The technology industry continues to maintain its status as one of the most vibrant and fastest growing industries in the world, adding nearly 200,000 new jobs in the United States alone per annum. Software development remains the leading cause of growth in the technology industry and is predicted to grow by another 8.3% during 2019.
This rapid growth, combined with a shortage of experienced software engineers, has lead many companies to turn to software outsourcing as the solution to their talent sourcing problems. This article will explain exactly how software outsourcing has helped technology firms adjust to these new market realities and continue to develop innovative products.
Access Additional Candidates
As the American economy has continued to expand throughout 2018 and early 2019, demand for experienced software engineers and other tech workers has increased. The United States Department of Labor recently noted that the competition for these developers is rising at a rapid rate, resulting in an ultra-low unemployment rate of 1.9% for the industry.
This means that qualified programmers have an advantage in this candidate-driven market–and employers must respond by intensifying their hiring searches and looking at “atypical pools of candidates” to fill these crucial roles.
In response to this crisis, many American firms have addressed the shortage of experienced software engineers in the country by working with software outsourcing companies to find talent. These services can be incredibly valuable resources because they expand the talent pool for their clients by looking for in-demand workers living abroad.
These programmers have the same experience and capabilities as American workers but have long been overlooked because of their location. However, both small companies and huge Fortune 500 firms alike are now turning to these engineers to expand their technical staff and to increase their development capabilities.
Start Projects Faster
Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the software development process is sourcing and hiring the right talent in a reasonable period of time. The most recent DHI Hiring Indicators demonstrated that it takes an average of 32 business days, or nearly a month and a half total, to fill a vacancy in the information technology industry. These increased hiring times limit flexibility and can force companies to delay development projects in order to fill crucial full-time roles.
Software outsourcing services help companies avoid this delay and start projects sooner by sourcing skilled software developers at a much faster pace. Unlike traditional internal hiring teams, the best outsourcing partners are able to bring in these valuable workers on-cue to start your project at a moment’s notice. They are able to do this because they work with technology candidates exclusively and maintain strong relationships with the hyper-specialized engineers needed for these types of large-scale development projects.
Faster, More Accurate Delivery Times
The typical established business is designed to move deliberately and with great care–important qualities for long-term growth and stability. However, software development projects often require the opposite approach–the ability to rapidly move from an initial idea to polished final product. Outsourcing development services can help companies achieve time-sensitive programming goals through a variety of models.
The most well-known software outsourcing model is staff augmentation, which involves hiring key contractors to fill in knowledge gaps and to expand a team’s capabilities. By working with an outsourcing partner to hire temporary staff members, management can avoid the drawn-out hiring process and bring outside help onto the project immediately.
Alternatively, some companies opt to outsource huge chunks of their engineering process. External delivery teams, composed of project managers, development engineers, and quality assurance testers, are capable of handling the entire end-to-end development operation themselves and can work autonomously to produce high-quality, responsive software with minimal direct oversight.
Maintain Morale & Reduce Turnover
An overlooked, but incredibly important, problem associated with the software development field is the high turnover rate for key employees. A recent LinkedIn report found that the technology field has the highest turnover rate of any economic sector in the United States, with an industry average of 13.2%. It is important to realize that this crisis is not limited to small and unknown businesses–Google, Inc. has a median employee tenure of 1.1 years, while Amazon ranks even lower with an average tenure of 1.0 years.
CIO magazine recently identified a lack of work-life balance and burnout as two of the top reasons that tech employees leave their current position. Managers in the field can help their employees avoid burnout and boost retention numbers by bringing in skilled outside engineers during crucial points in the software development cycle. This helps streamline the engineering process and shorten delivery times while simultaneously reducing the burden on the company’s in-house team, allowing them to focus on the core business and maintaining a work-life balance.
Long-term Flexibility
A major problem associated with launching a software development project is building out an experienced engineering staff while also maintaining a modest budget and personnel flexibility once the project is completed. Creating user-friendly, innovative software from scratch is an incredibly complex and time-consuming process—and one which requires a variety of highly specialized programmers to complete. Hiring these specialists as full-time workers is not just arduous, it also requires making a long-term commitment to these employees even if their skills may not be needed in the future.
In addition, engineers that are essential in the early stages of development may not have the skillset to contribute at later steps of the programming and testing process. By working with a software outsourcing company, businesses can avoid this problem by hiring highly-specialized software developers on an as-needed basis and ensure that their core staff remains lean and agile once the software is brought to market.
Core Business Strategy
Finding the time to manage an intensive software development project while remaining focused on the business’s long-term strategy and existing customers can be a difficult balance to maintain. Between conceptualizing the software, hiring and training the right staff, and overseeing the engineering and testing process itself, it is easy to lose sight of the company’s larger goals while maintaining quality standards and strong relationships with long-term customers. Outsourcing development services during this crucial stage can help mitigate this challenge and ensure that management is free to focus on long-term growth.
For managers interested in reducing their project management burden to focus on overall company strategy, an end-to-end external delivery can dramatically reduce their day-to-day involvement in the development process. External delivery teams are capable of taking a rough outline and transforming that vision into a mature, easy-to-use software that meets all customer needs and integrates stakeholder ideas.
Stronger Software Security
The single most pressing issue for software developers is ensuring the security of their code and the safety of their customer’s information. A recent survey found that 36% of developers “rank protecting applications from cyberattacks and data breaches as their top concern.” In particular, the surveyed software engineers ranked sensitive data exposure and broken authentication and session management as the most troubling vulnerabilities. Yet, research has shown that the number of consumer data breaches is actually increasing every year, with more than 1,300 breaches in 2017 alone.
This trend is especially troubling given the ever greater amount of data stored in the cloud and collected through the Internet of Things. One of the ways in which companies can ensure their customer’s security and prevent data breaches is by working with specialized, security-focused developers sourced through their outsourcing partner. These security experts can strengthen code, proactively identify vulnerabilities, and help in-house employees learn how to ensure software security in future products.
Paul Azorín is the Founder and Chief Technology Officer at BairesDev. He is responsible for coordinating the technology department as well as the Presales team. Paul also leads the Marketing and Communications team and works passionately to communicate the identity and values of the company.
Paul holds a bachelor’s degree in Software Engineering and is self-taught in several programming languages. With over ten years experience working as a Software Architect, Paul still holds a love for development that transfers into everything he does.
