How to Address Challenges and Implement Solutions in Offshore Development

Businesses frequently compare development costs based only on the hourly rate of talent. They don't account for:

• geopolitical issues
• skill availability
• local labor competition
• legal and intellectual property-related issues
• wage inflation
• attrition
• currency fluctuation

This has an impact on the project's cost, either directly or indirectly. In addition, they encounter management, communication, cultural, legal compliance, and cybersecurity difficulties.

So, without further ado, let's look at these difficulties and how to address them according to the leading and prominent offshore Software Development Company in India.

1. Productivity and Performance Challenges

Businesses frequently experience mismatches between expectations and reality, when the performance of the outsourced offshore development team and the quality of output are below average. This frequently occurs when the hired resources' skill sets do not match the client's expectations.

There are challenges with work efficiency and effectiveness, which are generating project delivery delays. This increases the time-to-market for new products and causes delays in the business strategy. 

Solution

The measures outlined below can help to reduce this challenge:

• Transparency in Hiring– Transparent recruiting is the first and most important step in picking an offshore staff. As a result, it is essential that you work with an offshore partner who is actively involved in the entire hiring process. They consider your feedback and preferences at all stages of the process, from screening, shortlisting, and interviewing to resource selection. Choosing an overseas partner like this ensures that you hire the correct resources and receive quality output that meets your expectations.
•  Customer Support and Assistance– The offshore partner's job extends beyond providing transparent hiring; they must also establish customer support to assist you with proper project deployment. 
• Regular Feedback – Choose a partner who develops a process structure and solicits regular feedback (weekly/monthly) on output, resources, and ongoing operations. It also takes remedial action to address difficulties that arise as a result of a mismatch between expectations and delivery. 

2. Management Challenges

When dealing with an offshore development company, the probability of encountering management issues increases in the following scenarios:

• Missing a customer-centric mindset, in which the partner is more concerned with the financial aspects of the collaboration than with providing you with an appropriate solution/team for your tasks. 
• Insufficient systems, processes, framework, and escalation matrix.
• There is no resource backup for the contracted team.

Solution

Businesses can handle management difficulties by thoroughly verifying the offshore partner, which includes evaluating the following: 

• Their approach to business and consumer relations. What solutions and help (technical or non-technical) are they willing to offer for your project?
• Assess their systems, workflow procedures, frameworks, and escalation matrix. Access their operational structure, and if an escalation is raised regarding the hired team, output quality, or new skill set requirement, how quickly will it be resolved? 

In today's uncertain environment, having a resource backup has become critical to ensuring the project's continuous progress. As a result, select a partner who can provide immediate resource replacement and on-demand upscaling or downscaling of the hired staff.

3. Communication Barriers

Working with an offshore development center implies that you will be managing a remote workforce from another country. Countries like as China, Brazil, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Egypt have developed as hotbeds for outsourcing projects over the last decade; nonetheless, communication remains a fundamental difficulty when working with an offshore crew.

Precisely, communication challenges arise from two aspects:

• Lack of logical and analytical skills– In this circumstance, the team is proficient in speaking and understanding the preferred language of communication (often English), but they fail to comprehend the briefs due to a lack of needed knowledge and skill sets. Furthermore, the team lacks the analytical ability to explore needs and create quality products.

• Lack of language proficiency- In this example, despite the team's analytical skills, they suffer due to their limited English language. English is still not taught as a first or second language in many countries. The lack of language proficiency causes communication barriers between the company and the offshore team. As a result, these gaps frequently lead to misinterpretation, extended debriefing times, and, ultimately, delayed results.

Check out the best India's 10 leading Offshore Software Development Companies.

Solution

Businesses can overcome communication issues by implementing a thorough selection process. An efficient selection process can significantly reduce the initial challenge. A comprehensive selection procedure would ensure that teams are properly screened, shortlisted, and selected based on their skill set and analytical acumen. The selection process involves: 

1. Resume vetting
2. Analytical aptitude examination
3. Candidate selection interviews in English

Aside from the selection procedure, it is always preferable to find an offshore development partner from an English-speaking country such as India. India has the world's second-largest English speakers population and ranks 48th in language proficiency globally. As a result, you gain access to a professional English-speaking team at all levels, from executive to management. 

4. Cultural Differences

Cultural differences are among the most typical and visible problems confronting an offshore crew. When dealing with a diverse group, there will undoubtedly be language obstacles, cultural gaps, and differences in values and working styles.

All of these cultural variances might occur while working with offshore teams within the same country. These discrepancies can cause friction between in-house and offshore teams, limiting their capacity to collaborate and provide high-quality results.

Solution

Understanding the team's cultural variety, beliefs, and emotional quotient can help reduce cultural barriers while working with a diverse team. Before choosing an offshore development partner, it is critical to conduct research and assess the cultural compatibility of the company at the corporate, process, and day-to-day levels.

Here are five tips to ensure cultural compatibility with your overseas partner.

1. Be informed of the professional etiquette of the region where you intend to establish your offshore development center.
2. Maintain a clear communication line to promote openness and ensure that the aims and objectives are communicated to the offshore partner seamlessly.
3. The hired workforce must receive sufficient training and coaching to avoid confusion, miscommunication, and conflict between in-house and offshore workers.
4. Create a constructive feedback mechanism that enables teams to discuss and share their ideas freely.
5. Be mindful of their culture, traditions, and beliefs, and avoid just reproducing your business strategy in the offshore development center.

5. Legal Challenges

Politics, policies, legislation, and foreign relations all have an impact on              business. Taxes, labor legislation, FDI restrictions, import and export policies, wage inflation, attrition, and the legal landscape all have a direct and indirect impact on the performance of your offshore development center in a foreign country. 

Solution

Before establishing an Offshore Development Center, you must conduct thorough research of the country's legal landscape, foreign business laws, FDI legislation, and geopolitical challenges. India is one of the most advantageous investment environments for the IT sector, and the country invests substantially in developing the necessary talent pool to attract international investment in these industries. 

6. IP Protection and Data Security Risk

IP protection and data security are two main issues that firms have when outsourcing their IT initiatives. Let us clarify the distinction between IP protection and data security. 

• Data Security
  This refers to data protection from an external attack like malware. It combines three principles: secrecy, integrity, and availability (CIA). Failure in any of the components causes data vulnerability, which leads to a breach of information, unauthorized access, leakage, or deletion of essential data as a result of bad policy, risk management, or immature security practices.

• IP Protection
  It is described as safeguarding sensitive information from internal threats and leaks. Sensitive information such as trade secrets, intellectual property (IPs), or financial and operational data that, if released, could harm the client's business.

When dealing with an offshore partner, organizations are under constant pressure to keep information secure while working remotely.

Solution

Before launching an offshore development center, conduct a thorough risk assessment and take corrective actions to alleviate data security and intellectual property protection concerns. The corrective actions include

• Integrating enterprise-level network security into the offshore software development center's architecture.
• To maintain data confidentiality, thorough NDAs are signed between the hiring firm and offshore partner, the hiring company and offshore team, and the offshore partner and offshore team. 
• Regular security audits of infrastructure and servers are being conducted.
• Create a local database for the project that is currently underway. This would allow you to create backups of your ongoing work at all times.
• Mission-critical initiatives should be carried out using hardened systems.

7. Infrastructure Challenges

Maintaining a remote work model requires reliable infrastructure, including internet connectivity, power supply, systems and technology, and voice infrastructure. Inadequate resources could lead to the offshore development center's failure. 

Solution

Businesses may not be able to address infrastructure difficulties, but they may certainly prevent them by selecting the correct site. Here's a small checklist: 

1. 24×7 Power
2. Uninterrupted high-speed Internet Speed
3. The outsourcing partner can provide systems and technology.
4. Transportation and connectivity within the city
5. Voice infrastructure for international calls

8. Time Zone Difference

One of the most typical issues when outsourcing your projects is the time zone mismatch between in-house and offshore staff. Collaboration is difficult because the teams operate in various time zones. Limited team engagement leads to coordination challenges, which can have an impact on the project's overall performance and output.

Solution

• Planning overlap window– Keeping a time overlap between the in-house and offshore teams improves project coordination and management. Creating a time overlap window with predefined meeting times and collaboration activities guarantees that teams may collaborate seamlessly.
• Following Agile Scrum– Using Agile Scrum minimizes the requirement for close monitoring of the work done by the offshore team. It keeps you informed about the current project work, the project plan for the following days, and any issues that need to be resolved. 
• Work flexibility – a flexible work atmosphere in which both teams are willing to start earlier or work longer hours to interact and discuss the ongoing project. Creating a rotating shift will also assist the offshore crew in maintaining a better work-life balance. 

Conclusion

Setting up an offshore development center can help you build your expertise, gain access to quality personnel, cut development expenses, and shorten time to market. However, in order to have a successful offshoring journey, you must successfully solve the following issues to ensure smooth operation. Choosing the correct outsourcing destination, such as India, can assist developing countries address communication, legal, and infrastructure difficulties. 

akashroy Member since June 8, 2023