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Why nearshore software development in Romania?
Why Nearshore software development in Romania?
Learn why nearshore software development in Romania is a good option for your project.
Romania, an excellent choice for nearshore software outsourcing
With the shift to remote work and the hybrid model, in-house teams are losing ground. Progressive companies increasingly rely on partners to staff their software projects. Furthermore, they even consider including freelancers in their teams. Outsourcing helps such companies meet deadlines and save costs. Moreover, it contributes to high quality and productivity. On the other hand, outsourcing brings a few headaches. Of them, language barriers, time zone differences, and mismanagement stand out. This article makes it clear when to rely on nearshore software development and what to expect from it.
Nearshore, onshore, and offshore software development in a nutshell
In nearshore software development, your company collaborates with a software house located one to three time zone hours away from yours. Offshore software development means doing your software project with an IT company more than three time zones away from yours. Typically, hourly rates for offshore development are lower than for nearshore development. However, the hidden costs of offshoring can make it less appealing than nearshoring. In an onshore software development collaboration, your company works with a software house located in the same country. Unless your company is in a major destination for outsourcing, you will pay higher hourly rates for onshoring than for nearshoring or offshoring.
Features of Nearshore Software Development
As mentioned before, the key features of nearshore outsourcing are proximity in space, time, and culture. Furthermore, a nearshore partner usually comes with cost benefits and easy access to talent. It also offers advanced processes and experienced management, which your company may lack. Of course, such expertise may not be readily available in your region. In short, comfort, lower costs, and access to talent make nearshoring appealing. Let’s take them one at a time.
Geographic Proximity
If speedy communication, a generous overlap of business hours, and quick travel to your development partner’s office are critical for your project, consider nearshore outsourcing. Although being slightly more expensive than offshore outsourcing, IT nearshoring has apparent benefits. Besides, IT offshoring has hidden costs that may offset the so-called cost advantage over nearshore development. When the project frequently requires the physical presence of the contractor at your office, nearshore development comes to the rescue. Similarly, if intense communication with the remote software engineers throughout most of the business day is mandatory, offshoring cannot deliver. Access to the nearshore developers for five to eight hours a day can drastically reduce time to market. Furthermore, being able to reach your partner’s office in less than half a day will save you valuable time. Geopolitical stability is equally important in your decision.
Lack of Cultural Barriers
The COVID pandemic redefined many aspects of life, including the meaning of cultural barriers. Thus, fewer cultural aspects may define your relationship with your nearshore software development partner than before. Even so, there are enough aspects you should consider. First, take a close look at the company values and the dedication of its management and developers. They are both relatively easy to assess. Just speak with a few of the company’s customers, and you will know if there is a match. Next, pay attention to spare time activities, values, and religious beliefs. As nearby countries are most likely like yours in all these areas, you might not find any significant cultural barriers at a nearshore partner. Last, make sure your processes are compatible with those of the potential nearshore partner. If you need an adaptable and informal organization for the project, a highly bureaucratic company will not suit you.
Cost Benefits
When onshoring is too expensive, nearshore software outsourcing comes to the rescue. Nearshoring also makes sense for a short-term custom software development project. In such a case, a nearshore partner will take you further than an in-house team. On the other hand, if you wish to develop a series of projects where the experience from the first benefits the others, doing them all in-house can prove cost-effective. When making the decision, do not forget that owning a team costs you far more than salaries. You must recruit, provide your people with modern office space and competitive benefits. Furthermore, you should invest in training, career planning, and team-building events. While nearshoring does not eliminate these cost components, it saves your company the time and personnel needed to create and maintain the in-house team. If that time is more expensive for you than for your nearshore partner, consider outsourcing the project.
Access to Talent
To launch the software product fast and keep quality high, you need quick and flexible staffing. By working only with in-house specialists, you can miss deadlines and jeopardize product quality. Furthermore, recruiting locally all the specialists might prove impossible. Thus, some of the skills you need may be unavailable in your region. Turning to nearshore software development can prove helpful in such a situation. The breadth and depth of expertise of a nearshore partner will probably exceed yours by far. Depending on your preferences and options, you can delegate the entire project or only a part of it to the nearshore partner. Make sure you choose the first approach only when you are certain the partner has extensive experience working with end customers. Such a company can usually work with little guidance from you and requires low management effort from your side.
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The Shortage of IT Talent Threatens Economic Growth
Publications the world over post alarming news and statistics about the global tech talent shortage. Thus, Relocate Global forecasts a global shortage of over 85 million tech workers by 2030. Some countries shall feel the pressure more than others. For example, Brazil, Japan, and Indonesia will take the brunt of the storm. Each of them will face shortages of up to 18 million IT specialists. Next comes China, with a deficit of 12 million, followed by the United States and Russia, each of them lacking six million workers. In 2020, the US had 1.4 million vacancies for IT specialists and only 400,000 computer science graduates. According to a report by ManpowerGroup, only 18% of the countries did not report talent shortages in 2020. With such dire predictions, it is difficult to imagine the battleground for software engineers in 2030. Let us hope that nearshoring and offshoring will alleviate the problem.
Addressing the Shortage with Nearshore and Offshore Development
As mentioned before, the distance, cultural barriers, and time zone difference make companies go nearshore instead of offshore. Furthermore, GDPR requirements can make it challenging to work with an offshore provider on projects that use the personal data of European Union residents. The GDPR provisions apply even to the personal data of the executives signing the contracts or of the people that shortlisted your potential partners. Such factors can make nearshore software development your only choice. With a nearshore partner, you can cross off most of the deal breakers upfront. Such a partner is nearby, no more than two time zones away, and has a culture almost identical to yours. Furthermore, nearshore providers from the European Union meet the location requirements of the GDPR. On the other hand, an offshore partner cannot transfer the personal data of UE residents in their country.
Romania for Nearshore Software Development in Europe
Outsourcing your software project to Romania can quickly fix your shortage of specialists. Furthermore, you will enjoy an outstanding skill depth and breadth and a difficult-to-match proactive attitude. Companies on the lookout for software professionals will find in Romania experts hailed worldwide. Above all, the passion and commitment of those specialists match their mastery in software development. Romania’s talent pool counts 120,000 developers and keeps growing. These are well-educated and trained engineers that can handle almost any type of software project. To get this far, Romania needed an adequate infrastructure. To be precise, the country’s digital backbone is more than adequate, outdoing those of many developed countries. Thus, Romania is the third-best destination for digital nomads by its internet speed, with 57 MBs. Besides, the low costs of living and broadband make it one of the most attractive destinations for nearshoring.
Choosing Your Romanian Partner for Nearshore Software Development
Romanian IT services providers can meet your needs regardless of your location and the type of collaboration you seek. Thus, if your top priority is to have direct flights to the nearshore partner, cities like Cluj-Napoca, Bucharest, Iasi, and Timisoara may suit you perfectly. As for the type of collaboration, most Romanian software houses prefer the dedicated team model. Such companies may have little experience working directly with end customers and taking full ownership of the projects. At the other end of the spectrum are providers that target almost only end customers and prefer to do all the work themselves. As they can handle everything by themselves, these companies rarely involve intermediaries in their projects. Unsurprisingly, such providers are quite rare. Therefore, if you prefer this model, do not waste your time searching. Just let ZYNK know what you want to build, and we will take care of everything.
Conclusions
In this article, we discussed nearshore, onshore, and offshore software development. You learned that nearshore outsourcing means geographic proximity, low to no cultural barriers, competitive costs, and access to talent. Undoubtedly, offshore outsourcing can be a better choice for companies headquartered in Europe that require ramp-ups at breakneck speed and huge teams of engineers. Those companies may need a pool of developers that only countries like India or Mexico offer. Next, we presented statistics that illustrate the Shortage of IT talent in different countries. This shortage threatens economic growth. Nearshore and offshore development are potential solutions to this menace. We then provided the main reasons that make Romania a good destination for nearshore software development. Last, we made a few suggestions to companies looking for nearshore partners in Romania.