Building a Product Expertise-Team through Outsourcing

The concept of outsourcing is not new. For many decades, companies have been using this principle to benefit them in one way or another Yet, in recent years we’ve seen a real spike of interest in outsourcing, with Statista reporting the outsourcing market to reach 350 billion USD in 2023. A big part of the current trend is associated with cost reduction, as 70% of companies surveyed name it as the primary reason for considering outsourcing. But it’s not only the obsession with cost efficiency that makes it attractive to so many businesses. 

Outsourcing provides many more benefits than simply optimising project costs. Today we will look into those benefits and the way outsourcing enhances product development, innovation, and overall company performance.   

The key benefits of outsourcing 

Outsourcing is often misunderstood. Some worry that you won’t be able to reach the same quality of results as with an in-house team, while others fear for the safety of the company’s sensitive information. 

Certainly, the risks are always there, but they are easily mitigated by due diligence. Don’t go with the first technology provider you find online, look for their previous work and client feedback, find the time to meet and get on the same page, and voila! Most of the risks disappear. 

Don’t let fear stop you from opening your company up to new experiences and enjoying the many benefits that a partnership with an outsourcer can give you:

• Faster time to market. Outsourcing specialists are very experienced in many fields. They’ve worked on countless projects and dealt with unique circumstances. By the time you partner with them, they are guaranteed to have a perfected workflow and foolproof plan for how to deliver a project on time and within the budget. 

• Lower development cost. The perfected workflow not only means faster delivery, but it also means doing so with fewer mistakes and downtime, all of which inflate the budget. The less you have slowing you down, the less you end up spending on the product you’re building. 

• No hiring costs. When you hire a traditional full-time employee, months can be spent on scanning CVs, conducting interviews, and onboarding. With outsourcing, all of that is skipped. For example, the average time that it takes Emphasoft employees to be outsourced to our clients is only a couple of days. The time and money savings to the company are unmatched.

• Higher end-product quality. Working with outsourced professionals means borrowing their experience with the process. External specialists will be able to spot potential issues and risks within the future product and remove them before your clients get to try it. 

Building an expert team with outsourcing 

One thing often overlooked when discussing outsourcing is how big of a difference it can make to the expertise level of your team. 

With outsourcing, the sky's the limit. You are no longer bound by the borders of your city, state, or country. Outsourcing unlocks access to talent all over the world. And the influence that it can have on the product you’re working on is immense. 

At Emphasoft, we often meet with startup founders and some of them share that the technology they choose to build the product with is often dictated not by what’s best for this specific solution, but by the hiring market they operate in. Going with outsourcing means that next time you need an expert with a niche skill, you can outsource them instead of giving up and pivoting.  

Upgrading your innovation potential through outsourcing

Another benefit of hiring an outsourced team is boosting your innovation potential. 

There are two ways outsourcing helps you do that:

1. An outsourced team brings a new perspective and helps your employees see the process from a different angle, allowing your company to make changes that take you from good to great. They also bring knowledge of new tools and technologies that elevate the development process. 
2. The outsourcing team can be assigned tasks and projects that your full-time team doesn't have the bandwidth to handle. By freeing up the time of your core employees, you make them less stressed, and, consequently, their creative block goes away, enabling them to come up with great new ideas to make the business thrive. 

Outsourcing strategically

Not every outsourcing attempt is an instant success. If you want outsourcing to work in your favour, you need to plan it and be strategic about it. 

Here is the main thing we recommend as an outsourcing company – understand your purpose. 

Outsourcing just for the sake of it is not very helpful. Your “why” will define who you reach out to and how the success of the partnership will be measured. For starters, review your team and identify what skills or experience they lack that your project requires. This will point you in the right direction. Once you know why you need to outsource individual team members or the entire team, you will be able to negotiate much better with potential outsourcing partners. 

Once the team is outsourced and the joint work begins, dedicate enough time for your internal team and external specialist to build rapport. Although every project is a learning experience for both parties, vendors are often in a more advantageous position in terms of acquiring new skills and knowledge. Make sure you use this opportunity and promote cooperation. This way, you’ll upgrade your team’s skills while also achieving the results you wanted with the project through the outsourced staff.  

Final thoughts

Outsourcing is powerful. It can turn your operations around and help you reach all your business goals faster and better. However, like with any concept or technique, outsourcing needs to be thought through. Sit down and think about what benefits you are after.

Making cost reduction your number one priority can sometimes backfire. So, the most sustainable, so the most sustainable way to look at outsourcing is through the lens of long-term partnership and knowledge exchange. Hiring expert professionals for your projects will help you achieve great results. If you’d like to try but are not sure where to start – reach out to the Emphasoft team and we’ll be happy to consult with you and help you choose the partnership format that makes the most sense for you. 

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