The Benefits of Offshore Web Development

Outsourcing isn’t a foreign concept for most technology companies. It can be a great way to staff a project quickly, and without the need for internal recruitment. However, despite the convenience, many still have a negative perception of outsourcing tech development. 

There are three common types of outsourcing: nearshore, onshore and offshore. The primary difference between them is where the outsourced team is based. 

Offshore teams are based in countries that are far away from the base for the project. For instance, many US or UK companies outsource to countries like India, Columbia, or China. 

Outsourcing can help you to staff your project. However, it’s critical to find the right partner for complex industries like digital health development. Outsourcing should be a partnership, rather than a contractual relationship. Here’s how the right offshore outsourced partner could benefit your development process. 

Scaling your Projects

This first point might seem like an obvious one. Outsourcing helps to meet staffing requirements for new projects. Hiring in the tech space is a real challenge for many companies. The tech talent shortage means that the talent pool is limited, and there’s a fight for the best available developers. 

This has left many tech innovations struggling to get off the ground. Offshore web development can help. 

However, offshore outsourcing doesn’t just help grow your project, but also helps to shrink it when necessary. This sounds counterintuitive, but ultimately most projects will need to scale down the development work eventually. 

Reducing staff numbers on a project can be particularly difficult when all of the development talent is in-house. If you don’t have another project available, this could lead to many layoffs. 

Offshore web development can help you to grow and shrink your projects as needed. Once the project is complete, the offshore development company transfers its engineers to another project without redundancies. It’s a win-win. 

Lower Costs

This might be the most widely recognized advantage of offshore web development. It might also contribute to many tech companies’ concerns about outsourcing. However, with the right development partner, lower costs increase a project’s profit margin. 

Typically, labor in offshore countries is a lot less costly than labor in western countries. For instance, the cost of labor in India is likely to be far less than the cost for equivalent work in the US. The cost of living in the US is more expensive, and this is why many companies outsource their labor. 

However, understandably, many tech companies are concerned about reduced quality. Often you get what you pay for and, in highly regulated industries like digital health, offshore web development can be a risk. 

That’s why it’s so important to find the right development partner for your project, regardless of where you outsource from. Do your research, and you can still benefit from an increased profit margin.

Talent Pool 

As mentioned, tech talent is sparse in the current market. Recruitment is a real challenge and, even when you find the talent, they are in high demand. Developers have the ability to request more from their jobs, and are moving between companies quickly. Staffing in the US is too inconsistent and time-consuming for most tech projects. 

By outsourcing offshore, you open up your available talent pool. You are no longer restricted to US talent, and can utilize the best global engineers for your projects. 

Not only does offshore outsourcing provide more talent, but that talent has a wider variety of experience. They are more likely to have worked on projects in a variety of different industries, and learned new techniques or processes. 

Engineers with different expertise bring new and innovative approaches to your projects, and everyone can continue to expand their skills. 

Meet Deadlines

Ultimately, web developments need to meet deadlines. Delayed projects are less likely to succeed in the market, and might even cause a loss in revenue. The tech industry is constantly evolving, with new innovations coming to the market regularly, so your project needs to keep up. 

If you can’t staff a project, you can’t meet deadlines. Outsourcing can be a quick fix for growing projects. If you have a project that needs to get to market quickly, outsourcing can scale your teams, allowing you to get moving. 

Essentially, more staff means quicker development, allowing you to meet your deadlines and market your product as quickly as possible. 

Debunking the Myths

While there are plenty of benefits to offshore web development, many digital health companies are still hesitant to take advantage of the outsourcing approach. Why is that?

The healthcare industry is highly regulated. In the UK, GDPR laws protect the transfer of personal information. In the US, HIPAA laws dictate the safe transfer and storage of protected health information for healthcare facilities, insurers, and associated parties. Digital health development companies are also bound by these data protection laws. 

As a result, offshore web development seems too risky. Companies believe that private data would need to be transferred out of the country and, naturally, this would put the data at risk. 

However, HIPAA laws don’t mean that you can’t utilize offshore developer talent. Transferring data outside of the country does increase the risk of breaches, or the data being misused. For most digital health development projects, the engineers don’t need to see the specific data. 

To build a digital health solution, engineers need a clear project brief. They don’t need to see the data that is going to be used within the solution, they just need to know what kind of data will be stored or transferred. 

Provide your offshore web engineers with the clear project outline they need, and maintain the privacy and safety of protected patient data. 

At Vertrical, we understand the impacts of HIPAA on outsourced development projects. Our digital health solutions are built with compliance in mind, with developers stationed around the world. We have access to the best talent in the industry, and can augment your existing teams to scale your projects. Get in touch with us to staff your next project.