Are you one of those CTOs who gets about 10 annoying marketing emails every week from software companies all over the world with texts that read like this “Hey there, let us do that coding for you, we have fully dedicated team of highly skilled professionals, who will deliver the best software, at a very cheap price”.
Annoying, isn’t it? Most of these emails are simply deleted without a second look.
… many CTOs face the challenge of hiring good developers for their product development teams while fighting with the high salary cost. The local labor market for software developers is extremely competitive and it’s really difficult to hire experienced developers … who are we kidding, it’s even difficult to hire any developers.
We dug up a survey that was made a couple of years ago and we discovered some interesting facts, which are very relevant today. One of the key reasons many business owners had not started an outsourcing cooperation was the lack of trust in outsourcing, which was driven by lack of outsourcing know-how. Simply put, many CTOs and CEOs had very little experiences on “how to manage an outsourcing project from start until the end of cooperation”.
Almost every company that played an active role in our survey admitted that they would love to get a very good outsourcing partner that would deliver a clean code, without any communication problems and with reasonable pricing. But very few had the skills to actually achieve this.
Top CTOs should be highly proficient in using outsourcing resources smartly for the benefit of their companies. Key skills are:
• what kind of tasks should be outsourced and what should not,
• outsource or nearshore – what regions are more suitable for your company
• how to choose a good partner from the dozens of options
• what are the main risks in outsourcing,
• how to seamlessly integrate the outsourcing team into your own company operations,
• how to get a reasonable price for the good quality
• how to reduce communication overheads,
• how to protect IP rights
• how to prepare their own team for the outsourcing cooperation
• how to end the outsourcing arrangement in a proper way.
CTOs who have become masters in these topics are in high demand in the labor market because the consistent need for proficient engineers will not decline anytime soon. Understanding how to harness the positive features of nearshoring and outsourcing as a part of your company’s resource arsenal is a very valuable leverage.
I am sure many great CTOs are reading this right now, but if you still want to improve your proficiency and skills in these topics, please feel free to contact us. We have trained and advised many companies and their CTOs on the best ways to set up their outsourcing plans and how to find good nearshoring partners.
Take a look, how the biggest SaaS Company in Finland, Procountor, started their outsourcing cooperation (with a little help for us).
If you have found this article informative, please feel free to share it with friends and colleagues. We will love to read your comments about your experiences in starting an outsourcing cooperation. Oh, and feel free to contact us for advice. The first 30-minute session is our treat (free stuff).
The article was first published at netcorp.ee by Outsourcing strategist Paavo Pauklin.
