When deciding if mobile app development outsourcing is right for your company or small business, you need to know the main pros and cons:
In recent years, the development of mobile apps by outsourcing has become widespread. Outsourcing is the formal transfer of certain types of work tasks from one company to other performers. For example, the design of an application can be developed by one team, and the functionality by another. Most often, companies resort to development outsourcing when they don’t have enough specialists or the budget to independently solve certain problems.
Like any other method, outsourcing mobile app development has its pros and cons — or advantages and disadvantages. In this article, we will explore some of them with the help of the Boosty Labs team, which specializes, among other things, in outsource mobile development.
Outsourcing advantages:
Cost reduction
Hiring additional specialists to your team costs a lot of money. Collaboration with third-party employees will save you from the cost of new jobs, sick pay, vacations and other payments associated with full employment. Funds will be required only to pay for the implementation of specific tasks.
Flexibility
Outsourcing allows you to quickly change certain specialists if necessary. Such actions in the internal team can lead to conflicts in the team or even problems at the legal level.
Speed
It will take about three months to assemble the right team for tasks such as developing a mobile application. This can lead to delays and customer dissatisfaction. With outsourcing, the development process is greatly accelerated, as you delegate tasks to other trusted specialists who can select performers much faster.
Cooperation with experienced professionals
By outsourcing your work tasks to a trusted application development company, you can be sure that they will be performed by qualified specialists with official work experience vouched for by their superiors. This is much more reliable than hiring freelancers whose work experience is not verified.
Outsourcing disadvantages:
Lack of control over the team
By delegating tasks to another company, you lose the opportunity to personally control their execution. Of course, in one way or another, you will follow the process, receive regular reports and be aware of how well the creation of the application is progressing. Good companies ensure that the clients who delegate tasks to them are closely involved in the project, but this is not always the case.
Time zone and communication problems
This is a common risk for those who work with a company outside of their region, located in a different time zone. The greater the time gap between you and the performers, the more difficult it is to find time convenient for both teams to communicate and solve problems that arise. To avoid this and communicate more efficiently with your development team around the world, it’s smart to invest in a well-rated enterprise collaboration system.
Obfuscated code
If you change your development team frequently or decide at some point to stop outsourcing and continue developing mobile applications yourself, the quality of the code can be seriously affected, as it will be written by different people. In advanced cases, this can lead to the fact that the application will have to be rewritten from scratch.
Business risks
Third-party companies are not protected from the usual business risks: they may suddenly go bankrupt, lay off their employees, or even close altogether. Therefore, delegation of tasks, in addition to the obvious advantages, always poses a huge risk: there is a chance of getting a raw, unfinished product purely because of the business problems of the performer.
Do what’s best for you
Besides the main pros and cons of mobile app development outsourcing that we’ve outlined here, what others can you think of that are specific to your business? With that in mind, realize that there’s no best solution for developing mobile apps. Carefully weigh all of the advantages and disadvantages, and do what makes sense for you financially, operationally, and strategically.
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