3 steps to business IT outsourcing

It is quite unusual for a business to try to cover all aspects of its operations on its own. You are better off trying to concentrate efforts on your core competencies and outsourcing the rest to professionals. However, entrepreneurs are reluctant to delegate critical aspects of their operations to third-party contractors. Thus said, the question is: how to find a trustworthy IT outsourcing company? Today we list 3 steps to finding a reliable business IT outsourcing partner.

To make it brief, in order to reliably deliver the needed services a company you choose must have the relevant technical expertise, sufficient staff on hand and provide timely reporting on the project progress to keep you informed without too much overhead. Let’s take a closer look at how you can ensure your potential partner can provide these results.

Relevant technical expertise

There are 2 cases when a company can promise to do everything, from web development to DevOps services and Big Data analytics/ML training — if it is a multi-national software developer with multiple departments and ample experience, or it is an aspiring team eager to get any job. In the former case, the project costs can be quite daunting for a small business. In the latter, the lack of hands-on experience is the obvious concern.

Thus said, most of the IT outsourcing companies concentrate on certain aspects of software delivery. Some are pure web development agencies, some specialize in CRM development, some provide design and mobile app development services. Therefore, it is better to work with professionals in a certain field who are able to guarantee the expected result than employ Jacks-of-all-trades, who will be deeply sorry for wasting your time and money.

There is one kind of companies, however, able to provide end-to-end solutions for your business — from designing the mockups and building the web app to enabling smooth CI/CD processes for your product, smart alerting and monitoring, predictive analytics using Big Data and correct configuration of the needed web services. Such companies are called Managed Services Providers and they can guarantee the availability of the relevant technical expertise. Most importantly, they can ensure the delivery of the expected results by signing legally-binding contract agreements, NDA and SLA.

Sufficient staff on hand

Let’s assume you need to ensure your product is developed and updated on the schedule and without any post-release downtime. This is done using DevOps workflows and CI/CD pipelines like an automated unit and integration testing, automated product builds and user acceptance testing on the staging environment, canary or blue-green deployments, efficient rollback strategies, etc.

Finding an experienced DevOps engineer to hire in-house is quite complicated, as experienced DevOps engineers are usually not unemployed. Therefore, you need to try to headhunt them from large corporations — and it’s hard for a small business to offer a salary and benefits comparable to an offer from a large corporation. Another alternative is working with freelancers, but most of the business owners are averse to delegating their mission-critical processes to freelancers, regardless of their customer satisfaction rating on various platforms.

This is where IT outsourcing comes into play, as Managed DevOps Services Providers are able to employ experienced DevOps specialists and train them quickly, as they are engaged with a wide variety of projects part-time. Thus said, your business gets instant access to skilled talents for a fraction of the costs of hiring them in-house. Most importantly, if your remote employee falls ill, goes on vacation or quits — they can be relatively easily replaced by the outsourcing company without any impact on your project.

Timely project reporting

It is great to manage your employees directly and be informed of their tasks — but it takes inordinate amount of time. Remote R&D team from your selected IT outsourcing company will use the reporting tools, issue tracking systems and communication channels of your team, so you will be in touch with them constantly. Through daily reports and weekly sync-up calls, you will be informed of the project progress and the team will implement your feedback without forcing you to micromanage all aspects of operations.

Conclusions: business IT outsourcing is a step to success

Thus said, when you work with a reliable IT outsourcing company, you get the safety of mind and important tasks are delegated to professionals who guarantee their completion on time and with quality. But how to ensure the company you select is reliable? Look for its customer reviews, various ratings, listed expertise, etc. Read their website and blog, look for certificates and accolades. Finally, have a call with them and look at how they conduct it. A good team with lots of experience will have ready solutions for most common challenges, which will allow cutting time and expenses on the project by not reinventing the wheel.

By working with such an iT outsourcing company you can guarantee the success of outsourcing your business processes. Good luck with finding a reliable partner!