A Software outsourcing company is a business organization which assists other business organizations in the design, development, testing or maintenance of their software applications. Following are the some of the popular engagement models that Software Outsourcing companies offers:
- Remote/off-shore developers on contract: Individual or a team of Developers, who are employed by the Software outsourcing company, work remotely with an offshore client and directly report to their management team.
- On-site developers on contract: Individual or a team of Developers, who are employed by the Software outsourcing company, work with a client from the client’s office and directly report to their management team.
- End-to-end software project delivery: Outsourcing company takes the complete ownership of developing the software project bounded by a scope and handing over the software and it’s ownership rights (if client demands it) to the client upon it’s completion.
- Technical Consultation: Experts employed with Outsourcing company offer consultation to the clients on the right processes, right technologies and design for the development of their software but do not directly engage in the actual programming. They also help clients, manage and administer the development of software.
Following are some of the services that are usually outsourced to Software Outsourcing companies:
- Application (or MVP) development
- Application feature enhancement, maintenance, and support
- Application security and threat protection
- Software testing
- Hardware infrastructure management (physically or cloud-based)
- Big Data Analytics
Application in above points refer to either : Website, Web application, Mobile Application, Cloud Application, VR/AR Application, Games, Desktop Application, Embedded Systems Application, Wearable Device Application etc.
There are three main ways to outsource, depending on distance:
- Onshore: When the outsourcing company is located within the same country, e.g. a company in Seattle, WA, USA outsourcing to someone in Santa Clara, CA, USA
- Nearshore: When the outsourcing company is located in the neighboring countries, e.g. a company in Seattle, USA outsourcing to someone in Guadalajara, Mexico
- Offshore: When the outsourcing company is located much farther away probably on a different continent, e.g. a company in Seattle, USA outsources to someone in Bengaluru, India
A natural, and widely popular, question is what countries one should outsource their software processes to. When it comes to the ranking of best destinations to outsource to, India is number one. The country is a favorite of Fortune 500 companies like Cisco and Microsoft, and is referred to as the IT capital of the world, with total IT revenue of $160 billion, and $100 billion in revenue of IT exports last year.