Con #1. Talent shortage
Yes, outsourcing grew in popularity in 2021 due to the difficulties with hiring on-premises. Yet, at the same time, such enthusiasm and burgeoning demand for IT services also led to a talent shortage in this industry (even in popular destinations like India, Ukraine, and Thailand).
Even outsourcing leaders are experiencing difficulty finding relevant specialists as quickly as they did in the past. The demand for software engineers is much higher than the speed at which they can actually learn to code and enter the industry.
Consequently, you will have to wait a little longer for the vendor to assemble your team than you would, for example, in 2019. Even so, it will still be faster than setting up an in-house team from scratch.
Resource: Beyond hiring: How companies are reskilling to address talent gaps
Con #2. You need to be ready to outsource
There are different levels of involvement required for various outsourcing models. When delegating the entire project’s development from scratch, you will only need to provide the requirements. If you outsource part of the project, you’ll need to be more present in the working process to provide context and help manage the team (because there are more dependencies on you). Outstaffing involves full responsibility for specialists’ management, monitoring, and support.
Whatever outsourcing model you choose – you need to be ready for in terms of operations, time, and budget. And if you are not prepared – the collaboration is likely to fail.
Con #3. Cultural and linguistic differences
Whenever you outsource to a country with a different cultural background, language, and even mentality from your own, you may encounter communication barriers. Culture may largely influence the business style, level of innovation/conservatism, etc.
Of course, most companies that want to succeed in tech hire specialists with solid English language skills and strong work ethics. However, when outsourcing, cross-cultural and linguistic barriers are more likely to arise.
Con #4. Hour differences
Most of the time, hour differences do not pose much of a problem, especially if you delegate the whole management to your outsourcing vendor. Nevertheless, it might cause late replies, delayed responses to comments, and difficulty arranging meetings. As a result, you will need a period of adaptation and extensive planning if the time difference is significant.
Con #5. Security risks
When you outsource, you do not get to see what is going on in the work environment just by walking in the office. Typically, you are in another country or continent.
Hence, this may expose your information to security risks. Do the employees use personal or company-provided devices? Are they following the security policy? Are they actually performing their duties? Do they comply with the security protocols? You never know 100%.
It’s okay, though. The solution is to hire an outsourcing vendor with security-ensuring processes in place (along with all the necessary documentation, certifications, and technical equipment). And if you feel you cannot trust your vendor – then it’s not the right partner for you.
Con #6. Vendor selection
Often, it tends to be challenging to choose one vendor just by analyzing the information available on the Internet. Plus even with the extensive research and signed papers, you never know: will they actually deliver on what they have promised on call?
It is essential to select a reliable and secure outsourcing vendor not only for the sake of your project’s success. But also so that you don’t lose belief in outsourcing powers just because of one irresponsible vendor.
So how do you choose one? We wrote the whole article about it – you can check it via this link!