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There’s a big gap between an organization’s needs, regarding software development, and offerings found in freelancing platforms. The world is changing, there’s no question about it. Since these changes will impact every industry and company, leaders around the world should be aware that digital strategies are going to be part of daily operations for every business. Due to this, and some trends the 2020 pandemic has brought on, one evident trend is the decentralization of talent.
There’s a wide variety of platforms offering single talent, with engineers and people to cover tasks and transactions. It’s quite simple and straight-forward: you pay for the number of hours the talent will invest in your project or business. However, this doesn’t necessarily solve all of the potential challenges when someone is looking to smartly scale their workforce.
The need for better and capable talented people is imperative, and it is not enough to just say that someone knows how to code or design. These skills are commodities available for anyone in the world. The current world demands people capable of wearing multiple hats, collaborating with other individuals, and producing valuable outcomes for the benefited entity of those efforts. When you analyze the challenges with said factors into consideration, finding the right individual becomes a monumental task; with multiple functions depending on the lack of expertise, the number of hours and recruiters involved within the sourcing process, and talent required for the final activity.
When you think about business leaders and companies exploring new digital projects, one of the core aspects of success is being focused on their business and all strategic matters. Only this way can they aspire to thrive in such a competitive world.
When we talk about software outsourcing, it’s a true headache, but the reality is that there’s a great potential not being explored in outsourcing strategies. Additionally, when done correctly, with remote work on the rise, there might be high results.
Software Outsourcing: A leveraged business model that provides businesses appropriate resources from external software services companies or IT vendors for a particular software requirement, function, or project.
Challenges vary and depend on the strategy, pace, and necessities of each organization. Adaptability becomes crucial with a VUCA world. Scaling the efforts of recruiting, considering the company culture, thinking of a way to scale geographically, and seizing the best locations due to the conditions of that region, are just a few challenges. Growing and impacting organizations is a tough job.
Over the years, there are plenty of lessons learned that I always try to share, but when I think about the most beneficial ones, those are the experiences I would like to share and scale as much as possible. That’s when the relationship between a company and a software service vendor becomes a partnership.
A full alignment in terms of cultures, expectations, and clarity about the outcomes to pursue, develops a lasting relationship that can make both organizations grow and thrive. According to The Deloitte Global Outsourcing Survey 2018, almost 67% of software vendor relationships end in M&A transactions. It is interesting to see that saving is not the most important factor for organizations nowadays.
With the fast evolution of industries, companies are seeking to acquire new capabilities, fortify current competence, upskilling their workforce, and extend their bandwidth. This is in search of being able to confront all the challenges they are currently facing.
Comparing this model of engagement with an employee-freelancer(s) schema, the advantages can be plenty. Just to mention a few from the client standpoint:
Behind all those aspects, is where the cost-saving factor predominates but is implicit when you sum all of the above. Imagine slowing down a company’s time-to-market capacity due to the lack of hiring capabilities; that’s a missing opportunity cost factor.
Beyond a transactional model between client-vendor, there are an array of opportunities to discover. Such as collaborating with end-clients, building business plans, sharing higher risk stakes, and even covering expenses for a higher benefit in the current relationship.
There’s a lot of work to do in order to achieve a successful relationship with a software partner, and presume real outcomes. It takes time to generate real expectations from the company willing to outsource, prepare the engagement, perform multiple tests, and most importantly, build trust to scale the outcomes.
Behind all those aspects, is where the cost-saving factor predominates but is implicit when you sum all of the above. Imagine slowing down a company’s time-to-market capacity due to the lack of hiring capabilities; that’s a missing opportunity cost factor.
Beyond a transactional model between client-vendor, there are an array of opportunities to discover. Such as collaborating with end-clients, building business plans, sharing higher risk stakes, and even covering expenses for a higher benefit in the current relationship.
