Sometimes it’s better to let someone else do the hard work.

While outsourcing these days is quite common, there remain a surprising number of executives who don’t like, or are fearful of, the idea of asking a third party to build any of their software, ever. They worry about losing control of their tools, they worry about getting poor developers, they worry that the development process will become more unreliable, and they worry that it could be more expensive.

And yes, there are some absolutely terrible outsourced software development shops that would definitely validate those fears!

But there are also some incredible software development companies out there (we’re going to unabashedly put our team at Plan A Technologies into this second bucket). These companies can and do shatter those fears, but only if they’re given a chance to prove themselves. Ignoring the benefits of working with a stellar third-party development team means missing out on some huge opportunities.

1. Is Your Core Business Technology?

If you’re in a business that isn’t itself technology-based, like a flower delivery service or construction firm, you likely don’t have an in-house development team robust enough to tackle a major development project without help, meaning you’ll probably require outstaffing or full-on outsourcing.

But we’ve found that, even if you’re fully in the tech game, there are still strong reasons to consider outsourcing. Carefully consider whether using outside development help is actually better for your business and your customers in the long run. You wouldn’t be alone. Giants such as Alibaba, Upwork, Skype and WhatsApp, among many others, are thriving today in large part because they decided to outsource early in their start-up phase.

Let’s talk about outsourcing?

2. Would Developing Yourself Take Your Focus Away From Your Core Business?

Your priority as a business owner or officer is to tend to your core business. This is in many ways an obvious guideline, but it’s one easily forgotten in the frenzy of the day-to-day schedule. Your priority should not be wasting crucial hours worrying about technology that’s better left to people for whom that is their core business. If you suspect a tech project will divert you from growing or maintaining your core business, then it’s time to call for an outsourced development team. 

Too many times have we witnessed a company trying to save money by developing an app in-house, only to end up losing way more by forgetting to keep their focus on their core business.

Let’s talk about outsourcing?

3. Do You Need Specialists for Your Project?

It’s extremely difficult for an in-house development team to have every possible skill set you’d need for every possible project. If your team is missing needed experience or training (or if you don’t have a development team of your own at all), you’ll likely want to call in a third-party team.

For example, if you want to launch a high-performance mobile app in two quarters but don’t have someone on staff who’s well-versed in React Native, looking for a company with experienced React Native developers makes a lot of sense. Even if you have someone capable of handling the task, you should ask: How much of a stretch will this be for them? If it’s a difficult ask for a team member — whether because it requires them to update their skills before they can start the work or their schedule is already filled — a specialist can be a simpler, swifter approach.

At Plan A Technologies, we’ve seen how useful specialists are for the companies we work with, so we’ve bulked up our staff with the best and can boast a comprehensive roster that can work in almost any programming language you might need.

Let’s talk about outsourcing?

4. Do You Want to Cut Down on Costs?

To your accounting department, every employee costs more than their stated salary. Factoring in benefits, time off, necessary supplies and tech, taxes and more, you can be looking at almost 1.5 times the base salary, in terms of real per-person costs.

Whereas when you use a third-party developer, you just pay the contract costs and the development company absorbs all those extra fees. Meaning that you essentially get a massive discount for the same amount of development work. That huge tech project you were eyeing for next year will suddenly seem a lot more economical with a third-party company bearing the brunt of the associated staffing costs. Many companies we work with have come to us after a project saying they might have originally worried that outsourcing development would be pricey — but were pleasantly surprised by the bottom line.

Let’s talk about outsourcing?

5. Do You Need to Get a Project Done Quickly?

Now let’s stroll over from accounting to the C-suite. At this level, you know that time is as valuable (if not more!) than money. And if you have a tight schedule to keep with a new tech project, outsourcing is often the way to go. 

Quite simply, doing it yourself tends to be time-consuming. Building up an in-house development team means spending valuable weeks and months on recruiting, interviews, paperwork, onboarding and orientation. And that’s before you start on the endless meetings and prep work needed to initiate a new tech project, which is necessary even if you have an existing in-house team. Weeks turn into months, and suddenly  a year has passed and no code has been written.

With the right third-party development company, you basically have a plug-in-and-play team. You’re ready to go and suddenly launching the shiny new app next quarter doesn’t seem so pie-in-the-sky.

We’ve had clients with seriously abridged development times, and they’ve always been happy that they had our outsourced development team to concentrate on getting their new software up and running by deadline.

Let’s talk about outsourcing?

6. Do You Want to Lessen the Managerial Load?

With the right third-party team, outsourcing development isn’t just a relief for your in-house tech and HR teams: It gives the C-Suite a break too. How? With Plan A Technologies, our developers and managers have the experience to know which tasks to prioritize and which can (or even should) wait. They know who needs to work with whom to finalize an asset or component. The result is you can focus on your clients, as opposed to feeling there’s another project you need to micromanage.

Let’s talk about outsourcing?

7. Is It a One-Off Project? Are You Trying to Avoid Adding Permanent Hires?

Hiring new staff can be a lengthy and costly process. After all, adding a permanent new member to your company isn’t a decision to take lightly. Let’s say you decide to bring on a developer who’s well-versed in Vue specifically for an important one-off project. Once the Vue project is completed, however, you’re still paying the salary and benefits and all the rest for someone whose specialty you don’t need anymore. In other words, the real budget of that Vue project didn’t end with launch, and the costs continue to grow each paycheck. Indeed, it soon grows clear that while the new developer was a great fit for that specific project, the hire is a flawed fit on a day-to-day basis.

This is a case where a well-staffed third-party developer not only saves you long-term costs, but prevents a deeply unpleasant discussion about whether that unfortunate Vue developer truly has a future at your company. (And laying someone off costs money, too.) We’ve saved many a client from having to make painful long-term decisions, because we have talented Vue developers on staff — and our clients don’t have to keep paying their salaries once the project is over.

Let’s talk about outsourcing?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, reach out to Plan A today

If you answered yes to any of these questions, reach out to Plan A todayMaybe you read about staffers being forced to take on tasks outside their expertise and struggling so much they neglect their usual duties. Or perhaps you just quickly crunched the numbers and realized, with a bit of outsourcing, your budget is a lot bigger than it first appeared. Or you just want to have a deeper discussion about the potential benefits of outsourcing. Whatever your needs, Plan A awaits. We carefully select our global team to make sure we have experts in the widest variety of development skills, meaning we’re ready to take on almost any task you require. After all, our core business is handling technology development needs or, more specifically, doing anything we can to let you focus on your core.