With companies expanding their products and services to new countries and markets, the whole big picture of doing business has started to change rapidly. Digital reality is slowly but surely reshaping business processes into the global way, thus creating new types of working practices, such as outsourcing.

What is outsourcing, particularly in the web and mobile development industry? In general, outsourcing means the involvement of third parties outside the company to handle some business tasks (create goods and/or perform services).

When it comes to IT businesses, companies outsource functions of information technology to external contractors, thus accelerating and improving business processes.

Due to the nature of the IT sector, software development outsourcing is becoming a crucial solution:

  • it facilitates access to expertise and talents lacking locally
  • helps reduce operational and recruiting costs
  • enables efficient culture-oriented expansion on local markets
  • ensures business continuity and flexibility

Moreover, outsourcing speeds up the working process in general, allowing to provide full-cycle software development with dedicated talented teams staffed quickly.

Ukraine as an Attractive IT Outsourcing Destination: Brief Overview

Ukraine has been repeatedly praised as the most attractive IT outsourcing destination in Eastern Europe and holds leading positions in numerous global rankings (Outsourcing Journal, CEEOA, GSA, Gartner, PwC, International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP)). According to Gartner statistics findings, Ukraine is one of the most sought locations for IT outsourcing.

IT is the only sector of the Ukrainian economy that has shown immunity to political and economic fluctuations and demonstrated steady growth in a number of jobs and competitive salary levels over the past decade. About 185,000 software developers and 4,000 information technology companies operate in Ukraine. IT sector became the second biggest economic sector by export volume in 2018 and is expected to reach $8,4 billion in 2025.

Among other factors, the high demand for Ukraine as a top software development outsourcing country in Eastern Europe is its favorable business climate and relatively low taxes.

7 Advantages of Lviv as Strategic IT Center

One of the best strategic IT centers in Ukraine is Lviv. The city is one of the top 5 tech hubs and is home for a constantly growing number of IT companies.

Web and mobile development outsourcing model is far from being unusual or new in the city – 88.4% of Lviv IT enterprises sell their services to outsourcers located in the US, Canada, Australia, the UK, and other EU countries.

Reason to outsource to Lviv, Ukraine #1: PERFECT GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION 

Lviv is located at the crossroads of Europe and serves as a gateway between Ukraine and the EU. It has been long famous for a mixture of cultures predetermined by geographical, historical, and political factors.

Close proximity to strategic tech hubs of Europe such as Amsterdam, Berlin, Warsaw, Vienna, Stockholm, Prague, etc., contributes to the attractive image of Lviv as a perfect IT outsourcing destination. With over 30 destinations available, the airport in Lviv connects the city with most of Europe and Northern America.

Map of direct flights from Lviv, Ukraine

Reason to outsource to Lviv, Ukraine #2: HIGH-QUALITY HUMAN CAPITAL 

Ukraine is the top European country by the number of engineering graduates, with over 130k new technical specialists graduating annually. In addition to high-level technical knowledge, most of them speak several languages and share values and ideas mentally close to Western countries, therefore facilitating communication and making the working process smooth and mutually beneficial.

Lviv offers a big pool of talented engineers who are highly-competitive in the booming IT job market: it is hard to meet a person without a profound background in STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). For instance, employees of different levels of Leobit, a full-cycle web, .NET, Ruby, PHP, Android, and iOS development provider, possess high tech expertise supported by continuing education and internal mentorship programs.

Reason to outsource to Lviv, Ukraine #3: STEM AND IT-RELATED EDUCATION

Lviv can boast of 17 universities and colleges offering technical training and generating CA (digital certificates issued by a certificate authority). About 15,000 technicians graduate annually. For instance, private IT education sector enlists around 14 IT initiatives educating new talents to supply for the increasing demands of the industry (e.g. Computer Science Program at Ukrainian Catholic University, Technology Management at Lviv Business School Brain Academy, Lviv IT School, etc.) They focus on modernizing IT education (IT Expert), studying and resolving legal issues (IT Law Committee), and promoting IT at schools (IT Future).

In addition, Lviv-based web and mobile app developers have demonstrated progress in becoming more language-literate: according to Education First, 80% of developers have an intermediate or higher level of English proficiency.

Reason to outsource to Lviv, Ukraine #4: PROFESSIONAL IT COMMUNITIES

Thousands of experts in the field form a strong community that is constantly sharing experience, discussing success and failures cases, technology and software trends, improvements, and more.

Apart from 15 multinational R&D centers (Wildix, SCC, Oracle, Plarium, Keel, OnApp, Siemens, Ericpol, Mita-Teknik, to name a few), there is a vibrant tech life going on in Lviv: around 72.5% of developers report attending specialized events, hackathons, and meet-ups on a regular basis (e.g. Lviv IT Club, Lviv DevOps Meetup, IT Talk Lviv, Angular Meetup, Garage Mobile Lviv, AngelHack Lviv, etc.). For instance, dozens of clubs for professionals in specific areas and events like .NET talks are hosted weekly.

The city annually holds numerous tech events going practically all the time. However, the most noticeable annual industry events are LIOF – Lviv International Outsourcing Forum, Lviv IT Arena, and GDG DevFest Lviv. These events gather featured industry players from all over the globe discussing data science, AI, blockchain, and other pressing technology-related issues.

Reason to outsource to Lviv, Ukraine #5: COST-EFFECTIVENESS OF IT OUTSOURCING

Among many advantages of outsourcing web and mobile product development into Lviv, there is also an opportunity to receive outstanding quality combined with solid technical knowledge for a fair affordable price. According to the data provided by Clutch, an average hourly rate of a developer in Lviv is within the range of 25-49 USD, which is more cost-efficient when compared to other Ukrainian cities.

Numerous IT businesses offer extended team services or Time & Material engagement models. Leobit provides such services as well, paired with moderate cost and favorable taxation policy, which is a truly beneficial combo for your business. Yes, you’ve come to the right place.

Reason to outsource to Lviv, Ukraine #6: TECHNOLOGY EXPERTISE

The list of technologies offered by Lviv-based web and mobile development specialists is impressive and can meet the needs of a vibrant and highly competitive global IT market. For instance, the technology focus of Leobit (Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, one of the top B2B companies in Ukraine, .NET companies in Ukraine, and named #1 IT Employer in Lviv, Ukraine by DOU) covers .NET, Angular, iOS, Android, PHP, Ruby, React, and a comprehensive range of other technologies from Microsoft, Web, and Mobile Stacks.

Technologies offered by Ukrainian web and mobile development companies

Another reasonable point of outsourcing into Lviv is a full range of various specialists to staff your dedicated team quickly choosing the best professionals in the industry: a unique range of strong software engineers, architects, quality control experts, and UI/UX designers available for outsourced development or team extension projects, as well as for technical application maintenance and support.

Reason to outsource to Lviv, Ukraine #7: IT-FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENT

Lviv aims for the position of the most technologically advanced city in Ukraine. A local IT community takes a proactive stance in creating the most comfortable environment for both established companies and small startups.

The Lviv – Smart City initiative aims to create a digital environment for the greatest minds and companies across the industry. Development districts, IT parks, creative spaces, and more opportunities emerging for seasoned developers to students to gather, learn, and practice their software development skills. Currently, there are around a dozen coworking spaces for engineers to network and share ideas, which in general facilitates a steady development of highly skilled talent pool and enhancing the IT ecosystem in particular.

Over recent years, Lviv managed to demonstrate stable growth and develop to make it to leading positions in the IT industry, and this is only the beginning. In the long run, 20% annual growth is projected, along with ambitious urban infrastructure strategies being implemented and forthcoming economic reforms targeted at prioritizing technologies. Promising human potential, low-context Western mindset paired with the acquired experience of the well-established tech cluster are definitely going to make a difference to the future of IT outsourcing in the region.

How to build a beneficial partnership with an outsourcing company in Lviv?

To find the most suitable partner, one must consider a number of factors, strengths, and experience. We here, at Leobit, have honed the skill of guiding our clients to find the perfect match for their ideas and needs. The pivotal part of the whole process is the chosen model of cooperation with the company.

Choosing the right cooperation model for outsourcing

Each project, budget, and preference has its own model that sees the partnership through to a successful result. The models covered below vary greatly and understanding those is crucial for finding the right team for the job.

Cooperation models

Dedicated Team

  • Client assumes control over a development team
  • Greater control over production from the client
  • Company is a mediator between a client and a team of selected professionals
  • A perfect match for a longer term ongoing project (12+ months)

Time and
material

  • Does not require a pre-negotiated, fixed budget
  • Allows flexible development estimates
  • A perfect match for a short-time ongoing project
  • The company takes care of the development internally

Fixed price

  • Fixed, clearly defined scope
  • Defined production estimates, precise requirements and specifications
  • Efficient for cases when only the development process is required
  • Accepting changes to the original scope leads to an update of the initial estimate

As one of Leobit’s strongest highlights, a dedicated team is something that we do regularly to provide our most prominent talent and everything they can accomplish. As a result, the customer acquires a team of highly-skilled professionals, and it becomes as if it was an essential part of their company.

The fixed price model is utilized by the customers that have everything in place, but the actual code to make their ideas work.  It is highly efficient to get the results fast and to be able to make the development go within the set boundaries.

Don’t know which IT outsourcing model would be the best fit for your business? With proven experience in all of the aforementioned models, we are ready to help you make your decision backed by expert advice.