As many software Development companies are enjoying benefits of Offshore Development, certain risks and trade-offs are included in this strategy.

Matrix Marketers, an offshore development company discusses the challenges of offshore development in this post.

Change management

To avoid the uncertainty of the web developers and other staff, it becomes a great challenge before the company to maintain a loyal team. Many times, the team starts looking jobs outside or starts working outside. The team should be explained and introduced to the offshore team as the extended team, not as the replacement of core team. Effective management can easily do this by maintaining proper communication. A personalized question should be answered for different levels of employees, “What next?” Employees should be given the opportunity to participate and know what is going in the company?

Cultural differences

The cultural differences and social setups should not affect the working of the corporate culture of the company. The software development is a sensitive process and a tension free atmosphere is required for the effective results. We are fortunate that the big companies have already developed a working culture.

Here we are considering a liberal and rich culture which is followed in Asian countries based on humanistic values and western culture followed in the US which talks about figures and achieving targets.

When one company is Asian and another is American (mostly seen culture) then a mixed culture has to be adopted to minimize the effect of distant cultures. The cross country corporate conferences, meeting, training programs must be conducted to bring the people of different cultures together.

Unrealistic expectations

The high expectations from the outsourced/ development company also cause big troubles in the end. Sometimes, during the offshore development, you become relaxed and don’t take weekly/monthly reviews to monitor the progress of the project. Instead, you start blaming the development company for not completing the project on time and so on.

To overcome this challenge, the management can take effective measures by appointing a team of people to monitor the progress of the software project and quality on weekly/monthly basis. If required, hourly reports can also be asked.

Intellectual property

The business plans, trade secrets, and proprietary knowledge comprise the intellectual property of the company. When we hire another company, the information can get leaked and chances of hacking of data increase. It is not deliberately done but during the data exchange, the data can be hacked. Hence certain secure tools are invented to make offshoring process a great success.

In order to meet the risk, it becomes essential to develop safety protocols when outsourcing. Technical safeguards include the protocols governing access to information; physical safeguards will protect buildings and equipment from unauthorized access, and administrative safeguards stipulate policies and procedures for operations.