Why Outsource Software Development?

Building a SaaS product introduces a lot of challenges - especially acquiring the right talent for the project, meeting budget and time targets. Outsourcing brings many advantages to SaaS development. The offshore SaaS development process is now smoother than ever with implementation of better development methodology and qualified product developers.

With adequate resources available, one can use simple development methodology to implement a communication and result oriented strategy. With a team-based approach to SaaS product development, you get access to additional benefits of flexibility and speed. The best place to find local developers to collaborate with is to attend local tech meet-ups and start asking around. Find like-minded people you'd trust to collaborate with to develop your idea.

Why Outsource Software Development?

At the most fundamental level, outsourcing can help solve three specific issues: providing access to talent, saving time and lowering costs. In addition, outsourcing can also provide scale and reduce time to market. Many large companies have already turned to outsourcing. Startups and mid-sized technology companies are getting there, but they seem to have a harder time making the decision to try it.
Working with an outsourced development team provides a number of benefits to SaaS companies. Both during the MVP stage and growth stage. Besides, outsourcing the development of your SaaS products give you multiple benefits.

Most software companies build early versions of their software in-house and iterate until they find a product-market fit. Then, they rapidly grow their user bases. But as growth accelerates, so does the pressure to meet aggressive product roadmaps, add new features and fix bugs and usability issues. The weight of this work strains the internal software development team, and they need to expand.
At this stage, companies immediately run into the realities of finding and hiring IT talent — the 50-plus days it takes to find, interview and hire (which doesn’t include on-boarding) and the high incremental costs of adding new employees. All while managing sales, marketing and growth processes. If you’re facing similar challenges, outsourcing might be the best answer.

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Benefits of SaaS Software Outsourcing

In addition to providing access to talent, outsourcing development affords companies many other benefits, from time and cost savings to process improvements.

Start Software Development Projects Right Away.

Outsourcing can help you manage growth without getting overwhelmed. It can speed up software development by providing quick access to developers and testers. Instead of spending 50 days to hire each developer, you can hire a whole team in one week and get started. And you don’t need to spend 80 hours screening every hire; it’s done by your outsourcing partner.

Lower Costs

Like most other tech companies, SaaS ventures typically operate on a shoestring budget focused on reducing initial development costs and maximizing the return from their finalized software. Because of these limitations and the intensely competitive nature of the SaaS industry, it is incredibly difficult for companies in this arena to have the budget to hire the sort of large, highly skilled internal development teams necessary to produce a minimum viable product (MVP) that can connect with consumers.

That’s why many companies, large and small alike, turn to outsourcing when undertaking a new SaaS development project. Some companies opt to outsource their entire development process to an experienced end-to-end delivery team, capable of translating a rough idea into a polished final product. Whatever your needs, your outsourcing partner should help you create a cost-effective plan of action that allows you to add hyper-specialized developers to your company as soon as you are ready.

Implement Efficient Processes.

Software development requires both skilled developers as well as strong processes. A good outsourcing partner can improve development by leveraging its experience in executing similar projects. It can, for example, apply its framework and practices for managing code quality and protecting intellectual property.

With an outsourcing partner, you can meet demand at a reduced cost, allowing you to invest more in key growth drivers, such as marketing, sales and product development. You actually can have your cake and eat it too!

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Find the Right Talent

For the modern companies, one of the most harrowing challenges that they face is finding the right talent in a competitive job market. The Annual CIO Survey found that 65% of technology leaders said that the search for tech talent is one of their industry’s biggest challenges. However, thoughtful tech leaders can sidestep this problem through software outsourcing–and by working with outsourcing partners who have a wide network of experienced software engineers ready to begin their next project today. Just as importantly, their recruiting staff can identify which software engineers are best suited for your organization given your internal capabilities, budget, and project goals.

Flexibility After Development

In the midst of a major software development project, most employees don’t have time to think ahead to next month, much less next year. But, one of management’s primary responsibilities during this time period is to make sure that their team is prepared for the next steps once the software is brought to market.

If you outsource SaaS development from the very beginning of your project, you can simply thank your temporary team members for their hard work and contributions and wish them well on their next project. This is an enviable position to be in: managers who followed the old system of hiring a full-time staff are trying to figure out how to reduce their budget and put these employees to work, while those who outsourced development are looking towards the future and reorganizing their augmented staff for the next big project.

Learn from Others

Outsourcing software development allows you to bring in the most sought-after experts in the SaaS development field without the need for a drawn-out hiring process and, even more impressively, allows you to add them to your team almost immediately since your outsourcing partner will have these engineers on-call.

An incredibly difficult aspect of the SaaS process is that management should fully understand the SaaS development cycle, their customer needs, and the challenges that the project will likely bring. However, no matter how experienced your management team is, they can undoubtedly benefit from working with outside advisors who have overcome those very same challenges repeatedly throughout their careers.

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Some top SaaS companies that outsourced development and became successful.

Slack

One of the most popular communication tool used by many businesses. Not everybody is aware that the development of this collaboration application launched in 2013 was in fact outsourced. The four founders of the startup contacted a design company to handle the design of the website, application and Slack’s logo. The MVP was later distributed to beta testers and gained 8k users on the final launch day. As for today, Slack is used by nearly 8 million users per day and is steadily gaining momentum and recognition.

Microsoft

Yes, Microsoft, a giant that does not have to be introduced. Employing more than 131k people, Microsoft is said to have as many remote contractors as its direct employees. In 2010 Microsoft signed an outsourcing deal with a provider in India to manage its internal IT operations. The partner was responsible for managing IT help desk and servicing applications, devices and databases in 450 locations in more than 100 countries. This allowed Microsoft to reduce IT support costs.

Groove

Groove - an online customer support platform - is yet another amazing example of what outsourcing can give you. Its founder - Alex Turnbull - after selling his previous company, wanted to get back into the game as quickly as possible. Lacking technical knowledge and staff, he decided to outsource the entire development of the product. This allowed him to save money that would have been spent on hiring employees, offices etc. In 2016, Groove gained a total revenue of $5.2 million and is now employing people all around the world.

Conclusion

In the development of any software product or service, the most crucial resources are time, money and energy. SaaS software or products are the applications that will only witness a rise in the coming years. There are various tools and applications available in the market today for efficient project management overseas. With Skype, Google Hangouts, Jira and various others, you can easily manage the offshore development of your SaaS product.
Those few stories from SaaS startups that recognized the value of outsourcing their development are truly inspiring. They are proof that outsourcing saves money and allows to quickly create prototypes and shorten time-to-market. So, what do you think about outsourcing software development? Please let us know in the comments section below.