Pros and Cons of Offshoring: Is This Practice Worth Choosing?

Interaction is the best thing that can happen in human relationships. Helping each other makes us much stronger. And it is not surprising: we all have different tastes and skills; on a global scale - different cultural and social worldviews.
Cooperation in the IT industry is offshoring. It is the moment when you ask for help from the colleagues who are experts in a particular field and work at other companies or countries. You can do this for many reasons: there is no need to hire a specialist on a full-time basis, project cooperation, and even reducing costs.
In this article, we will tell you about the pros and cons of offshoring, as well as about challenges, risks and advantages of offshoring industry. Thus, you will be able to decide if this type of cooperation is suitable for you.

What is offshoring?

Offshoring is the hiring of an external company or a small team to create software outside the customer's country. Usually, this task is not so easy: it is rather hard to find the perfect candidate for an affordable price (and, by the way, with satisfactory cooperation too). Besides, offshoring involves the partial relocation of the parent company to another country.

Why is offshoring worth choosing?

First of all, offshoring will profoundly save labour and operating costs. The main reason why companies choose this way of working is to reduce labour costs.
Furthermore, it is a new market outlet where you can introduce your company and set up a local office to reach a larger quantity of your target customers outside the country. Moreover, it develops personal enrichment and expert knowledge of employees in your company.

Advantages of offshore outsourcing

Saving money is the first and perhaps the most important advantage. Offshore collaboration in research and development of the product gives the possibility to save a lot of money for the company. You can seek help from countries where the creation of particular products is cheaper. You do this not by the reason the project will be of lower quality, but because the standard of living in other countries may not be so expensive. Top offshoring countries include India, China, Egypt, Brazil and Bulgaria.

Saving on real estate
Many offshoring locations can be inexpensive. There is a simple rule in megacities: if wages are high, renting an office or its equipping will also be expensive. From this perspective, hiring a foreign team will be cheaper.

Tax benefits
One of the big offshoring pros is that this type of work can provide a lot of tax benefits. That, in turn, will allow you to save even more money.

A new market brings new acquaintances
You can choose offshoring for one project. However, there will always be experts "on tap" who will be able to help during the next similar experts. Besides, it is a perfect opportunity to get acquainted with the foreign market, to study its challenges and risks.

Disadvantages of offshore outsourcing

Barrier in communication
The language barrier is one of the challenges of offshoring. Although English is considered to be international in many countries, language understanding and the level of knowledge may vary. Accent and a particular linguistic culture can complicate the work.

Another culture and another society
When cooperating with another country, you will definitely meet with a different mentality and general rules of the foreign country. Most likely, the traditions manifested in everyday life will also have a significant influence on the so-called working moments. Nevertheless, time and efforts can improve this situation. Also, this is a great opportunity to turn a disadvantage into an advantage by getting acquainted with a new culture;)

Different time zones
That is also one of the cons of offshoring. After all, time zones often result in a huge difference in time. That’s why a part of the team will have the sun outside the window, while the other - the deep-black night. But this disadvantage can also be adjusted. If you systematize the work, set clear rules and an exact time for communication, serious problems will not arise.