Back in 2011, Google’s AdWords email and phone support were outsourced to a thousand of reps globally. In 2010, Wargaming made a decision to outsource its game development to Persha Studia, a Ukrainian-based company.
The term outsourcing dates back to the 1970s, when manufacturing companies seeking efficiency started hiring outside firms to manage less-than-essential processes. Later on, with the Internet advancement and telecommunication development, more and more large organizations started to outsource functions for which they had no competency internally, such as accounting, software development, human resource management, and back-office operations. In the 21st century, outsourcing is no longer just about cost-saving; it is a strategic tool that may empower the global economy. In fact, companies are expected to be soon more outsourced than “in-sourced”.
Eventually, the very first thought that’ll probably cross your mind is whether outsourcing and outstaffing as concepts have something in common – and they do, in a way. One might call them drivers of the current ever more ‘outsourced’ world. Some people consider these models to belong solely to software development and deny any possibility for it to thrive in other industries. Yet, others have been unleashing the downplayed assets of the economy meanwhile boosting their opportunity for efficiency.
Content List
1#) Is There a Difference Between Outsourcing and Outstaffing?
Yes, there is. Outsourcing implies that the client hires a company to manage the entire project from A to Z. The client rarely has access to the whole development team, communicating mostly with the Project manager. In this case, the outsourcing company acts as an employer, taking the responsibility for salaries, equipment, workers hiring and training, while the client just provides the development team with the project description.
Whereas outstaffing means extending the in-house development team with remote employees who officially work at the provider company but fully dedicated and managed by the client himself. The client controls developers’ productivity and workflow and gives them tasks according to their needs. The outstaffing company takes responsibility for finding professionals the client needs, employing, administering and replacing them if needed.
2#) Top Companies That Provide Outstaffing Services
Let’s move from theory to practice. Here are some examples of the top IT outstaffing companies providing software development services:
1. SoftwareMill
Go directly to the SoftwareMill’s landing page, you’ll bump into a description like ‘Custom software development company to work with’. It is also known as a company that has been a distributed one from the get-go. The latter implies that SoftwareMill has, probably, devised the perfect remote and outstaffing mechanism to work in.
Its headquarters is spotted in Poland. Among its main services one may come across backend development, big data & machine learning, blockchain. SoftwareMill’s portfolio also has a line with global partnerships projects which include such ones as Lightbend, Datastax, Confluent, and others.
2. SCAND
Considering Eastern Europe as a land of outstaffing and outsourcing companies, we couldn’t but mention SCAND Ltd. That company is located in the heart of Belarus, Minsk. It was founded in 2000 and mainly focuses on custom software development. To slice and dice, its business dimension is about web and mobile development coupled with UI/UX, DevOps and QA services.
Having more than twenty years of experience, the company ensures paramount managed services also being ISO certified. What’s most deserving is that if you try to search for any feedback, you’ll find that SCAND has gained a really positive reputation among customers. The company works globally, seeking collaboration with various clients the world over.
3. EPAM Systems
One more company whose roots somehow entwine with Belarus. EPAM Systems is declared to be a global company falling on digital platform design development and engineering. Back in 1993, Leo Lozner and Arkadiy Dobkin set up the company with two main spots – New Jersey and Minsk.
Besides, it became the pioneer while representing Belarus on the New York Stock Exchange.
Now it has broadened to several offices across the world including America, Europe, Asia, and CIS. That is one more company that is headed to digital transformation projects so far providing IT outsourcing and outstaffing business models being good at the system integration level. EPAM is also scored among the top companies in customer satisfaction.
4. Symphony Solutions
Symphony Solutions is a world-level outsourcing company with a corporate headquarters in the Netherlands and some delivery spots across Eastern Europe and Macedonia. Its major area of activity entails cloud and Agile transformation, iGaming solutions, and a range of related things for various businesses including startups and enterprise companies.
It’s been almost more than twelve years since the company launched. What’s more, Symphony Solutions’ mission is articulated as a call for action – it calls upon clients to innovate and to be inspired while innovating. Hundreds of SAFe certified specialists, more than 35 international clients, 6 locations globally make its business model rocket and work smoothly and decently.
5. Cisco Systems
Approximately ten years ago, one-third of Cisco Systems’ workforce consisted of overseas employees. Once you know this, you can imagine how things have changed since then – now the number of the workforce has tripled.
Cisco’s main field of activity circles around software solutions and networking hardware creation, telecommunication equipment, and other high-tech services maintenance as well as development and selling.
Naturally, the company has a lot of operations away from the United States. India and China are nowadays the biggest allies that help Cisco to grow as a competitive brand. However, no one knows what will happen down the road as the company is waiting for legal action. That means the adoption of the law that allows it to put back the better half of its capital into the USA excluding the need to pay heavy taxes.
3#) Bottom Line
Whatever business we take – big or small, startup or reinforced – each of them thirsts for better quality service.
Global market size change of outsourced services from 2000 to 2019, Statista
Software development could be quite costly and time-consuming as you should provide your staff with necessary up-to-date equipment, newest digital tools, etc. Besides, you need to have all of the workers on the payroll. In case of some unforeseen circumstances or one-offs (illness, delay, etc.), a replacement should be found promptly. Outstaffing offers budget flexibility and control as well as available expertise lacking in-house, reduced operation expenses, taxes, and minimized risks. Outstaffing is a great way to make your business more profitable and efficient. Which company to select depends on your budget, scope and nature of your software development project. The key is to make sure you’ve selected the right company to partner with.