2. INTRO
The increased use of technical skills from foreign countries has been a strong
phenomenon in the IT services market. The purpose is to dispose of quality resources at
lower cost. Offshore of IT teams and software development has become useful for a large
number of companies. Reducing costs is the main target of companies which face a more
and more competitive environment.
Romania is one of the world leaders in IT offshore. According to A.T. Kearney - Global
Services Location Index -, Romania moved from the 39th to the 19th place in the top
50 countries of outsourcing service providers, ahead of countries like Russia, the
Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland or Ukraine. The tremendous growth of the software
industry in Romania is due to the excellence of Romanian engineers in the computer
field.
The major arguments to entrust software development to offshore
partners
1. Costs
The main factor for a successful offshore is cost reduction. Practically, offshore IT
services can save up to 50% of project costs. This significant difference is done by the
labor costs and all costs related to the presence of employees in the company’s offices.
2. Quality
Offshore partners are familiar with the reluctance of their customers to entrust their
projects to foreign developers. This is why they are heavily investing in internationally
recognized certifications. Most of these offshore companies make constant efforts and
demand rigorous processes to provide high-level services.
Romania is a preferred destination for relocation within the European Union in
particular because it has one of the smallest costs per employee of all european
countries.
High-performance teams, always on the edge of technology, the excellent reputation of
Romanian engineers’ exceeds the borders of Europe.
3. 3. Flexibility
Because offshore companies have the ability to increase or decrease the number of
project teams, they are very adaptable to different situations.
How to successfully reach the development of an offshore project?
The decision to move a part of IT development is not easy for companies. It is important
to understand the advantages of offshore in time: profitability is visible in long term as
projects develop. Learning to collaborate with remote teams, working in foreign
languages, with people from a different culture takes time indeed.
The chosen offshore destination must be very well known: managing cultural
differences is a real constraint that must be handled from the beginning of the project.
Culture characteristics of a country are essential to assess the possible impact on the
team’s future daily work. It must be also noted that there exist different business models
in each geographic region and they have implications in an offshore project
development.
Some constraints of an offshore project
Besides from the above benefits, there are some constraints that may come with an
offshore project. Here are some questions you should answer before you begin working
with offshore partners:
How to make easy and effective the communication between teams? If the
communication is not perfect, if the directions and the information flow poorly,
the offshore team will be poorly motivated and will be difficult identified with the
project;
How to involve offshore teams in the project?
How to manage the project to monitor and keep abreast of the working progress?
The distance is very frequently the cause for loss monitoring.
How to control the offshore project’s safety?
In Romania there are 250 research centers where, each year, 30,000 young people
complete their education, of which 5,000 are qualified as engineers in the IT sector. The
number of Romanian specialists is in constant progression and provides specialized
human resources at any time.
4. How to avoid exceeding the budget?
What is the best contract model, adapted to the company’s needs?
Pay attention to the offshore project’s implementation methodology
The development of an offshore project
involves a set of constraints that must be
considered. The key points on which the client
and the offshore partner must agree are:
project management,
work processes between teams
collaborative tools.
Conclusion
Offshore is very convenient:
it reduces the costs of an IT department
focus on its core business and offload the management of an IT team
ensure greater stability of computer skills
access to specialized skills for well-defined periods of time
"Offshore" is the definition for competitive prices, for experienced software developers,
for high professional level software solutions. Off-shore is synonymous to significant
savings and exceptional technical skills.
Romania - privileged destination for offshore
When we talk about offshore partners, Romania is one of the privileged destination for
offshore, thanks to the high level of technical expertise companies, ISO9001 certified and
more, with a huge advantage of the large number of English and French speakers.
Romania is home for the best-known technical universities in both Western Europe and
the United States. Member of the European Union since 2007, Romania has an extensive
history of collaboration with European Countries and is close to the center of european
business.
The choice of an offshore partner is a
strategic decision and must consider
aspects such as:
the stability of the offshore partner
their policy of human resource management
their technical expertise and management
