Outsourced Remote Team: 5 Ways How Outsourcing Software Development to Lviv, Ukraine Can Help Your Business During the Global Crisis

In recent years, many businesses have been outsourcing areas of their software development work to remote teams across the world. There are multiple different reasons why companies choose to look for and use remote software development teams such as:

• Reduced development costs
• Faster results
• Saving money on physical premises
• Operational costs optimization
• Wider talent pools
• Higher employees’ productivity and loyalty
• Reduced employees’ turnover

However, remote work in software development — or any other industry — is no longer a mere trend. Today, it’s the only possibility to keep your business afloat. As coronavirus hit the world, many businesses are left to scramble for solutions on how to adjust to the new pandemic reality. According to the research conducted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, economic growth can drop by 50% if the coronavirus continues to spread. Offices are already forcibly closed due to the quarantine measures and all the software engineers are now working from home. The main benefit of the in-houses teams — daily face to face communication — is no longer applicable as all the teams have already moved to the online communication channels only. So now seems to be the best time to consider outsourcing some of the previous in-house functions to cut costs and mitigate the risks.

As one of the leading IT outsourcing providers with 6 years of experience working with clients from the US, Canada, Australia, Sweden, Norway, and the UK, Leobit shares how to find your ideal remote team in Ukraine and transition your business into the remote mode as smoothly as possible.

5 Benefits of Running an Outsourced Remote Software Development Team

As it was already mentioned, the main reason why so many companies have been outsourcing their work to the remote software development teams is due to the enormous benefits it provides to business sustainability.

Outsourcing Remote Software Development: Benefit #1. Reduced Development Costs

Under the threat of an economic crisis, it’s essential to save money without sacrificing the product’s quality. One of the most important benefits of hiring your remote software development team in Ukraine is that this allows you to get the work done at considerably lower costs if compared to hiring a full-time employee in the US or the UK. Outsourced companies usually have per hour or per month rate, so you can decrease your costs according to your current needs. Depending on your software development needs, you can decide between a short-term and long-term cooperation model, or consider outsourcing your full software development function or just a part of it.

Outsourcing Remote Software Development: Benefit #2. Shared Responsibility

If the success of your business depends on the quick reaction and immediate adaptation to the quarantine conditions, an outsourced remote team is the best solution for you. The priority of such teams is ensuring quick development of your ideas into products and features, resulting in pretty fast delivery of your products and services to the competitive market. Sharing the part of your responsibilities with an outsourced partner will help you to focus on your core values and improve the company’s overall efficiency.  While the project manager and delivery department of the provider’s side will take control of the development process and quality output, you can focus on other income-generating activities.

Outsourcing Remote Software Development: Benefit #3. Faster Results and Enhanced Productivity

Hiring an outsourced remote development team will allow you to boost productivity and enhance your competitiveness. When it comes to proper teamwork and enhanced productivity from the start, it’s better to hire an agency able to provide an established team of experienced remote developers rather than an independent freelancer who’ll need time and proper guidance for the usual forming-norming-storming-performing routine. This way, you won’t need to spend time and effort managing each separate person, their performance, and team-work. At the same time, well-established outsourced companies can provide you with ready-made teams of developers who have been working together for a long time and can deliver quality results from the start. Such teams are well-coordinated and used to remote communication freeing you from a managerial burden.

Outsourcing Remote Software Development: Benefit #4. Wider Choice of Quickly Available Professionals

Outsourcing gives access to a more extensive talent pool and helps to find real professionals ready to work on your project. By looking further than your city or town, you can get a team of highly knowledgeable software engineers not available on the local labor market. When outsourcing to a software company, you are given on-demand access to a pool of developers, quality assurance engineers, designers, architects, etc. for your long-term or short-term project needs. You can easily adjust your team size according to the project requirements on different stages of development and there is no need for you to hire a full-time employee if you only need a couple of weeks of their time.

Outsourcing Remote Software Development: Benefit #5. Risk Reduction

One of the key benefits of running a remote team provided and managed by an outsourced vendor is risk mitigation. Outsourcing the part of your activities allows you to transfer all project risks to the external part. A remote team plans all the risk-reduction factors for you and guarantees delivery on time and budget. Outsourced companies also have large experience in configuring and setting up secure remote work processes, so you don’t have to worry about compliance and safeguarding your sensitive data.

IT Outsourcing Centers: Why Look for an Outsourced Remote Team in Lviv, Ukraine? 

Lviv, Ukraine is one of the best strategic and most attractive centers for IT outsourcing and remote software developers. The city has huge IT potential and the largest number of Ukrainian developers and specialists now working in distributed teams for companies abroad. Lviv is home to more than 20,000 IT professionals, which accounts for around 15% of the Ukrainian IT resources.

As of last year, Lviv hosted 461 IT companies. Most of them are specializing in providing IT outsourcing services and are ready to staff you with well-adjusted remote teams immediately. The majority of Lviv software development service providers work with clients from the USA, the UK, and the Nordic countries. Such a profound experience of remote teams resulted in the English language literacy of developers. According to the research conducted by Education First, 80% of Lviv-based developers have an intermediate or higher level of English proficiency.

Lviv has an advantageous geographic location. It can be highly beneficial for you when looking for an outsourced remote team here. The time difference with most of the European countries is just a few hours. Lviv also has a more convenient time to overlap with the US than other outsourcing destinations. It ensures a smooth communication of a remote team with the clients.

And while all the premises of the educational institutions are on lockdown during the quarantine period, the software development and quality assurance courses, workshops, meetups, and hackathons have been moved to the online mode. For those who want to boost their career without leaving home, this time has become a great opportunity to pass AWS Certified Solutions Architect Exam or get ISTQB, PMP, and Microsoft Certifications and contribute to a team with their expertise.

4 Tips to Ensure Seamless Communication with Your  Remote Development Team

Tip #1: Communicate a Lot 

When you work with a remote team, it isn’t as easy as popping into the room next door if you have an issue. You will need to contact the team another way. Make use of tools that can boost the communication flow and streamline the working process such as Slack, JIRA, Trello, Google Hangouts, etc. It is important to make sure that all relevant project updates are timely shared.

Tip #2: Assign a Responsible Person 

When outsourcing software development services, you will lose some of the control over the development process. This can be easily overcome by appointing one person from your company responsible for the regular contact and reporting. It can be a product manager or a team leader who will pass on your requirements to the team and will be also the contact point in case any clarifications are needed.

Tip #3: Be Mindful about Time Zones

Bear in mind different time zones when scheduling meetings, sending messages, and checking in. In this regard, Ukraine is a perfect outsourcing destination. It is just one hour ahead of most European countries and several hours ahead of the EST timezone. At Leobit, we are always ready to adjust the team’s schedule to ensure at least 3-4 working hours overlap with your timezone and have daily visual communication via GoToMeeting, Zoom, Slack or any other channel of your choice.

Tip #4: Set Expectations and Deadlines in Writing

Make sure that your remote team is fully informed about your communication protocols, project specifications, and any other work rules you’d like them to keep to. Setting clear expectations in writing is always helpful for any remote cooperation and will help both sides to organize the work process better.

Ukraine is quickly becoming Europe’s leading software development center, with places such as Lviv at the forefront. Today’s economic fallout doesn’t necessarily have to negatively affect your business. It can be just the right time to take a turn and consider outsourcing your software development services and optimize your budgets and operations. An excellent place to start may be contacting Leobit’s experts to learn how an outsourced remote team can help your company to cut operational costs and deliver faster!