The Complete Guide to Outsourcing-A Strategic Approach for Business Growth

Are you a business owner looking to grow your company? Outsourcing could be the solution you need. This complete outsourcing guide will show you how to use outsourcing strategically for business growth.

What is outsourcing? Outsourcing means hiring an outside company or person to handle some of your business tasks. Many businesses outsource work like customer service, accounting, manufacturing, or software development.

Outsourcing can help your business in several ways. It allows you to focus on your core work while experts handle other tasks. Outsourcing can also save money compared to hiring full-time employees. And it gives you access to skilled workers around the world.

But outsourcing isn’t free of risks. You need to carefully plan your outsourcing strategy. This guide will cover everything you need to know, like:

• What tasks to outsource
• How to find reliable outsourcing partners
• Managing outsourced teams effectively
• Calculating outsourcing costs and benefits

Outsourcing can supercharge your business growth if you’re following the right and best practices. Before diving into the details, let’s start by defining software development outsourcing.

What Is Software Development Outsourcing?

Software development outsourcing involves hiring a third-party service provider to handle your software development projects. This service can be software development, managing different business operations, or maintaining existing software.

Sometimes you need to diversify your workforce by bringing in additional talents to complete projects much faster, and this helps you circle the issue of not having an internal dev team.

Outsourcing is the best choice for startups who want to create their software for lesser costs while not waiting for an internal development team.

While outsourcing can apply to many different sectors and industries, statistics show that software development is the most common outsourced IT function. We have worked on some garage management software companies in these cases.

How Important Is Outsourcing in Modern Industries?

Outsourcing has become more commonplace over the years, and the trend is here to stay. Ever since the end of the pandemic, businesses have understood the efficiency of remote employees working on different projects.

Here are a few important reasons why outsourcing is the most feasible choice for modern companies:

1. Access To A Wider Talent Pool

One of the primary reasons why companies choose outsourcing is because of talent shortage in a certain geographical area.

When you leverage different outsourcing models, you are bound to find the perfect fit for your team and your project, as long as your background research is strong.

2. Budget-Friendly Solution

Every project has an allocated budget, and your project is no different. Of course, you need to complete the entire project without breaking the bank. The best way to go about it is to leverage outsourcing.

When you partner with outsourcing vendors from countries with low costs of living, it allows you to pair up with talents with equal finesse as the local ones while keeping the cost minimal.

3. Cuts Down Additional Infrastructure and Technology Cost

When outsourcing your project, you don’t have to worry about the infrastructure of the development team, as the vendor agency takes care of it for you.

You have the freedom to pick the most appropriate members for your team, but it’s still a big relief when you can save resources and costs on team infrastructure creation activities like creating office space, maintaining team hierarchy, etc.

You also save a lot of budget on technology costs, since all the agencies equip their employees with the right tools for the right job.

4. Creates Time For More Core Operational Tasks

Outsourcing can help ease your burden by taking additional tasks off of your hands and letting you focus on core business operations.

When you’re outsourcing certain processes to other teams, you’re ensuring more free time to take care of business objectives that require your immediate attention.

5. Improves Risk Management Process

Modern businesses are all about taking the high-risk route, and many businessmen get intimidated easily when getting into any field or industry.

When a new business enters the sphere, its risk factor is completely dependent on its shoulders.

With outsourcing, regardless of the model, business owners can mitigate the risk factor by sharing it with the outsourcing vendor.

In the case of a crisis, it’s very helpful to have an improved risk management system with an outsourcing vendor, since it increases the possibility of better risk-taking that can benefit the business more, or better management of high-risk situations with the help of the outsourced team.

6. Work Culture Receives Added Benefits

Each company and how they get things done are different and always will be. While companies work around the clock to get things done efficiently, sometimes the environment may not be in your favor.

In cases like this, outsourcing can be a great help since your team can associate with people who resonate with your idea of a great work culture.

7. The Services Become More Client-Oriented

When you bring in specific expertise as part of your team, you achieve better customer satisfaction by providing better quality services to all your clients.

With a higher rate of customer satisfaction, business revenue drives up, helping you expand and scale your business with proper planning.

What Difference Does Software Development Outsourcing Make?

Any size of company can leverage software development outsourcing to launch a product that stands out from the crowd while the business continues all its core operations without any resources being diverted to the development process.

Here are 4 fundamental differences between in-house development and outsourcing:

Factors	In-House Development	Outsourcing
Development Cost	Several added costs in the future drive up the overall budget	Lower developer fees ultimately reduce development cost
Tech Talent	It’s tougher to find the right tech talent within a limited region	Access to a global talent pool allows for a more niche selection of talents to be recruited
Delivery Time	Delivery time increases since the team has to handle other in-house tasks as well	Vendors complete projects within the committed time
Team Scaling	Tougher to scale teams up or down, since it might conflict with other departments	Teams are highly flexible and scalable whenever needed

How Can You Identify Outsourcing Opportunities?

To make the decision-making process easier, we created a decision matrix to help you decide whether you should keep the current project in-house or outsource it.

Factors	What To Consider	Keep In House	Outsource
Project Cost	Will the budget be reduced if I outsource?	No	Yes
Team Expertise	Does my in-house team have the required skills?	Yes	No
Core Business Focus	Does this project align with my core business activities?	Yes	No
Direct Control	Do I need to supervise this project directly?	Yes	No
Product Quality	Can the outsourced team bring me better quality?	No	Yes
Future Scalability	Does the task need to scale in the future?	No	Yes
Risk Mitigation	Can external teams manage risks better?	No	Yes
Technology	Does the current project require any specialized technology?	No	Yes

How To Choose the Right Outsourcing Model?

While outsourcing is a commonplace option to adopt nowadays, choosing the right outsourcing model can be a challenging task. To make the process easier, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of different outsourcing models.

Location-Based Outsourcing Types

Onshore Outsourcing

Onshore outsourcing is when you outsource your project to a team who are within the same geographical region or country as your business.

The idea of onshoring mainly refers to partnering with local companies or freelancers who are familiar with your current business environment to efficiently complete projects.

Pros of Onshoring:

• Fluent communication and better communication due to regional proximity
• High cultural alignment with local business laws, regulations, and best practices
• Lower data security risk and Intellectual Property (IP) concerns

Cons of Onshoring:

• Development costs are much higher compared to nearshoring or offshoring.
• Limited access to more niche skills and resources

Offshore Outsourcing

Offshore outsourcing is when you contract your services or projects to a third-party provider who is in a different part of the world than your business. This might be in another country or continent.

The model is a highly cost-efficient model due to lower labor costs in certain offshore locations.

Pros of Offshoring:

• Lower labor costs result in lower development cost
• Offers access to an extended talent pool with more niche expertise to choose from
• Time zone differences make 24-hour productivity possible

Cons of Offshoring:

• Miscommunication might occur due to differences in languages
• Potential cultural differences can be quite off-putting in the case of some teams
• Data security and IP protection can become a bigger issue compared to onshoring

Nearshore Outsourcing

Nearshore outsourcing, or nearshoring occurs when you contract out your services to a third-party company in either a neighboring country or a nearby country.

This model offers the combined benefits of onshoring and offshoring by offering geographical proximity and cultural similarity at the same time.

Pros of Nearshoring:

• Easier communication and collaboration due to cultural similarity
• Overlapping time zones allows for better time tracking of all team members
• Saves lots of resources and costs compared to onshoring

Cons of Nearshoring:

• Even with cultural similarities, language barriers might appear
• Business practices are not always the same
• Access to advanced specialties is more limited compared to offshore outsourcing

Relation-Based Outsourcing Types

Staff Augmentation

Staff augmentation is when you partner with an external team of professionals to complete different operations.

Software development is the most popular in the staff augmentation industry since it’s much easier to find talents internationally that may be lacking internally.

Staff augmentation is appealing for another important reason: it saves time. But how would getting devs from the outside world take less time?

When hiring a developer through the traditional hiring process, the entire process goes through selection, interviewing, and onboarding, which can take 30-40 days on average.

When you’re leveraging staff augmentation, all you need to do is brief a certain vendor about your needs and sign the contract after they’ve chosen the right team for you.

After you onboard the external team, they sync with your internal team to complete the development process. You or your project manager stays in charge, while both internal and external teams come together to create a complete software product.

How To Pay

8 working hours/day per specialist multiplied by the hourly rate is the standard payment procedure for the staff augmentation model.

Benefits of Staff Augmentation

• Faster Access To Developers: You can extend your team whenever needed by bringing in more team members
• Lower Cost: Through the traditional method, hiring a full-time developer is highly expensive. With staff augmentation, you can get an entire team for a much lower price rate.
• Access to Better Talents: With more options to choose from, it’s easier for you to recruit someone with more niche skills in the case of a more sophisticated project.
• Complete Governance: When hiring an external team for your project, you or any individual appointed by you has complete control over the project.

Managed Team Model

Also known as the dedicated team model, this team model is best for tasks you don’t want to delegate to the in-house team.

This is a scenario where the process demands specific skills, and your employees don’t have said skill, but the company doesn’t want to invest in it either.

The dedicated team model is somewhere in between staff augmentation and standard outsourcing. A dedicated team gets assigned to your project, and each team member is a professional individual.

Despite being part of the team, they operate independently to complete their objectives. The management of the team can be done by both parties.

When the vendor is managing the team, you get a project manager along with the team. On the client’s side, the team reports to either you, your PM, or the CTO.

These are the essential dedicated team roles in any managed team model:

• Business Analyst
• UI/UX Designer
• QA Engineer
• 1-2 iOS Developers
• Back-End Developers
• DevOps

Note that the roles are completely dependent on your project. The right vendor will pick the right specialists who can fit your business and project requirements.

How to Pay

8 working hours per day multiplied by the hourly rate is the standard procedure for managed team payment.

Benefits of the Managed Team Model

Better Project Control: Despite working independently, they are part of your team. All team members communicate with you and report to you directly.

Better Communication: People who are part of an outsourced team have previous experience working on different projects, and they are better collaborators as a result. They’re familiar with different work and communication styles, making collaboration a total breeze.

Better Risk Mitigation: When you’re choosing the right team with the right professional expertise, you’re ensuring higher amounts of success for your project, enabling better risk mitigation.

Faster Time-To-Market: With a dedicated team, day-to-day team management isn’t necessary. All you need to do is to ask your vendor to assign a PM for your team.

Project Based Model

This is the most common solution applied by software development agencies. The model does exactly what it says on the label.

How Do You Choose the Right Outsourcing Model?

It all depends on the situation you’re in right now. So let’s look at possible scenarios when a certain model might provide more benefit than others.

When to Choose Staff Augmentation

• You already have an in-house team that is lacking certain talents that can help you complete your project
• You have a tech lead or a CTO with high experience who can help you manage your business domain
• You need additional expertise in your team that isn’t present within your in-house team at the moment
• You don’t have the time to wait for the long delay of traditional employee onboarding to extend the team for certain projects

When To Choose a Dedicated Team Model

• You already have a project manager on the team, along with an in-house team that has relevant domain expertise
• There are times when you need to close tech gaps that are within your team. Dedicated teams are better for filling the gaps in the team
• The dedicated team model allows you to remain involved in the decision-making process

When To Choose a Project-Based Model

• Your internal resources and engineering forces are highly limited
• You’re a startup business that doesn’t have the budget to recruit full-time professionals the traditional way
• Your in-house team is already working on the core product, and you need a capable team to work on your second-best
• You don’t have documentation, but you have a clear vision of what you want to build

How Do You Find and Evaluate Outsourcing Partners?

1. Determine The Experience Level of Your Potential Partners

Of course, the team you are going to select for your product development must have in-depth knowledge of the industry you are targeting so the processes are effectively handled.

Here are a few quick tips to do it right:

• Ask them about their project history. It helps you to understand how many projects they completed with their amount of attention to detail in every different aspect.
• Ask about the qualifications of their management team. When the entire team shows extensive experience and outstanding qualifications in completing projects, they are great for you.
• Ask for the references for a potential outsourcing vendor you’re planning to partner with. Request feedback from their past and present customers to understand the scope and quality of the service they received, as well as the challenges they faced when working with the vendor.

2. Assess Their Technical Expertise

Any competent agency should have no problem explaining its methodologies for managing its projects, tracking the right KPIs, and solving the rising issues.

These pieces of information help you understand how good the vendor will be at handling your projects.

Here are a few questions to get started:

• What are the accreditations of the agency? If they’re living up to their claims, they should be accredited in different critical areas such as project management, quality control, etc.
• Does the vendor have a business continuity plan? If yes, it ensures that they can deliver uninterrupted services and support to your company during any kind of disaster
• Can they provide case studies? Accredited vendors back up their claims of success with well-written case studies relevant to the industry they excel.

3. Inspect Their Communication And Client Management System

Establishing clear communication is winning half the battle when it comes to outsourcing software development. Here are 3 vital tips to make that happen:

• Ensure communication availability. Any member of the team should be available at respective business hours/ designated times through email, phone, or other remote team communication tools
• Ensure that the time zones are compatible. When partnering with vendors from a different time zone, the vendor has to ensure the working hours align to minimize communication gaps.
• Engage one primary contact individual. Come to a mutual agreement with the outsourcing vendor for all kinds of queries, feedback, or concerns. It can help ensure a smooth information exchange between both parties.

4. Inquire About Their Infrastructure and Technology They Use

A good vendor is always ready to provide the right kind of support for your business demands and needs. Your outsourcing partner’s IT infrastructure should contain the following elements:

• Latest hardware and software components
• Reliable phone and internet network connection
• Technology integration

5. Calculate Their Overall Costs

When calculating the costs of your outsourcing partner, consider the following:

• Ask the vendor if fixed-project costs are an option. Fixed projects are a great option for savings. If not, make sure to look into any hidden costs that can add unwanted expenses to the final budget.
• Ensure that all the costs are detailed in the final contract. The contract should also include the procedure for approving additional expenses that take place outside the scope of the initial agreement.

6. Evaluate The Workforce of The Vendor

The vendor’s workforce is vital to the success of both the outsourcing partnership and your project. Though you can’t control the workforce, you can take a few steps to evaluate the quality of what you’re working with:

Review the hiring process and policies of your vendor. This helps you ensure that the team members are chosen because of their knowledge, discipline, and skills which can elevate the development process.

View the call center if applicable in a project. When you’re outsourcing customer service or inbound or outbound call centers, ask the vendor to see said call center. This helps you determine their training and other efficiencies.

Share your company culture with the vendor for better collaboration. When the outsourcing vendor understands your beliefs and visions, they can incorporate the ideas in their outsourcing environment to offer you better support.

How To Perform Effective Outsourcing Management?

1. Schedule Meetings At Regular Intervals

A meeting helps keep all team members on the same page, and the overall progress is always consistent throughout the team.

Team meetings can be held either in weekly or biweekly intervals. If your team is following agile software development practices, you must hold daily retrospective meetings to keep the team in sync.

2. Video Calls Are Important

While audio calls can get the message across, it’s better to understand the emotion behind each statement to ensure the prevention of any kind of miscommunication.

That is where video call comes in. When on a video call, it’s easier to understand the exact context of a statement by matching voice tone with facial expression, which helps developers grasp the instructions better.

Plus, video calls allow for better emotional exchanges, which can increase team bonding.

3. Meet In Person Whenever Possible

While the purpose of a remote team is to work from their respective locations, it’s a good idea to arrange a meetup of all the teammates in a single location.

Countless remote communication tools can make remote collaboration easier, but it’s much better to meet and communicate with the team for certain tasks for utmost collaboration and team bonding.

4. Share Your Vision With The Teamz

If you want the team to achieve exactly what you want, you need to explain it to the team in detail. While this sounds obvious, there’s more to it.

When sharing vision with the team, some fail to communicate properly due to language barriers, while others withhold information for fear of a data leak from third-party vendors.

In either case, the exact vision of the product owner isn’t conveyed to the developers, which can result in an underwhelming final product.

To prevent losses caused by a subpar product, it’s best to share your vision in detail with the entire team.

Partner with a trustworthy team, and use whatever measures necessary to inform the team about your vision in detail

5. Leave Micromanagement Outside Your Door

Micromanagement creates an illusion of productivity and high efficiency for company owners and project managers, but it’s one of the main reasons most development projects either get delayed or fail.

Micromanaging interrupts the natural workflow of the developer team since each team members come with a workstyle that can complement each other in a team.

Trying to micromanage the entire process only ends in constant project delays while chasing perfection, and the higher time to market might be a reason why the product might not take off in the future.

Legal and Compliance Considerations When Outsourcing

1. Comprehensive Contracts

Creating a comprehensive outsourcing contract is crucial for successful business partnerships. A well-drafted contract clearly outlines the scope of work, quality standards, payment terms, and confidentiality clauses.

Leaving no room for ambiguities, these contracts eliminate potential misunderstandings and disputes.

The more detailed the contract, the lower the risk of conflicts arising. Investing time into crafting robust outsourcing contracts fosters trust and facilitates smooth collaborations.

2. Tailored Agreements

Every business requires outsourcing agreements tailored to their unique needs and industry. Generic one-size-fits-all contracts often fail to capture the nuances of specific business models.

Customized agreements allow the incorporation of specialized provisions like service level agreements, IP rights, non-compete clauses, and data protection measures.

Tailored outsourcing contracts address distinct challenges and align partnerships with a company’s strategic goals. Investing in customized agreements demonstrates a commitment to risk mitigation, proprietary protection, and quality service delivery.

3. Navigating Compliance Challenges

Businesses must remain vigilant about adhering to relevant regulations and compliance standards when outsourcing.

Depending on the service, they may need to follow industry regulations, data protection laws like GDPR, or local labor laws.

Non-compliance can result in significant penalties and reputational damage. Partnering with outsourcing firms well-versed in compliance is crucial for maintaining legally sound and ethically responsible operations.

Prioritizing regulatory adherence mitigates risks, safeguards data, and enhances brand reputation.

4. Maintaining High Transparency

Transparent communication is vital for successful outsourcing relationships. Regular updates on project progress, challenges, and requirement changes build trust between parties.

Transparency about legal obligations, compliance, and potential risks establishes a strong collaborative foundation.

Clear communication channels allow swift addressing of legal concerns or compliance issues. Embracing transparency fosters trust, mitigates risks, and reinforces ethical business practices.

5. Ongoing Legal Due Diligence

Outsourcing relationships are dynamic, reflecting evolving business environments. Regular legal due diligence on outsourcing partners is essential.

Periodic reviews of contracts, agreements, and compliance measures allow adapting to changing legal requirements.

This proactive approach safeguards interests and ensures partners meet agreed standards. Implementing robust legal due diligence demonstrates a commitment to ethics, risk management, and long-term partnerships.

How To Deal With Cultural and Communication Challenges In Outsourcing?

1. Establish An Open Dialog

Establishing open communication between teams fosters mutual cultural understanding in outsourcing projects.

Creating an environment where all parties feel comfortable discussing issues and expressing their values is crucial.

Arranging cross-cultural training sessions enhances team members’ cultural competence. Developing shared platforms for dialogue promotes inclusion and mitigates misunderstandings.

Prioritizing cross-cultural collaboration strengthens partnerships and positions organizations as diversity champions.

2. Respect The Cultural Diversity Among Your Teammates

Fostering an inclusive workplace culture that respects diverse cultural values, beliefs, and customs is key in outsourcing partnerships. Avoid favoring particular cultures and ensuring equal representation cultivates trust and effective collaboration.

Understanding and appreciating differences builds open communication and mutual respect among cross-cultural teams. Granting equitable time off for cultural celebrations and organizing inclusive events nurtures an inclusive environment.

Prioritizing inclusivity enhances team morale, positions organizations as diversity champions, and resonates with global stakeholders.

3. Effective Communication Is The Key

Communication is key when managing culturally diverse outsourced teams. Adopting appropriate communication styles and languages based on team members’ cultural norms is crucial.

Observing and understanding teams’ communication preferences allows you to tailor interactions accordingly. Implementing strategies to overcome language barriers ensures smooth project execution.

Embracing cross-cultural communication best practices fosters trust, respect, and successful outsourcing partnerships.

4. Track & Assess The Results of All Your Outsourced Projects

Tracking and assessing outsourcing project results through performance metrics ensures successful collaboration. These metrics should align with the organization’s cultural values and project business goals.

Creating an open, inclusive workplace culture that embraces diverse opinions and approaches is essential. Encouraging judgment-free communication among culturally diverse teams fosters mutual understanding.

Aligning performance tracking with cultural sensitivities unlocks the full potential of outsourcing partnerships.

Here are a few ways to do it:

• Establish a rhythm of communication at regular intervals among team members
• Conduct anonymous surveys among team members to receive feedback and adjust accordingly
• Utilize project management software to track task completion
• Explain to everyone about how the success metrics will be considered and measured

5. Be Upfront About Your Expectations With The Team

Establishing a shared understanding and alignment from the inception of any project is a critical success factor, and this principle is amplified in the context of outsourced engagements

Ensuring that all parties involved have a clear and comprehensive grasp of their respective roles, responsibilities, and expectations is paramount.

By prioritizing expectation management and alignment at the project’s initiation, organizations can lay a solid foundation for successful outsourcing partnerships.

This proactive approach fosters trust, collaboration, and a shared commitment to achieving desired outcomes, paving the way for seamless project execution and long-term success.

5 Real World Outsourcing Success Stories

1. Google

Google is one of the best examples of how outsourcing can benefit a company. The tech giant is known worldwide, to the point that searching online is often called “googling.”

Part of Google’s incredible success comes from its outsourced workforce. While Google has over 90,000 employees today, in 2018 Bloomberg reported that the number of contracted workers outnumbered in-house staff.

At that time, Google was utilizing around 100,000 outsourced employees globally. This external team handled back-office roles like accounting, customer service, and more.

Outsourcing allowed Google to achieve massive cost savings by hiring remote international talent at lower rates. The value of this distributed workforce model was evident during the 2023 tech layoffs.

After cutting staff, major companies like Google and Meta advocated for more work visas to access remote global talent pools, as reported by Business Today.

The key takeaway? Strategically outsourcing non-core business functions to a remote external workforce can drive significant operational efficiencies and cost optimization for companies.

Google’s success demonstrates the immense potential of leveraging an outsourced team to complement in-house capabilities cost-effectively.

2. Walmart

Walmart is a massive retail chain in the United States. Just imagine how much accounting and paperwork happens behind the scenes every single day. They would need an entire building full of accountants!

That’s exactly what Walmart did through outsourcing. In 2018, they partnered with Genpact and hired over 500 professional outsourced accountants and bookkeepers. This external team now handles Walmart’s general accounting to support its growth plans.

The main benefit of outsourced accounting for Walmart? Significant cost savings compared to hiring all those accountants in-house. A company that size would normally spend millions on accounting staff.

Now think about your own small business where you do everything yourself – the CEO, CFO, and operations roles. You likely can’t afford to hire accounting help. But by outsourcing like Walmart, you actually can access affordable accounting services!

Outsourcing accounting is a smart, cost-effective solution for businesses of any size. You get professional expertise at a fraction of the cost of hiring locally.

The key takeaway? Follow Walmart’s example and leverage outsourced accounting to drive growth and productivity gains while optimizing operational costs.

3. WhatsApp

Before being bought by Meta, WhatsApp was one of the hottest new social media apps, especially in South Asia. The company started in 2009 as just an idea by two former Yahoo employees.

They built the initial WhatsApp app by outsourcing to programmer Igor Solomennikov. As the app grew popular, WhatsApp continued hiring more remote professionals.

This remote talent strategy paid off big time when Meta (formerly Facebook) acquired WhatsApp for a historic $19 billion in 2014!

Today, over 2 billion users are active on WhatsApp. In 2022, the app generated $906 million in revenue according to Priori Data.

Two people with an idea became a tech giant by embracing outsourced services from the very start. Imagine if they had given up for lack of an in-house programmer?

Many startups and small businesses fail because they don’t leverage outsourcing’s cost-effective talent access. For every WhatsApp success, other companies close due to outdated hiring practices.

The lesson? Quality talent exists globally, not just in-house. Being open to outsourced services allows businesses to affordably build and scale their dream product or service.

WhatsApp proves that partnering with remote professionals can transform a simple concept into a multi-billion-dollar tech unicorn.

4. Alibaba

Alibaba is a massive success story in the eCommerce world. Known as the “eBay of China,” the company now has:

• 674 million annual active users
• 60% market share of Chinese eCommerce
• Hit a record 583,000 orders per second in 2020

According to Investopedia, over half of all online shopping in China happens through Alibaba’s businesses.

But did you know Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma used outsourcing from the very start? In his autobiography, Ma discussed how Alibaba began outsourcing software development as early as 1999.

The company hired remote developers in the United States. Ma wanted to appeal to Chinese and English-speaking audiences. He also sought better technical skills than were locally available.

By tapping into global talent through outsourcing, Alibaba could cost-effectively build its eCommerce platform and scale to become a multi-billion dollar empire.

The key lesson is don’t let access to in-house skills limit your ambitions. Strategically leverage outsourced services to affordably assemble top global expertise.

Alibaba demonstrates how founders embracing remote talent and outsourcing early can propel even modest startups into industry-dominating unicorns over time.

5. GitHub

GitHub provides hosting for software development version control. It uses Git, a tool for tracking code changes. GitHub is owned by Microsoft.

GitHub offers all the version control features of Git. It also adds its special features. But did you know GitHub hired someone to build their first product? The founders hired a consultant named Scott Chacon to create the backend code. At that time, they could not afford a full-time employee.

Today, GitHub is huge! Over 40 million developers use GitHub. They created over 44 million new code repositories last year alone. In total, GitHub has hosted more than 100 million repositories.

Developers love using GitHub to host, share, and collaborate on software projects. With version control, multiple coders can work together easily. GitHub simplifies the coding workflow with its Git integration and custom features.

To Wrap It All Up

If our outsourcing guide has helped you understand the basics and other related intricacies related to software development outsourcing, we suggest taking a look at our app development outsourcing and staff augmentation services.

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