Outsourcing in a nutshell – Why to outsource

The new globalized economy opens new opportunities and new options to organize a business. There are many reasons why more and more companies decide to outsource some of their projects or processes overseas, and the cost in many cases is not the main reason today. I have prepared a list of reasons why our professionals all over the world go with outsourcing.

1. Much wider access to specific knowledge and expertise that the company can potentially have in-house.
2. Outsourcing can work as an on-demand service. There is no need to hire locally if you need a team member/team with some specific knowledge for a short period of time, like three or four months. You just start the cooperation and close it after the project was completed. No extra obligations, like the legal hiring process, onboarding, taxes, etc.
3. Talent shortage. In many countries, IT jobs are not very popular, and this is the main reason why it is hard to find a good programmer in some areas. On the other hand countries like Ukraine have more than 35 years of tech product development history. This influences ecosystems, infrastructure, educational institutions greatly and naturally covers new economic demands. For example, only in Lviv, which is not the biggest region of Ukraine universities graduate 4000 new programmers each year.
4. Cost-effectiveness. In most cases, a web project with an outsourcing partner will cost you at least twice less than developing the same project in-house, including all the costs associated with, hiring process, legal expenses, taxes, and workplace.

There are 3 the most popular cooperation models with web development vendors:

• Dedicated team
• Project-based – coming soon
• Outstaffing model – coming soon

In this article we will be focused on the dedicated team model.

What is a Dedicated Team Model?

There are three the most popular cooperation models between customer and outsourcing partner – project-based, the dedicated team (team extension), and outstaffing model. In this article, we will be focused on a dedicated team model.

A dedicated team is a team of collocated professionals who are working only on your product for an agreed period of time. Unlike Project-Based development where project scope, price, and goals should be agreed before any development activities, Dedicated Team offers you much more flexibility.

While the Project-Based approach works very good for MVP development Dedicated Team or Team-Extension Model works best If you already have a product or working business and plan to develop and improve it for many years in a row. LaSoft Dedicated Team is focused only on your project for as long as you need it. After some period of time, the team will learn all the details about the product, including your users’ profile, your style of work, tools and techniques you use.

The dedicated team model works better for someone who is looking for ongoing development, for a longer period. At the end of the day, you will feel very little difference compared to your in-house development.

With a Dedicated Team Model, you get a decent management control over your team. You decide what kind of engineers you want to hire, when they have to start, for how long they should be involved, and what they should do. This model works best only if you have good experience in web development. If you are a novice in this area, you should better choose project-based development, where the project scope and budget are well defined. In this case, one of our Projects Management professionals can help you to specify and estimate your project. Please learn more at delivering beautiful and complex projects, cost-effectively.

How do dedicated teams work in LaSoft

LaSoft teams are Cross-functional. The cross-functional team offers you all the needed expertise to be efficient and complete project successfully. In most of the cases to build a high-quality product, you need UI/UX designer, Project Manager, Developers, and Quality Assurance specialist. Some of the roles like Project Manager, Quality Assurance specialist or UI/UX designer can be involved part-time.

Tested on real projects. Most of our engineers are already a part of LaSoft for some period of time. They passed several interviews, went through a probation period. Their capabilities were tested on real commercial projects.

Know each other. Team members do not spend EXTRA time on getting along with each other, AS they know other team members for some period of time and have already worked together before. In this way, valuable time of a team is spent on more important tasks (which make the overall process more efficient).

Collocated. Our team members work in the same room. In this case, osmotic communication takes place, when for example one team member asks a question – everyone hears the question, the answer, as a result, other team members are able to hear, contribute or disagree. This practice helps to keep formal meetings at a minimum level and makes changes in miscommunication much lower.

You are on 1 email distance from any C-level person of LaSoft. You can easily escalate any of your issues, and they will be resolved in a timely manner. You will never achieve this kind of synergy with a big outsourcing provider. We are proud to be a mid-size company, offering high-quality service.

How to hire a Dedicated Team with LaSoft

1. Project Brief. During the short meeting, we ask you product connected questions, technology expertise you need, the roles you need to fulfill and expected team involvement.
2. Potential Candidates Review. Our engagement manager sends you profiles of potential candidates, who are the best fit. At this stage, those candidates have already passed 2 interviews, where our experts have assessed their communicational and technical skills.
3. Project Kick-Off. Your dedicated team is ready to start at the agreed date. During the meeting, you meet one more time your team members, share your vision. During the meeting, you can plan the release and sprint scope.

During the project Kick-Off, you are welcome to visit us, or we can visit you. This will help us to boost common project understanding and share your vision within the team better.

The role of a Client in a Dedicated Team

We make the process as clear and comfortable as possible. There is a list of stages where you will be able to make decisions. Our customer:

1. Can interview each of his current or potential teammates;
2. Set up his web development processes or be consulted by our experts on appropriate practices;
3. Use any tools of his choice or use standard LaSoft tools set;
4. Have direct access to any team member during the project implementation;
5. Provide feedback about work and influence both appraisals and salary reviews of team members;
6. Can ask to replace any of his current team members.

The role of LaSoft

1. Offers comfortable office facilities
2. Organizes Recruitment, hiring and education process
3. Organizes Local accounting and legal aspects of the cooperation
4. Makes sure the best engineering and project management practices are employed
5. Makes a project audit if some issues arise. Consult customers
6. Makes sure that team members are motivated and productive. Resolve team conflicts
7. Conducts recurring technical reviews and job performance appraisals of team members.

Contact the dedicated engagement manager to learn more about LaSoft.