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Hiring overseas agencies

Whether to Hire an Overseas Agency for Your Mobile App Development Or Not

Whether you are a start-up or a well established business owner, you May often face yourself with the above question. It is quite pertinent to ask yourself such a question and have doubts regarding this. Before going into the details it can be stated that the most important benefit of hiring an overseas agency is the cheap cost of labour.  A local mobile app developer might charge you a steep cost bracket of $130 to $150 for an hour. You can have the same work done by an overseas agency or an outsourced individual at a much lesser cost that can be as low as $40 per hour! If you save the money on labour you can utilize bigger amounts on richer user interfaces and features for your application.

There are more merits of outsourcing mobile design and development work (to overseas agencies as they have earned a lot of good reputation for providing world-class outputs and extreme client satisfaction) than demerits. Comparison of rates provided here is surely based on reference checks, social network discussions, public forums and individual experiences. Entrepreneurs starting off on preparation and management of their projects often falter for wrongly considering the fact that hourly costs are equal everywhere which is not true. Whether you are looking for short term contracts or long term alliances your business value will be taken to a higher level by an overseas agency or an individual due to their sharp understanding and in-depth knowledge of project specs. Need for client satisfaction is their priority. Overseas agencies and freelancers are popular for their excellent people skills and are preferred over local app developers who are known to be rude and undisciplined in work approach, professionalism and delivery schedules.

If you are opting to go for offshore app developers here are a few things you might consider to attain success:

Put time to Find an Appropriate Team

There is a lot of inappropriate marketing that goes around with offshore developers. In the name of pulling clients overseas agencies join in the race for extreme promotion, noisy advertising, spamming and frequent actions to make their presence felt in the mobile app development marketplace. In order to get rid of spammers and fake promising entities you must invest a lot of time in finding the right developer.

You must refer to a lot of social media content related to companies (a good company will have an impressive social media presence and a huge user/client base) and read reviews on the search engines before hiring an appropriate team. You cannot afford to have half done projects and wasted budgetary alignments. Professional agencies will be open to showcase their previous client references, projects and skill sets. A true developer will be ready to provide you with samples, etc.

Do not fall for wild claims as it will hamper your client’s needs. Timely delivery, continuous communication and transparency in the entire development process are the qualities you should be looking for. A good team will be keen to send a trial project (as and when asked by you).

A professional offshore development house will surely have excellent project managers who will communicate with you and bring out the best possible communication between you and his team members.

Be Prepared

It is easier to handle domestic projects than offshore ones. But the reality behind failed offshore projects is the failure of software managers who fail to convey your message to his/her team. Even a good manager in your locality can fail to provide you with a finished mobile app. You need to be ready to invest time, energy and resources to bring the best ROI home.

A local agency might ask for impossible hourly payment rates and also fail to deliver your requirements in time. You can have your own manager who can handle all the communication done from your end to ensure your project’s success.

Keep a Tight Grip on Workflow

Trust is important to develop strong business relations but it is equally important to have a complete grip on the development process. You must have a clear picture of the resources being applied and progresses met on a day to day basis. If it is not you who is playing the role of a project manager then need to keep a tight grip on the daily project improvements and details. Communication with your offshore team on a daily basis is very important.

It is not a perfect world and you need to make things perfect all by yourself. A good team will be open to day to day communication. You can include work tracking software if you want or chalk out a daily work sheet (shared with you and all others involved in your project) that will include all the details put in by team members.

Since you are the one who is spending money you have the right to ask questions and your hired team is bound to provide relevant answers. Remain flexible in your approach and your offshore team will not fail you. Overseas agencies are well-known for their good behaviour and professional approaches.

Make your Team Happy

It does not matter whether you are thousand miles away from your outsourced team. Today communication platforms are easily accessible anywhere anytime. However make an effort to be more personal and connection in your communications. Make a call and praise your team’s good efforts with gifts or appreciations. These are little steps that go on to build long-term business relationships. It is important for an agency to have returning clients quite similar to you who also needs to have a trusted developer team.

Choose to be fancy every now and them and gift your team with Xboxes, iPads, office utility items or iPods. Compare the reduced costs (when you hire a local mobile app development team) and share the happiness. Happy teams lead to happier work environments.

With the recent rise of outsourcing for start-ups you can consider keeping aside your extra money for additional features (app functionality, stunning user experience and cost for making sticky apps), support costs and app monetization.

You need to have good management to make your offshore development a successful story.

Hire a good Manager

An able software manager will be effective in coming up with great project specifications, written communications and provide training to individuals on software/tool usage. Offshore management is a tricky thing. It is advisable to be your own manager. This will make you have a clear picture of your project route map.

If you are not sure whether you would successfully perform scheduling, analysis, technical data handling then you can hire a manager to communicate with your overseas team. An experienced development agency will have a manager or a team leader. You need to ensure his/her expertise in communication (both written and spoken). He/she needs to be impressive in experience and language skills. You need to check whether he/she will be able to manage your project on their own or not. Do not leave without getting all the information you need.

Outsourcing for start-ups is a growing trend today. Project cost and additional management and consultation support has started guiding several A-list names to work with offshore agencies. If you have a good product management in place you can ensure yourself to have the right outputs. You need to enjoy the development processes while having transparent communication with your development team. Praising your outsourced team’s work and expertise will open up broader territories for world-class app development.