will not get bogged down with non-core activities. For example, before starting a project, you would normally have to carry out technology training sessions to give the fundamental information and knowledge for the team to follow. Sometimes, this training process can take up days, or even weeks.

But with a third-party team that has well-trained staff with expertise and experience, this can be shortened to just a few days as they only need to spend time on the requirement analysis, not the technologies themselves. Now, you don’t have to waste your effort and time on something that doesn’t make profits.

In fact, it can even give your in-house team more time and energy to work on their actual job. The investment that could have been spent on recruitment or training programs now is used for other core matters such as facilities or marketing campaigns, for example.

 

6. Too many low-important IT functions

Technology can refer to the difficult programming languages or technical breakthroughs that can have a major impact on your business’ performance. But it can also refer to the non-core, low-important IT functions that not every business has to have for their core operations.

For example, data centers and cloud storage are often considered non-core functions that should be outsourced because these IT functions don’t have anything to do with the strategic operations of the company.

 

 

By outsourcing these low-important IT functions, your company has:

• Handled them to the experts that can actually make them work more efficiently
• Avoided the tedious and time-consuming tasks that do not bring values
• Focused more on the strategic functions

 

In conclusion

Outsourcing IT functions is a very hard decision for any business owner. But if your business is struggling with IT recruitment, IT costs, non-core operations, time-to-market, high turnover rate and subject-matter expertise, you should start considering IT outsourcing now.

Achieve competent outsourcing with Lotus QA

Lotus QA has been the IT outsourcing partner with many countries, bringing our talented IT workers to the international market. When working with Lotus QA, we always ensure:

• High Security: LQA not only follows stringent procedures of ISO 27000:01 for optimal security and international standardized process but also flexibly adapts to clients’ requirements
• Quality Human Resource: we ensure staff competency through strict rounds of interviews, on-job orientations, continuous learning & development.
• Flexibility: We provide different working models to allow clients to choose or change the plan at any time.

 

If you have more questions about IT outsourcing management, you can contact Lotus QA expert for more information:

• Website: https://www.lotus-qa.com/
• Tel: (+84) 24-6660-7474
• Fanpage: https://www.facebook.com/LotusQualityAssurance

According to a survey from Clutch, 80% of small businesses in the U.S. plan to outsource their IT functions to realize a host of benefits. But to harness the potential of IT outsourcing within small businesses, you have to know suitable IT outsourcing models, how to successfully apply them and how to avoid common mistakes. In this article, Lotus QA will bring you an in-depth guide to do IT outsourcing for small businesses.

 

1. Why small businesses should outsource their IT functions?

A small business with a limited budget and a small number of employees have many reasons to outsource their IT functions. These reasons include:

• Cost reduction
• Chance to consult and work with experts in the field
• More time to focus on core business functions
• Flexibility
• Business growth with IT outsourcing

 

Cost reduction

Cost reduction is the top reason why IT Outsourcing is so popular among small businesses. With the lower overhead IT Outsourcing offers, your business can have an outsourced team work on your project without spending on recruitment, utility, office expenses and employee benefits.

 

 

In the case of offshore IT centers and nearshore IT centers, the labor cost is even lower, thanks to the geographical pricing. For example, it would cost you about $157,570 a year, including taxes, to hire a software engineer in the US. But with an outsourcing vendor, the cost drops to $50,000 a year. This includes the operational costs and benefits.

Another factor contributing to this cost reduction is the additional tools and infrastructure. In an IT Outsourcing vendor, the tools and systems are provided with an inclusive price, which can save you a fortune.

 

Chance to consult and work with experts in the field

In order for a business to grow, the help of experts in the field is of paramount importance. But unlike big enterprises which have the reputation and resources to recruit IT experts, small businesses have limited resources when it comes to hiring.

So instead of investing in a lengthy and costly recruitment process, many small businesses have come for the help of IT outsourcing. With this, these businesses have the chance to get access to subject-matter expertise, leverage knowledge and ability, and hence, improve their IT functions.

 

More time to focus on core business functions

Once the thing you don’t know and the thing you’re not good at is outsourced to the supplier, what is left is that you are no longer bothered by the mundane and complicated tasks. Now you have more time to focus on your core business. Now, you have the time for doing what you know and leave the other parts to respective experts in their field.

As a result, IT outsourcing in this case has helped the business improve work efficiency.

 

Flexibility

With small businesses, the need for short-term and temporary workers is bigger, hence the demand for flexibility is also bigger. In fact, 33% of small businesses outsource to access flexible resources. With this, you won’t have to bother yourself with the hiring and contracting process.

 

 

Another important feature would be that the outsourcing team can be scaled flexibly. For a small business, the trajectory and business needs can change within a day, so flexibility in IT outsourcing will be more convenient for you than for an in-house team.

 

Business growth with IT outsourcing

Perhaps the ultimate goal for small businesses is to scale and expand. According to Clutch, about one-fifth of small businesses (19%) that have 251 to 500 employees use outsourcing primarily to scale their business.

By working with an IT outsourcing vendor, the business now will have better access to more customers at a wider location. For example, you’re a retail chain. You want to hire a team of software developers to work on an application to start selling online. By expanding your IT department, you now open your business to bigger opportunities with e-commerce.

 

2. The best IT outsourcing models for small business

Each outsourcing model has its benefits. The important thing is to know what you want from the IT outsourcing team.

• If your IT functions are to be short-term (under 2 years), so it’s best to go with a more flexible option in terms of time: Staff Augmentation. In this model, your business can reduce costs related to recruitment, payroll services and project implementation. Staff augmentation is also very scalable.
• If you’ve already had what you want in your mind and budget for it, you should develop a project-based model.
• If your business wants to have a team of IT experts to work solely for your business, it’s best to have a dedicated team that takes care of all IT operations. You can have the experts of your choices and simultaneously avoid the formalities in HR.

Read more: IT Outsourcing Models: Choose the Right Approach

 

3. Six tips for successful IT outsourcing for small businesses

IT Outsourcing for small businesses requires you to have strategic measures to succeed. Since the scope of work and the operations in small businesses are different from that of a mid-sized or a big company, there will be some things that you should put in mind.

 

Get to understand your expectations

A small business doesn’t have to luxury of just trying out IT outsourcing. In fact, they deal with a limited budget, hence the need for careful consideration of what they want to achieve from the project.

To know what expectation from IT outsourcing, small businesses need to know the objectives and the goals of the project. These also need to be broken down into smaller phases, including the requirement analysis, the planning, the execution and the report phase.

It’s important to negotiate reasonable service level agreements (SLAs) to ensure that both parties have the same expectations and know the consequences of not meeting them. SLAs should also define the metrics that will be used to measure performance and how they will be reported.

 

Prepare carefully for the project’s checklist

This checklist should include:

• What kind of expertise is required
• What security process and assurance methods to be applied
• What communication process and platform to have
• What technological feature to be covered
• What IT outsourcing model is for you
• Consider biddings from different providers

To maximize the cost, you should look at the biddings from multiple providers. For example, if you want to outsource your data center, you should come to about 3 service providers to ask for their offerings. From these offerings, choose the one that best suits your needs and your budget.

 

 

Since you don’t have the experience and the expertise in IT, getting to know more from the service offerings can help you gain some sense of the matter.

 

Start with a small trial first

A small company can lower the risk of working with an IT outsourcing vendor by starting a small trial first. In this way, you start your project with a small scope of work that has a clear set of objectives and deliverables. The outcome of this project can be an indicator of their competence and performance later on. This method will help small businesses “test the waters” and give them a sense of working with IT outsourcing.

 

Ensure integration and communication between teams

Once again, integration and communication might not be a strong point of small businesses due to the lack of experience. But in IT outsourcing, these two features are of top priorities. A proficient communication process can always enhance your IT project as both vendor and client are now part of a cohesive unit working under one project. Everything is communicated and handled harmoniously with little or no barrier.

 

 

Simplify the work process

The working process of a small business differs greatly from that of a big enterprise. With a small business, there is not enough personnel and time to follow through every single step of the legal matters and other trivial things. A large number of contracts, agreements, documents makes the outsourcing process seems challenging, and this is what you should avoid at all cost. To do this, your business needs to work out with the vendor to see if there is a way to simplify the work process to the core, so that both parties don’t have to get involved in the lengthy and timid details. All of these are for the ultimate goal of your project, which is to run as fast as possible.

 

4. Some common mistakes you must get rid of

IT Outsourcing for small businesses is not easy. There are some common mistakes that you should definitely avoid so that your IT functions will not go under.

 

Let cost-cutting the deciding factor

The best price does not always come with the best quality. Sometimes the vendor offers you cheap because they don’t have the potentials to provide competent services. Don’t compromise your quality over price. The cost for fixing the problems of low-quality work can be much larger than the money you thought you could save. You should look for cost-efficiency when choosing to outsource.

 

Go loose with management

Small businesses are not likely to have experience in managing an IT outsourcing team. They don’t have the personnel to manage the project and a clear management process to work on it. This kind of loose management can result in severe consequences if the vendor slacks off their work and derail the project with incompetency. Operations need to be closely supervised so that any kind of false activity can be handled immediately.

 

 

Not consider the communication feature of a vendor

With IT Outsourcing, communication is one of the key features for a successful project. But ironically, small businesses don’t often focus on it. Without efficient communication in your project, it is very hard to keep up with the updates, changes and requirements, etc. With just one problem that lacks communication, the whole outsourcing project can derail and fail.

 

5. Start it outsourcing for small businesses with Lotus QA

IT Outsourcing for small businesses can do a lot of good for you to scale and deepen your IT functions. With Lotus QA, we want to help you achieve successful digital transformation with reasonable costs, expertise and flexibility.

Lotus QA has been the IT outsourcing partner with many small businesses, bringing our talented IT workers to assist your IT functions. When working with Lotus QA, we always ensure:

• High Security: Lotus QA not only follows stringent procedures of ISO 27000:01 for optimal security and international standardized process but also flexibly adapts to clients’ requirements
• Quality Human Resource: we ensure staff competency through strict rounds of interviews, on-job orientations, continuous learning & development.
• Flexibility: We provide different working models to allow clients to choose or change the plan at any time.

 

If you are interested in IT outsourcing for small businesses, you can contact Lotus QA expert for more information:

• Website: https://www.lotus-qa.com/
• Tel: (+84) 24-6660-7474
• Fanpage: https://www.facebook.com/LotusQualityAssurance

Outsourcing is an excellent tool, but there are major pitfalls that you may stumble upon with IT Outsourcing if not correctly managed. So how do you obtain effective IT Outsourcing management? Here are 7 tips from Lotus QA to help you exploit the potentials of IT Outsourcing.

 

1. Outsource operations that have minor importance first

If you’re new to IT Outsourcing, maybe you should go slow with it first. Instead of starting in bulk, you should try out IT Outsourcing with IT functions that have minor importance first. These functions are easier to train, so it will give you an easy start first.

For example, you want to outsource testing. First, you will start with manual testing to do unit testing, integration testing, functional testing, etc. Then when you can see that the team is fully capable, you will go for automation testing which requires more complicated work.

This can be considered a litmus test for the efficiency of IT Outsourcing management. Through this kind of “trial”, you can gain a sense of what IT outsourcing is like and what it takes to successfully manage an outsourced team.

 

 

Worst-case scenarios, even when outsourcing does not come up to your expectations, it would just affect the non-core functions. The important parts of your business will remain uninfluenced. Therefore, the risks are minimized.

But if IT Outsourcing shows promising outcomes, you can always use the experience and understanding of the system for the bigger and more complex projects/functions.

So the question is, How do you decide which are the operations that have minor importance? It brings us to a method that has been applied for years – the strategic-versus-commodity approach.

For this approach, your operations will be divided into two parts:

• The commodities that do not differentiate you from your competitors. You can outsource these.
• The strategic functions that are vital to your business. This you can keep in-house.

But remember that there is no definite approach for your commodities and your strategic functions. That is to say, it depends on your ultimate goals and how you carry out the contract.

For example, even when you have already defined it as a commodity or strategic function, you can still consider the bidding of other suppliers. If they can ensure the quality and lower the cost, you should try it out. Many businesses have implemented this approach with a short-term contract, say 2 years, to see if they can outsource their strategic functions or not. Depending on the outcome of the contract will you choose to continue outsourcing.

 

2. Define your goals and requirements

You need to know what to expect from IT outsourcing to actually achieve it. It’s not the general terms such as cost reduction or large talent pool – these are too obvious. You need to break down your objectives into smaller goals and each of them will contain a checklist of what actions, units and issues to handle.

For example, you want to outsource performance testing. You need to break down the overall requirement into smaller requirements for each phase of the process:

• Requirement analysis: you want the outsource team to know what they are dealing with and you expect a question list to clarify the project.
• Testing process: you want analysis and the come up of a test strategy, test plan, test schedule, test environment, test viewpoint, test design, test scripts, test scenarios, test cases, etc.
• Testing execution: you expect bug report, test log, test report, etc.
• Project report: you want a quality report of the whole project.

 

 

From the above objectives, then you can devise strategic steps to achieve them.

With the detailed specifications of what is to be outsourced, your business can further devise the agenda and allocations for the next step of the outsourcing project. Clear goals and requirements can also help you in managing the outsource team. Anything that comes short of the expected outcomes will be reviewed and redone if necessary.

 

3. Choose the right outsourcing types

Practically, location is the feature that sets out onshore, nearshore and offshore outsourcing. But this difference in proximity can bring the different edges that you can consider to decide a suitable outsourcing type.

Onshore outsourcing is for you when:

• You prioritize communication with the supplier
• You don’t want any concerns about language barriers or cultural difference
• You want easy access to your suppliers for better control and supervision

Nearshore software outsourcing is suitable when:

• You want to ensure both continuous communication and the lowered costs
• You want to have cultural familiarity in your teams

 

Offshore outsourcing is for you when:

• Cost reduction is the of the utmost importance to you.
• You don’t mind the opposite time zones.
• You want larger talent pool.

Based on what your priorities are, you can choose among the above IT outsourcing types.

Read more: A Complete Comparison of Nearshore vs. Offshore Software Outsourcing

 

4. Know what IT outsourcing management model is for you

It is very important that you know the IT outsourcing model for you. By knowing your outsourcing models, you can know the basics of how you will run your outsourcing projects and the model that fits your financial situations and your plans the most.

You should look into these IT outsourcing pricing models before signing any contract with an international technology outsourcing company. By knowing how you are going to collaborate, you will have better plans streamlining your visions and your goals. At Lotus QA, we implement the four IT outsourcing pricing models, including:

• Project-based (for businesses that have clear objectives and fixed budget)
• Time & Material (for businesses that want flexibility)
• Dedicated Team (for businesses that want total control of who will work on their projects)
• Staff Augmentation (for businesses that want highly skilled staff to work on their short-term projects)

Find out more about IT Outsourcing Models: Choose the Right Approach

 

5. Set up a strict security process

For an in-house team, IT functions are hard to secure enough, let alone outsource them to an external team. Many businesses have been struggling with the fear of being more prone to security breaches and similar problems when doing IT outsourcing management. To solve this, you and your business need to come up with a strict security process to opt out any security risks.

 

 

It is also very important for you to find suppliers that are capable of ensuring maximum security for you. Here are some features to include:

• Physical security layers (CCTV system, safeguards, fingerprint, etc.)
• Legal confidentiality (NDA, staff confidentiality, etc.)
• Network security (VPN, Data leak prevention, close-up monitoring, etc.)

 

6. Design an effective communication process

Communication has long been one of the major issues to deal with in IT outsourcing management. Put it simply, without effective communication, your IT outsourcing implementation is very much likely to fail. Here’s how you can avoid this pitfall:

• For the definition phase, you receive requirements, specifications from the client to study and build a plan. Frequent meetings are set up through multiple channels and platforms.
• For the execution phase, we design necessary builds. For required documentation, you should have written and spoken forms. Visual aids are recommended.
• For the termination phase, a project evaluation feedback via CSS form must be handed over for further understanding.

 

 

If necessary measures are to be taken during the outsourcing process, communication will no longer be the problem with IT Outsourcing management.

Read more about Remote Communication Best Practices

 

7. Choose a partner that can help you with your work methodology

In IT Outsourcing management, the most popular methodologies are Agile, V-model or Waterfall. No matter what methodology you want to follow, it is a must that you outsource the job for a vendor that has the experience and expertise with the particular methodology.

For example, if you want to apply agile for flexibility and faster time-to-market, it is important that you outsource the work to a supplier that:

• Has the personnel for Agile, such as Scrum Master or product owner that has the experience in it
• Has worked in agile for multiple projects and understands how agile works
• Is familiar with the incremental and iterative operations.

 

 

How can you make sure that everyone’s work is aligned with each other’s? The answer is to develop one cohesive playbook for everyone to follow.

This playbook will contain a robust workflow, background information and necessary materials for everyone to further streamline and follow the project’s standards.

This playbook can be both in written and visual forms. Instead of plain texts, it would be better if you add some wireframes, diagrams, visual aids to convey your ideas. The more specific you are, the better the chance of getting the deliverable you are looking for.

 

In conclusion

IT outsourcing management has always been an issue that you have to master if you want your outsourcing team to work effectively. In order to successfully manage IT outsourcing, the tips above will come in handy for you. More importantly, these tips can only be applied successfully with the help of an experienced outsourcing vendor. Their experiences and expertise can help you meld your business and their outsourcing team into one cohesive, functioning unit.

 

Achieve competent outsourcing with Lotus QA

Lotus QA has been the IT outsourcing partner with many countries, bringing our talented IT workers to the international market. When working with Lotus QA, we always ensure:

• High Security: LQA not only follows stringent procedures of ISO 27000:01 for optimal security and international standardized process but also flexibly adapts to clients’ requirements
• Quality Human Resource: we ensure staff competency through strict rounds of interviews, on-job orientations, continuous learning & development.
• Flexibility: We provide different working models to allow clients to choose or change the plan at any time.

If you have more questions about IT outsourcing management, you can contact Lotus QA expert for more information:

• Website: https://www.lotus-qa.com/
• Tel: (+84) 24-6660-7474
• Fanpage: https://www.facebook.com/LotusQualityAssurance

The vexed question of “Should I choose In-house software development vs. Outsourcing?” must have crossed your mind and troubled you once you stepped into the digital transformation journey. To crack this puzzle, Lotus QA will walk you through the definition and the comparison between in-house and outsourcing software development so that you can find the best approach for your business.

 

1. Software outsourcing development

Put it simply, software outsourcing development refers to the business practice of using external service providers to handle software development. Thanks to this, businesses now have more time to focus on their core functions, which could be customer engagement, business transactions, financial development, etc.

There are three types of software outsourcing that you can choose for your business:

• Offshore software outsourcing, in which you delegate your IT functions to a team from a far-away country.
• Nearshore software outsourcing, in which you outsource to a neighboring country.
• Onshore software outsourcing, in which you outsource to a service provider in the same country.

 

 

IT Outsourcing, or software outsourcing development, has been the popular choice for business leaders when they want to do digital transformation. The main reasons for this are the competitive costs, better access to the talent pool, and subject-matter expertise. With software outsourcing development, companies that don’t have any experience technology in general will receive the consultancy that they need for their digital transformation journey.

 

IT Outsourcing Pros and Cons that You Should Know About

 

2. In-house software development

In-house software development refers to the use of a homegrown increased team in your company when you want to expand and enhance your business’ technical capabilities.

 

 

With this approach, businesses need to invest many things, including time, money, human resources, etc. to form a solid team that is capable of the required skills. In turn, this approach allows your business have close-up management and communication, which can contribute greatly to the outcomes of the projects.

 

3. Comparison of in-house software development vs. outsourcing

The puzzle of choosing in-house software development vs. outsourcing requires you to investigate these two approaches carefully in different aspects: cost, flexibility, subject-matter expertise, project management and talent pool. The following table will compare these features to give you an overall look of in-house software development vs. outsourcing.

 

Factor	Software outsourcing development	In-house software development
Overall cost	Lower	High
Subject-matter expertise	High	Adequate
Talent pool	Better access	Limited access
Flexibility	High	Low
Project management	Remote	Close-up
Communication	– Remote – Cultural gaps – Language barriers – Long waiting time	– Direct – Same cultural background – Quick follow-up
Team Management	Less time spent on team management	More time spent on team management
Security	Higher risks	Lower risks

 

3.1. Overall cost

Regarding the overall cost, software outsourcing development has a lower cost than in-house software development. This overall cost includes the cost for HR, the infrastructure cost and the operational cost.

 

HR costs

Software outsourcing development comes at much lower HR costs, especially when you go for offshore or nearshore outsourcing.

– In terms of labor cost, offshore and nearshore outsourcing can give you the advantage of geographical pricing, meaning that you can hire an equivalent IT worker but with a much lower budget. For example, it would cost you about $157,570 a year, including taxes, to hire a software engineer in the US. But with an outsourcing vendor, the cost drops to $50,000 a year.

 

 

– In terms of recruitment cost, the average cost for an in-house team may exceed what you expect. To build a team, you will have to go through many steps, including employer branding, building training programs, investing in competitive salary and benefits, etc. It not only costs you a fortune to build an in-house team but also takes a lot of your time to do so.

On the other hand, software outsourcing development service providers can ramp up a fully functioning IT team for you within just two weeks. Any other costs of branding or training will no longer bother you.

 

Infrastructure cost

An in-house team will require you to lease more space, buy more equipment, etc. But with an outsourced team (either nearshore or offshore), you won’t have to worry about this.

 

Operational cost

Having more employees in your company means that you have to spend more on accounting and legal fees, office supplies cost, rent or lease payments, etc. All of these costs can be avoided with a software outsourcing team.

 

3.2. Subject-matter expertise

With software outsourcing development, you will be provided with professionals that have advanced knowledge in a specific field to help your business. The vendors for software outsourcing development also have experience working in many industries, hence you can ask them for consultancy. They will know exactly what you need, what IT workers you need, what programming languages are required, for example.

 

 

Of course, you can still hire SMEs for your in-house team but the hiring process will take a lot of time, effort and money.

 

3.3. Talent pool

The thing with software outsourcing providers is that they have a large talent pool of experts from many fields, with many technical skills that you can get access to almost immediately. There will be no long waiting time to fill in a position as with the in-house team. Especially when you request for a team ramp-up, the maximal time for this will only be 2 weeks. Hence, you can save a lot of time and start your project right when the talents are onboard.

 

 

Especially with offshore and nearshore software outsourcing, you can get access to a resourceful talent pool from other countries, hence the chance of finding suitable candidates is higher.

On the contrary, the supply of talents for an in-house team is limited to one country only, or even just one city. This leads to a long waiting time, and of course you would want to avoid it.

 

3.4. Flexibility

Partnering with a nearshore IT Services provider can also allow for quick changes on your team’s assembly if the project calls for it without affecting budget, time-to-market, or performance.

With an in-house team, unless you hire a temp staff, you cannot change your team whenever you want. The contract you made between the enterprise and the talent will be long-term (at least one year), and you are legally bound to hire the staff during the agreed time.

 

3.5. Project management

With project management, the in-house team has a significant advantage of close-up control and direct management. In addition to this, the team will be closely monitored under the supervision of a project manager. Any issues or bugs will be reported right away and there will be immediate actions to take care of them.

 

 

But with the case of IT outsourcing, the client and the team don’t work in the same premise, or even not in the same country (for the case of nearshore and offshore software outsourcing). As a result, the client cannot get a hold of everything that is going on in the project.

Maybe this information is misleading, maybe the team doesn’t actually understand the project requirements. These issues are quite common with IT Outsourcing in general. But they can be easily addressed with an in-house team.

You might wanna know: Ultimate Guide for Managing IT Outsourcing Projects

 

3.6. Communication

Basically, the in-house team works ‘under one roof’, and it is easier for the members to maintain strong communication, especially when a project involves several stages. For example, if you have a question, you can always ask your colleague and receive an answer straight away.

This makes the whole process of communication not only faster but also more effective. Of course, this point has become less valuable in 2022 and work-from-home scenarios. Still, the in-house team members know each other’s work schedules and are familiar with the project’s fundamentals which saves valuable time for work.

 

 

For the part of outsourcing, communication has always been a big problem. Even though many tools, platforms and methods have been applied to improve it, business leaders seem to struggle. Especially, software development now follows the everchanging demands of users, so the need for communication between team members increases so that they can keep up with the new changes.

Another challenge with IT outsourcing is the differences in culture and languages. Cultural norms can make it harder to meet goals and deadlines. And language barriers can easily lead to false or misleading information, which can result in unexpected outcomes.

Plus, if you want to observe and direct your outsource center, you will have to spend more time traveling, while with an in-house team, everything is said and done right away.

 

3.7. Team management

Let’s imagine you’re having an in-house team. Besides work-related matters, you will have to spend more time, effort and money to provide this team benefits, resources and many other things.

But with an in-house team, you would only have to pay for the service provider an overall fee, everything else will be taken care of. With this being said, you and your business now have more time to focus on your core business operations.

 

3.8. Security

Security has always been one of the alarming matters with IT industry in general. While an in-house team is bound to work on-premise, which can help you avoid possible security breaches, an outsourced team is under little to no supervision as they work off-site.

When there’s a lack of supervision, there will be higher risks of security breaches. You and your business will be more prone to information cyberattacks. With a software outsourcing team, the legal agreements in terms of security measures and processes should be of the top priority so that any further risks can be avoided.

 

4. Choosing between in-house and software outsourcing services

Choosing between in-house vs outsourcing is a perpetual doubt since both solutions offer their strong points. But here’s the sum up:

– You choose software outsourcing development when you are bothered with:

• Tight budget
• Lack of available talent
• Tight launch deadlines
• The need for flexibility

– You choose in-house software development when you are bothered with:

• Face-to-face communication
• Complete control of your team and activities
• Immediate support

By carefully evaluating their pros and cons, you can choose the best work approach for your IT team, whether it is In-House Software Development vs. Outsourcing.

 

 

5. Get software outsourcing services with Lotus QA

Admittedly, choosing between in-house and outsourced development is challenging. However, you can seek a suitable IT outsourcing company to work it out for you.

At Lotus QA, we always try to amplify our strengths in our prices and talent pool, and mitigate communication difficulties. Our measure is to comply with the stringent communication process, together with the daily reports so that our client can know the situation with their outsourcing vendor.

Looking for a software outsourcing provider that can help you with cost reduction and talent pool? Contact our experts for more information:

• Website: https://www.lotus-qa.com/
• Tel: (+84) 24-6660-7474
• Fanpage: https://www.facebook.com/LotusQualityAssurance

IT Outsourcing is widely recognized as a viable solution for companies that want to implement digital transformation thanks to the cost reduction and large talent pool. But to efficiently apply IT outsourcing, you need to make one important decision whether you should choose Nearshore vs. Offshore Software Outsourcing.

In this article, we will help you have an in-depth look into these two IT Outsourcing types, what they are, their differences to get the best solution for your business.

 

1. What is Nearshore Software Outsourcing?

Nearshore Software Outsourcing is a form of IT Outsourcing in which the clients hire a team of IT workers from neighboring countries. As a result, the vendors and the clients will be in similar time zones and have closer proximity.

 

 

With these features, a nearshore outsourcing center can provide you with a large talent pool but with a relatively low labor cost and effective communication.

Let’s take Vietnam and Japan as an example. Many businesses in Japan have hired nearshore software outsourcing centers in Vietnam to do the IT work. In terms of time zones, Vietnam is only two hours behind Japan, and in terms of distances, it would only take you two hours to travel.

Find out more about this: Why is Nearshore Software Outsourcing the Perfect Solution

 

2. What is Offshore Software Outsourcing?

Offshore Software Outsourcing is the most popular delivery approach of IT Outsourcing. This term refers to a software outsourcing center based in a far-away country, often from developed countries to developing countries.
Normally, offshore software outsourcing gains its popularity as it can help save a great deal of money thanks to favorable labor costs, tax policies, government policies, etc. The hourly rate of one IT worker in an offshore center ranges from 15 to 30 dollars, which is 60% lower than that of an onshore center.

 

 

For example, a business in the United States would have an offshore software outsourcing team in India, Ukraine or Vietnam. Imagine if you want to hire a software engineer in the US for a year, it would cost your business approximately $157,570 including taxes. But for a software engineer in Vietnam, it would only cost you about $50,000 a year, which is much lower than in the US (According to First Alliances). This huge gap in hiring cost is the main driving force for many businesses to choose offshore software outsourcing services.

 

Read more: Vietnam Software Outsourcing: Why is Vietnam your next destination?

 

3. A complete comparison of Nearshore vs. Offshore Software Outsourcing

Nearshore vs. Offshore Software Outsourcing seems to be only different in their locations. But this difference can lead to many other distinct features that may affect your decision of what delivery approach you would choose for your business.

The differences between nearshore vs. offshore software outsourcing can be classified into the following categories:

• Overall cost
• Communication
• Cultural Difference

 

Factor	Nearshore software outsourcing	Offshore software outsourcing
Overall cost	Medium	Low
Communication	Easy	Difficult
Cultural Differences	Small	Big

 

a. Overall cost

Cost is one of the most important features for business leaders to consider when it comes to choosing a suitable delivery approach. With IT Outsourcing, cost reduction has always been one of the reasons why you should choose it. But among the delivery approaches of nearshore vs. offshore software outsourcing, there will be some different features in terms of cost.

 

– Nearshore software outsourcing

With countries in the same region, the IT outsourcing’s cost gap is not big. Therefore, the costs saved with nearshore software outsourcing will not be as much as you expect.

Nearshore software outsourcing is often deemed the more cost-efficient way of IT outsourcing as it also emphasizes communication and cultural traits, which are the two important factors that can affect the outcome of the project.

Moreover, nearshore software outsourcing companies are often located in emerging countries in the technology market such as Vietnam or Costa Rica. Since this is a newly tapped market of talents, the talent pools are still very resourceful, making it easier and less costly to outsource.

 

– Offshore software outsourcing

Offshore software outsourcing is the cheapest delivery approach there is. It maximizes the cost advantages with low labor cost and low infra cost, giving the clients the cheapest services possible.

Offshore software outsourcing’s core focus is how to reduce spending. But sometimes, you will have to compromise the ability to communicate continuously.

 

b. Communication

 

– Nearshore software outsourcing

In terms of proximity, the clients and the vendors are closer. Therefore, in case of emergencies that require close-up management and direct check-up from the vendor, this would save up the time and traveling cost.

In terms of time zones, the clients and the vendors will be in similar time zones, which is normally just two to three hours apart. As a result, they will have similar working hours. Any feedback will receive instant reply and hence the speed of the project is fastened. Also, thanks to the similar time zones, the client can have some sort of virtual existence to manage and control the work of the outsourced team.

Nearshore software outsourcing allows both the vendors and clients to communicate continuously without any inconvenience, they can apply the Agile methodology and scrum to deliver products as quickly as possible.

 

 

– Offshore software outsourcing

Since the offshore software centers are often located in far-away countries, it would take much effort to travel. If there’s an emergency that needs direct management, it would still take 10 to 16 hours to travel.

The clients and the vendors work in opposite time zones, so one’s working hours will be the other’s resting time. Any case of emergency will have to wait, and this could lead to severe consequences for the user experience.

The work management is not as effective as expected, since the project manager can’t present while the team is working. The power he/she has over the team is not as strong as with nearshore software outsourcing.

 

You might wanna know: Ultimate Guide for Managing IT Outsourcing Projects

 

c. Cultural Difference

 

– Nearshore software outsourcing

The countries in the same region often share the same cultural background. With this cultural affinity, relationships and partnerships are of higher chance to develop. Moreover, people tend to cooperate better if they have a similar cultural background.

 

 

– Offshore software outsourcing

Countries with far proximity have different cultural traits, if not opposite. With offshore software outsourcing, cultural norms can make it harder to meet goals and deadlines.

On a final note, Nearshore software outsourcing is often deemed the more cost-efficient way of IT outsourcing as it also emphasizes communication and cultural traits, which are the two important factors that can affect the outcome of the project. On the other hand, Offshore software outsourcing’s core focus is how to reduce spending but sometimes, you will have to compromise the ability to communicate continuously.

From our comparison as above, nearshore seems to show great potential and less so with offshoring. But offshore software outsourcing can solve your biggest problem, which is the cost-cutting puzzle. If you spend more time on finding out how to choose an IT outsourcing provider, all of the risks, either nearshore or offshore, will be mitigated.

 

4. What Lotus QA can provide you

Lotus QA provides IT Outsourcing services, both nearshore software outsourcing and offshore software outsourcing.

For nearshore software outsourcing, we have experience working with Japan, China, Korea, Singapore, etc. We’re only two to three hours behind these countries, hence the communication, work management and cost efficiency are maximized. We also share the same oriental cultural background, and we understand the work cultures of each different country to optimize our working processes.

For offshore software outsourcing, Lotus QA has established a partnership with countries across the globe like the US and European countries. With these countries, we minimize the risk of opposite time zones and poor communication with a stringent communication and quality process. We also apply multiple communication methods to ensure seamless interaction between the clients and our team.

 

 

 

If you want to hear more about how we can provide you with the best services with both nearshore vs. offshore software outsourcing, contact our experts:

• Website: https://www.lotus-qa.com/
• Tel: (+84) 24-6660-7474
• Fanpage: https://www.facebook.com/LotusQualityAssurance

Nearshore Software Outsourcing is an emerging software outsourcing approach that has been going on in many businesses, bringing many benefits and advantages. So what is nearshore software development? What are the benefits of nearshore outsourcing? Let’s answer these questions with Lotus QA to know why you should apply this development approach.

Check out: A Complete Comparison of Nearshore vs. Offshore Software Outsourcing

 

What is nearshore software outsourcing?

Definition: Nearshore software outsourcing is a form of IT Outsourcing. With IT Outsourcing, the location of the IT center can be anywhere, but with nearshore outsourcing, the clients and the vendors normally have quite a close proximity. The location of one party would ideally be 2 – 3 hours ahead of the other.

 

 

For example, Businesses from Japan would often hire the offshore development center in Vietnam or the surrounding countries.

IT Outsourcing is often the solution for businesses to unburden the business’ operations or even the whole IT operations. The proven effectiveness of IT Outsourcing is cost reduction, technology expertise or faster delivery time, etc. However, there can be still some drawbacks concerning the IT Outsourcing process. 

These underlying risks can be:

• The communication issues
• The cultural differences
• The time-zone difference

 

Check out: The pros and cons of IT Outsourcing

 

To avoid these risks, many businesses have resorted to nearshore outsourcing. With nearshore outsourcing, the clients will delegate some tasks in IT, namely software development or software testing, to the neighboring companies. By doing this, the client will have more control. For nearshore software outsourcing, the clients and the vendors are likely to share a similar language, the same culture and the convenient time zone.

 

The benefits of nearshore software outsourcing

Many business leaders deem nearshore software outsourcing the optimal solution for IT Outsourcing. Although the IT Outsourcing services in general can produce many benefits to one’s business, many business leaders have admitted failed cases of it, and that they can solve most of their problems with nearshore software outsourcing.

The major benefits of nearshore software outsourcing are:

• Cost reduction
• Minor time-zone difference
• Easier communication
• Little cultural diffrences

 

1. Cost reduction

– Cost effective: The most important benefit is that outsourcing of work allows one to get the work done at a very low cost and in a much more efficient way. There is a vast difference in the wage patterns of the western developed countries and the developing companies. The kind of work which is done in the west for a very high price, can be obtained at a much cheaper rate in the developing countries like India, the difference varies to up to 60%.

– Cost cutting on training and recruitment: When a particular type of work is outsourced, then the company or organisation does not require hiring skilled people for it. There will also be no need for arranging for training programmes for the same. The work will be handed over to people who are already experts in that trade. This will also bring in efficiency and quality in the work.

 

2. Minor time zone difference

When it comes to IT Outsourcing, you can either hire a local team or the remote team (which can be offshore). But to minimalize costs, business leaders are often fascinated by offshore software outsourcing services, which have a much lower cost. In exchange for this attracting cost is the situation in which the client and the vendor are in opposite timezone.

Opposite timezone means that your working hours are their resting time, and vice versa. This huge difference in the timezone can lead to communication disruption, and this is the last thing that you want to have with an IT Outsourcing project.

 

 

On the other hand, the nearshoring software outsourcing solution can minimize this disadvantage. As the nearshoring vendor will be only 2 to 3 hours ahead, the timezone gap is bridged, and both parties can work with each other during their working hours. No one will have to work overnight with this. 

 

3. Easier communication

With your time zones are roughly similar, there will be no logistical issues. You can easily set up meetings and get answers quickly. Any problems or issues can be addressed immediately without any delay. 

Imagine you have a bug on your app that immensely affected the user experience and the app performance. But your development team is on the other side of the globe, perhaps is in their dreams. You cannot contact any of the team, and you have to wait through 6 to 8 hours to get the bug fixed. By the time the bug is fixed, the app has lost a large number of customers due to the poor experience.

 

4. Little cultural diffrences

Nearshoring IT Outsourcing can also offer you the advantage of shared perspectives and cultural understanding.

For example, the offshore development center in Vietnam will have similar work cultures as in Japan, China, Korea. The deep-rooted Oriental cultures help us have a similar perspective.

When working with a nearshoring software development team, the clients will share the same local norms, work cultures, hence making the work process smoother.

 

 

On the final note

Nearshore software outsourcing is not a new approach for IT Outsourcing, but its use has only raised in recent years, as more and more business leaders have recognized the benefits it can bring to their company. All in all, when done correctly, nearshore software outsourcing can provide some serious advantages in terms of cost, compatibility and communication.

 

Nearshoring software outsourcing with Lotus QA

Lotus QA has been the nearshoring software outsourcing partner with many countries in Asia, bringing our talented IT workers to the international market. When working with Lotus QA, we always ensure:

• On-schedule delivery. Our product will always be reviewed through multiple layers of QA processes, hence bringing the best outputs for our customers.
• We ensure continuous communication to answer your questions and problems
• We delegate comtors or BrSE staff to work with you during the project. These employees not only have the technical knowledge but also have language proficiency to communicate seamlessly with our clients.

 

 

If you have more questions about nearshore software outsourcing, you can contact Lotus QA expert for more information.

 

• Website: https://www.lotus-qa.com/
• Tel: (+84) 24-6660-7474
• Fanpage: https://www.facebook.com/LotusQualityAssurance

As 2022 is coming, the IT Outsourcing market is up for remarkable development and numerous new trends. Let’s find out the upcoming IT Outsourcing trends in 2022 in this field in the following article:

• Trending technologies
• Trends in the workplace
• Trending work methodology
• Trends in IT recruitment

You might want to know: Top Industries to use IT Outsourcing

Trending technologies

Continuing the overall trends of the IT industry in 2021, 2022 is another year of technological advancements with many new features and reigning trends.

Python on the rise

Although JavaScript remains the dominant programming language for most developers, Python is gaining more and more popularity among the tech communities. According to Statista, 44% of the developers now use Python as their main programming language.

Python is used in the most trending technologies and advances such as machine learning, big data, cloud computing. With the ease of analyzing and organizing the usable data, Python became the second most popular tool in the developer community. Hence, the demand for Python programming language is higher than ever and is promised to become a trend in 2022.

Python programming language is also a vital part of automation testing. It is considered the best performance booster in automation and software testing to save time and effort to write codes.

More importantly, there are hundreds of Python libraries and frameworks available for you to learn and apply to your project.

• matplotib for plotting charts and graphs
• SciPy for engineering applications, science, and mathematics
• BeautifulSoup for HTML parsing and XML
• NumPy for scientific computing
• Django for server-side web development

Cloud technology

The Covid-19 Pandemic has inevitably forced us to search for increased scalability, business continuity and cost efficiency to keep the business running even when the employees can’t work onsite. And cloud computing is perhaps the perfect answer for this.

Cloud services are expected to expand more in the future, as they help business save their resources and help teams work remotely. The concrete evidence for the growth in the application of cloud services is shown in the increase of 6.3% of IT spending in 2020. After two years, this number is expected to reach 18%.

Overall, cloud computing can help you in:

• Data security
• Government compliance
• Flexibility
• Better focus on core activities rather than data hosting and infrastructure
• Access to up-to-date software, enhanced security, data portability for users, and cost-effectiveness.

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence plays an important role in the development of autonomous vehicles, which were very popular back in 2021. However, as we step into 2022, AI will become an even bigger part of our lives, as in the field of eCommerce. The uses of artificial intelligence in this are:

• Chatbots
• Customer shopping suggestions
• Personalized support for more growth
• Inventory Management

Trends in the workplace – Agile

With the Pandemic still going on, affecting how our workplace operates, there are some major changes in:

• The location of our “office”
• How we communicate

Remote work

According to Gartner, in 2022, 51% of all workers worldwide will be remote (a mix of hybrid and fully remote).

By 2024, organizations will be forced to bring forward digital business transformation plans by at least five years. Those plans will have to adapt to a post-COVID-19 world that involves permanently higher adoption of remote work and digital touchpoints,” said Mr. Atwal, senior research director at Gartner.

To put it into perspective, the onsite workplace is no longer safe for the employees, as there are still many pandemic outbreaks despite high rate of vaccination. The pandemic makes it very dangerous for people to get out of their houses and travel to work. As a result, many business leaders have to take remote work as a final solution. Of course, this remote work situation is not the definite answer to an effective workplace, but it is the most viable solution both for the safety of the workers and the performance of the company.

Remote Work Communication Best Practices: Mastering virtual workplace

Emphasize on Communication

With the help of the most recent technologies and applications, remote work has become more effective than ever. People can communicate seamlessly on multiple platforms and channels. And this is when we have to put on some measures to make the communication more effective.

There are many ways to make communication in a remote workplace better. The most popular is perhaps through the management platform and remote working tools. In these platforms, the tasks and targets are logged onto the management file, setting clear goals, the person in charge, datelines. With everything being so transparent, the communication is way better and more straightforward.

Another way to boost the communication is through the “Virtual water cooler”. In a normal workplace, the water cooler is where people gather around and make small talks about their life. This is proven to be a very effective way to connect people and create a friendly environment in the workplace. But in the case of remote work, as we’re having today, the virtual water cooler is like the time in which we engage with each other outside of working hours.

Trending work methodology

2022 will emphasize more on Agile methodology. Here’s the thing. The world of technology is changing every minute. The trending technologies today may become obsolete the very next day. We are becoming more and more familiar with the term technology disruptions, in which innovation can alter the way we live. And to be able to catch up with this ever-changing pace, people have to apply a methodology that can help businesses adapt quickly.

Agile is the answer for this.

Instead of working with a predefined output, Agile allows developers to make changes during their process, as long as the customer is happy. The work pace with Agile is very quick, and it also requires effective communication so that everyone can understand the requirements and the changes very well.

IT Outsourcing trends in IT recruitment

The growth in the IT industry comes together with many in-demand job positions and challenges in IT recruitment. These trends are shown in the demand for the following positions:

• Full-stack developers
• DevOps engineer
• Scrum Master

Complete Guide for 7 Strategies to overcome your burden of IT recruitment

Full-stack developers

A full-stack developer is capable of many different fields, from front-end to databases and other related technologies. With a wide understanding and in-depth knowledge of the IT industry in general, a full-stack developer is expected to take care of numerous positions as requested.

Instead of hiring individual developers with different skill sets, HR specialists now favor full-stack developers. This is because hiring a full-stack developer takes less effort and costs.

DevOps engineer

As more and more businesses are applying digital transformation, the need for a specialist who has a wide-ranging knowledge of both development and operations, including coding, infrastructure management and system administration, is higher than ever.

This is where DevOps engineers step in. A DevOps engineer has a strong understanding of common system architecture, provisioning and administration, and he/she must be able to do code reviews, unit tests and agile methodology.

With an experienced DevOps engineer, your development and testing process will be more well-managed, leading to a more effective working process.

Scrum Master

Scrum Master works with the trending Agile methodology. Since Agile is becoming more popular, the demand for Scrum Master is growing very fast.

Working in agile, Scrum Master will be responsible for:

• Coaching the team members in self-management and cross-functionality
• Helping the scrum team focus on creating high-value increments
• Causing the removal of impediments to the scrum team’s progress
• Ensuring that all scrum events take place and are positive, productive and kept within the timebox

In some cases, the Scrum Master can be involved in some tasks of the product owner such as:

• Helping find techniques for effective product goal definition and product backlog management
• Helping the scrum team understand the need for clear and concise product backlog items
• Helping establish empirical product planning for a complex environment

All in all, Scrum Master must have what it takes to ensure the success of a scrum and the desired outputs.

Without the help of a Scrum Master, it is very likely that an agile project cannot be carried out on a large scale. This is why the job of a scrum master is so important these days.

How Lotus QA adapt to these IT Outsourcing trends

Lotus QA improves itself every day to keep up with the latest IT Outsourcing trends and other revolutionary technology trends.

Firstly, we have applied remote work in the last half of 2021, mastering the communication and procedures to ensure the highest quality of our work. Since the very first day of our development, we always emphasize the importance of a stringent working process to ensure everything is in sync, and everything is following the right direction. When working with our clients, continuity and prompt response are always our high priorities in order to provide a seamless experience.

Secondly, our communication methods are optimized to effectively convey ideas and responses between our team and our clients. Necessary channels and platforms will be used as requested as long as the customers are satisfied. For each of our projects, there will be a project manager that is capable of communicating. He/she has what it takes to be the “bridge” connecting two parties: management skills and the technical mindset.

Finally, the need for more talents, especially in full-stack developers, DevOps engineers and Scrum masters, demands us to have a well-developed recruitment process. From the stage of screening CVs to hiring and retaining talents, Lotus QA pays attention to the minute details so that both the candidates and our clients can find what they are looking for.

At Lotus QA, we specialize in providing top-notch IT outsourcing services, ranging from software testing to software development. If you’re looking for a partner to help you catch up with these upcoming trends of 2022, contact Lotus for more details.

• Website: https://www.lotus-qa.com/
• Tel: (+84) 24-6660-7474
• Fanpage: https://www.facebook.com/LotusQualityAssurance

IT Outsourcing has been an approach for many businesses, whether big or small, to implement when it comes to digital transformation. However, the efficiency of IT outsourcing is not universally recognized by every business that has ever applied it. Some praise IT Outsourcing to be the cost-effective approach for their digital transformation, some show great disappointment as the approach does not come up to their expectations. So why is there such polarization? Let’s check out the IT Outsourcing pros and cons. This cross-check will help you sort out the priorities and see whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages or the other way round.

 

The pros of IT Outsourcing – Benefits of outsourcing it services

 

1. Cost Reduction

The most important benefit is that IT outsourcing allows one to get the work done at a very low cost and in a much more efficient way. The main reasons for cost reduction in IT outsourcing are:

• Lower labor cost
• Cost-cutting on training and recruitment
• Saves on investment

 

Lower labor cost

There is a vast difference in the wage patterns of the western developed countries and the developing companies. The kind of work which is done in the west for a very high price can be obtained at a much cheaper rate in the developing countries like India, the difference varies to up to 60%.

 

 

Some might argue that lower price means lower quality, but the labor cost gap is created from geographical pricing, meaning that in different countries with different living standards lies a different level of labor cost. The overall quality of tech workers or the education in technological matters are actually on the same level.

 

Cost-cutting on training, recruitment and operation

Recruitment, training and operational costs can all add up to a huge sum of money as they are lengthy processes and sometimes, can be cumbersome. However, with IT outsourcing, you don’t have to worry about any of these costs and challenges in IT recruitment, as the vendors will take full charge of it. In this case, IT Outsourcing not only helps you save by a lot but also cuts out the non-core processes so that you can focus on what really matters to your enterprise.

 

Saves on investment

Instead of investing in recruitment and training programs (which can distract you from the essential work of yours), you can save on investment with IT Outsourcing. By saying investment, we want to focus on the investment in your time and effort.

 

 

With IT Outsourcing, you and your staff will not get bogged down with non-core activities. Let’s take recruitment as an example. To successfully recruit tech talents, you would have to invest in candidates’ data, interviews, and many more. But with a third-party team that has well-trained staff specializing in these operations, they will provide you with the high service standards that you might not have achieved with an in-house team.

In fact, it can even give your in-house team more time and energy to work on their actual job. The investment that could have been spent on recruitment or training programs now is used for other core matters such as facilities or marketing campaigns, for example.

 

2. Access To A Larger Talent Pool

The common situation in IT recruitment appears that the employer only has access to a small and local talent pool. High demand in tech talents with a low supply of such small talent pool can always lead to the situation that no employer would want: compromise.

 

 

The talent shortage is one of the alarming problems of the technology sector. In order to recruit for one simple junior tech engineer position, it might take one month to be done with the recruitment and the onboarding process.

On the other hand, according to Forbes, many companies have found that outsourcing gives them access to talents in other parts of the world. Larger talent pool means a higher chance of getting the employees that you want.

 

3. High level of expertise and delivery quality

With IT Outsourcing service vendors, there will always be a team of skilled resources across many industries and technologies, so you will never have to worry about the level of expertise or the quality of your work.

Their level of expertise is also shown in their latest technologies and the infrastructure prepared for different fields. In order to stand out among other vendors, it is a must that they are well-prepared of the trending technologies. For the clients, they don’t have to start from cratch to access to these technologies. They can tap the resources from the vendors.

 

 

Especially in IT outsourcing service providers, the training is of the utmost importance. They would spend millions of dollars to acquire and attain professional and experienced talents so that these talents can become the pillars of their services. Their expertise in various industries and technologies will ensure the best output for you – their clients.

 

The cons of IT Outsourcing – Possible drawbacks of IT Outsourcing

Alluring as it might appear to be, not every company can benefit from IT Outsourcing. There are several IT Outsourcing disadvantages that you might face working on your IT projects. Know these disadvantages to be well aware of what you might stumble upon with IT Outsourcing. The biggest disadvantages of IT Outsourcing are:

• Loss of visibility and control
• Communication issues
• High risk of security and intellectual property

 

1. Loss of visibility and control

Loss of visibility and control is one of the biggest challenges with IT Outsourcing. Your ideal work process would always be you hire the team and they deliver the expected outputs. But the real question lies in “How can they do it?”.

With IT Outsourcing, the management is not as easy as it was with an in-house team. The guy who is responsible for the project is not actually getting involved in the job physically. He manages and keeps track of the process through reports and numbers, which he receives from the vendors, not seeing it by himself.

This loss of visibility and control can lead to severe consequences in terms of additional costs. Worst case scenario, the resulting product does not perform very well, or the service provided did not achieve the results expected. In order to fix these, high costs with a sub-par product which is developed behind schedule can bring about a lot of trouble.

 

 

If it were an in-house team, the issues can be acknowledged from an early time and be fixed accordingly before they become a major problem. This can only be avoided with a detailed management plan and check-up schedule to make sure everything’s on track.

At Lotus QA, we developed a stringent process to make sure the agreed plan is carried out right on schedule. The IT outsourcing risks of control and visibility is limited to the smallest with standardized reports and direct numbers from our workboard.

 

2. Communication issues

The issue of communication is still a nagging problem that even the biggest companies are struggling with it. The problem with communication in IT outsourcing may be a result of inconsistent processes and practices across teams, making both parties more prone to communication disruptions. This is likely to happen when the product owner and team leader of both parties fail to agree on a mutual working process and timeline. Their failure to clarify how to do the project and how to report the issues can also make the communication way worse.

 

 

The time zone difference is another IT outsourcing disadvantage. With IT Outsourcing, the clients and the vendors don’t usually stay in the same continent, creating a big time-zone gap, which can eventually affect the communication of the team. Your day is their night, and your night is their day. The dissimilarity in time zone can lead to malfunctioned “machine”. What if you have questions and problems, what if the problems need to be fixed now? A team that is 12 hours away obviously cannot answer these questions, posing a higher chance of risk and financial loss.

With this problem, Lotus QA believes that the adoption of continuous communication (constant updates, information sharing, etc.) can help align work processes among teams. You also need to choose the vendors that match your working hours.

 

3. High risk of security and intellectual property

Hiring a third party working for your IT projects means that you will have to share your business information and sometimes, database with them. Either intentionally or unintentionally, the IT Outsourcing process often works with discrete data. Data breaches or intellectual property violations are of high chance to happen, especially with vendors that lack security measures.

For example, one freelancer may have low-quality data protection software so your data may be stolen someday. On a lower note, they may even intend to sell your new product feature idea to other companies before release.

 

To avoid this, one has to take serious measures in security and intellectual properties. Get to know your vendor’s security systems and clarify on the fine for any violations. Even though it doesn’t assure 100% of security, it can still be your safety net.

 

Our conclusion

IT outsourcing is a controversial matter with many pros and cons, all of which you should carefully and thoroughly consider before rushing in any direction.

Obtaining all of the great features of IT outsourcing, and are on our journey to make the process as fulfilling as possible, Lotus QA commits to bringing the best version of IT Outsourcing to you.

 

 

 

About Lotus QA

At Lotus QA, we have a flexible approach for our clients to get the most suited IT Outsourcing contract to avoid any IT outsourcing risks and strengthen its benefits. As each of the contracts has its own traits and features, Lotus QA can customize them upon requests, as long as it can help our clients successfully achieve their final goal. Flexible as it is, Lotus QA still complies with international processes and standard in how we provide you with out technology services.

 

Want to have deeper insights about IT Outsourcing pros and cons? Contact Lotus QA for further details:

• Website: https://www.lotus-qa.com/
• Tel: (+84) 24-6660-7474
• Fanpage: https://www.facebook.com/LotusQualityAssurance