The Ultimate Guide for Choosing an Outsource Provider for Your Startup
By: Vsevolod Ulyanovich
Tags: Startup, Outsourcing, Information Technology, Guides And Tutorials, Business

The Ultimate Guide for Choosing an Outsource Provider for Your Startup

You have a million-dollar idea, seed capital, and unflagging determination to conquer the market. What’s next?

Introducing the latest technologies will turn your idea into a competitive product and your newcomer enterprise into a fast-growing market participant. You just miss the main ingredient — a top-notch IT outsourcing provider.

Despite the fact that each IT startup has a unique history, many circumstances coincide for different companies. At Fively we have learned it due to work with numerous business entities. To make the selection process easier for you, we’ve compiled the most important observations about getting IT services outsourced. Here they are.

Focus on the Needs

It’s a general truth that you won’t get prominent results without having the goals set. As an entrepreneur, you must have the best understanding of what you need. Whether a software solution will become the main product or it will remain one of the traffic sources or a medium of communication with the clients — it’s you who decides.

As soon as you come up with the vision, think about possible implementation. Do you need an app? If so, which platform will suit the best for its placement? Even if you don’t know for sure at this stage, set possible directions. It will help you to pay attention to suitable outsourcing companies.

Explore the Resources

One of the most common questions is where to find the vendors. Here you can resort to a good old Google search or go straight to specialized websites. There are two types of such websites:

The specialized portals allow you to find the former clients, their reviews, vendors’ portfolios, rates, and ratings using the appropriate filters. The main difference between the two types is that job boards are widely used by freelancers while rating & review platforms display information about agencies and companies. Therefore, if you want a team working on your project and are going to scale, choose review portals.

Delve Deeper Into the Subject

Experiment with the resources above, use several keywords, and apply relevant filters according to the price you’re ready to pay, key technologies to be used, or ratings. As a result, you’ll get a list of 15–20 companies. The following steps are to visit their websites, social media accounts, take a closer look at the portfolios. It’s a good idea to check their blogs too. All these sources of information will provide you insight into a company’s approach so that you can understand the probable way of handling your project.

Start Communication

Having reached this stage, get in touch with each candidate. Be prepared to describe your idea in brief so that your potential vendor could give an estimate. If you’re afraid of information leakage, offer to sign a non-disclosure agreement before the discussion of your project.

After the initial inquiry, pay attention to the speed of response. Outsource development teams may be located in different time zones but they usually answer during the working day. Personal contact is an important part of knowing your possible partner better. That’s why be prepared for a video or audio call. The first impression means a lot. You’ll hardly collaborate with the people you don’t like even if they’re great professionals.

After the initial communication and estimates get back to your shortlist of companies. Probably you’d like to cross any names out or renew the research on the platforms. One way or another you’ll end up with 3–5 variants.

Look From Different Perspectives

So, you have a limited number of companies, know their rates, conditions, and communication styles. How to make the final decision? Pay attention to the following aspects.

Prices. Software development outsourcing for startups may vary in prices and the gap can be really wide. Sometimes it indicates that you might work with a junior specialist whose command of English is even less impressive than the costs. However, the price may depend on a vendor’s location. For example, Eastern Europe is known among western companies as a region of brainiacs with reasonable rates.

Professionalism. This aspect correlates strongly with the costs. Nonetheless, as it’s mentioned above, you may find a top specialist for a reasonable sum of money. Besides, pay attention to the tech stack and design approach. It also makes sense to look for a developer experienced in the domain related to your project.

Management. Apart from developers’ experience and qualification, management is a keystone of a successful release. It’s beyond argument that you’ll understand how a company will run your project when you make the final choice. You can still take precautions. Keep in mind how a company deals with your information and requirements, what kind of methodology it uses. Some facts will become clear at the initial communication stage.

Work culture. The company you’ll choose may be located halfway around the world. It’s a good explanation of cultural differences at work. However, some characteristics are considered as a must for a reputable development team. The key ones are transparency, flexibility, and responsibility. Sticking to them is the only way to get your trust and meet the expectations under the conditions of remote work.

Instead of the Summary

The market of IT outsourcing is a huge ocean where the new fish is just arriving. That’s encouraging because entrepreneurs may find a vendor for all tastes. At the same time, it means you should invest more time and effort to get the optimal variant. And it’s worthwhile. Your startup idea deserves the best implementation. Hopefully, this article can help to bring it to life.