To fully comprehend the importance of culture and timezone when considering software outsourcing, especially when going nearshore, it is fundamental to take into account first how the world has changed regarding modalities of work since the implementation and the advances of the internet.
Having said that, in recent years the world seems to have become much smaller. As a matter of fact, due to technological advances and the ongoing process of globalization, every day it is less and less necessary for companies to have all employees in the same location. Truth is, the need to have them all under one roof is rapidly disappearing.
Because of this, many US companies have started to expand their horizons and look for talent, not only inside the US but also elsewhere. This makes the so-called offshore software outsourcing services, however, soon enough and inevitably, offshoring presented management problems, cultural differences, and time-zone issues that, in some cases, interfered with business. However, quickly enough a solution to this problem appeared: nearshore outsourcing.
Nearshore Software Development = a win-win alternative
Nearshore Software Development is a process that involves sending information technology work to neighboring countries to the home base of the company that is outsourcing the work. In other words, going nearshore in software development means delegating tasks to software professionals based in relatively close countries. For the US, the most common nearshore countries for software outsourcing are Colombia, Mexico, Costa Rica, Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, and Venezuela.
Thus, nearshore outsourcing offers a series of benefits when choosing to work with an outsourcing modality since it allows your company to have a dedicated software development team that will let you manage your software projects from a close location.
If you are wondering why US companies choose to nearshore outsourcing, here we list the main benefits this modality of work offers to any company:
Geographical proximity and fewer (or no) time-zone differences
Proximity is important. For instance, offshoring software development work to India or Eastern Europe usually means the lag time that could potentially become less control over the quality, projects, and even deadlines. Conversely, similar time zones allow companies to have daily communication at your business hours.
As well, in case a project requires face to face meetings during its lifecycle, travel costs for your company can be way lower than with offshore development, which is also important to take into account.
Cultural and language similarities
Cultural affinity is key to any outsourcing partnership, and it goes beyond a shared common language and lifestyle. A similar culture is not only about having the same bank holidays but more about avoiding business risks that different communication styles between parties from different cultures can create.
A very important factor when outsourcing is to be able to trust your team’s estimates, so you can plan your go-to-market strategy based on milestones deliverables. For this, you need a team that is culturally aligned and able to tell you what is possible to accomplish and what is not.
Cost savings and Return on Investment
Truth is, Return on Investment (ROI) is the main reason why businesses are looking to outsource software work. Nearshoring enables this by usually sending software work to countries in Latin America where wages are lower compared to US wages.
Compensation of staff shortages
In the case of staff shortage, nearshore software development companies are a great option for staff augmentation. Engineering universities in Latin America delivering great software engineers year after year.
Improving company efficiency
By outsourcing integral parts of a software product in development to a software partner located in Latin America, you have the option to rearrange your in-house core team for principal tasks, while distributing large projects and adding flexibility to your development process.
In the end, outsourcing software development has proven to be a very profitable work method for many companies worldwide. More specifically, nearshore has demonstrated to be the in-between choice among other outsourcing options regarding how it combines the benefits of this modality at the same time that it maintains a “comfort zone” for your business by setting its communication on a higher level and adding up major cost savings.
