With the advancement in technology, it has become very easy for the businesses to hire talents from other countries. Websites like oDesk, Freelancers and so on are making it easy to find the developers or an offshore development company. It won’t only bring cost-effective solutions but also brings a whole host of exciting features that would make your application development venture successful.
There is no denying that offshore software development company could help you grow your business online in a lot of ways but one should also consider potential risks associated with it. In order to make your offshore investment successful for your business, it is very important that you assess the potential pitfalls before engaging with any offshore development company.
Here’re the common issues that you may face while hiring an offshore software development company:
- Time Zones – This is one of the major problems with the offshore development firms. Developers or the service providers in Eastern Europe and Asia are totally on the other side of the world which means when one is working during a day other one is sleeping in the night. Therefore, communication becomes quite impossible between both the parties. This happens quite frequently in development projects so offshore projects usually take longer than expected.
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Cultural Differences – While US culture puts a high premium on execution, deadlines and keeping commitments, some cultures afraid to tell you that they can’t do a few things or can’t deliver some expertise you’re looking for. This results into a disaster as you might be unaware about their lack of knowledge or expertise you’re seeking. At the end, you will be delivered a project that is not in accordance with your expectations and even incomplete.
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Language Barriers – Well, this might be a major problem specifically when you’re outsourcing your project to the country using a language other than English. If the offshore development company you hire doesn’t comprise of a team of the developers having fluent English skills, it will ruin your entire application development venture. You will get something that you never wanted.
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Bidding Problems – This is one of the most common reasons behind the failure of the offshore development projects. In some or other ways, offshore development projects are quite problematic because of unawareness of the developers in bidding projects and many of them are not even interested to please and to get work in such a highly competitive marketplace.
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Lack of Control – What if development firms you’ve hired stop answering your emails, calls or IMs? You can’t do more about it. All you can do is to approach to the other service providers to get it done immediately. However, in the US you can ask your attorney to write a letter or you could sue them or report them to the BBB. If they are local, you can any time walk down to their office and give them a piece of your mind. Virtually none of these options are viable with an offshore company.
These are a few of the most common pitfalls that every one approaching to an offshore development company should try to keep in mind before getting engaged with the service provider. Have you ever faced any of these issues? Share your experiences in the comments…!
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