Several factors influencing the decision
On the one hand, it depends on the type and scope of the processes to be outsourced. Are you dealing with one-off or recurring tasks? Routine activities or new challenges? What is the relationship between your own efforts and those of outsourcing and does this increase the company’s flexibility? Above all: Is there a specialized and trustworthy outsourcing partner who can adapt individually to the needs of the client?
A study by the Statistic Brain Research Institute summarizes the most important reasons for outsourcing software development tasks as follows:
- Cost reduction or better control over expenses (44%),
- Access to the IT talent that’s unavailable within the company (34%),
- Freeing up the workforce within the company (31%),
- Improvement of the company’s business and/or customer focus (28%)
- Acceleration of the company’s digital transformation or reorganization (22%)
- Access to the management expertise unavailable within the company (15%)
- Reduction of time to market (9%).
Finding reliable partners abroad
Once the decision to outsource has been made, the next question is: Which model should be chosen? For example, offshoring or nearshoring? And how can you find a reliable partner abroad who understands your corporate culture and goals so well that friction losses are kept to a minimum?
Asian countries are at the top of the hit list of countries that are repeatedly mentioned in offshoring. First and foremost China, then the ranking lists the Philippines, India, Malaysia and Vietnam. “A silent revolution has taken place in the Philippines, in which offshoring software development has been better adapted to the needs of emerging industries,” says the study by the Statistic Brain Research Institute.
A number of advantages for the Philippines
The island state has a similar culture to most western countries and is the third-largest English-speaking nation in the world. Together with a stable university system that sacks over 30,000 IT and technology graduates every year, this is an excellent basis. “In addition, there is more than 20 years of outsourcing experience in the country and the fact that software development is currently only a fifth of the cost of the West,” the study continues.
According to a study by the Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA), there are now around 123,000 software developers in the country, the number of whom is expected to rise to 207,000 by 2022. At the same time, the turnover of the software industry in the Philippines is expected to grow from today’s three billion to seven billion US dollars. According to forecasts, the country’s market share on the global software market will increase from today’s 12 % to 15 %.
ERNI is also exploiting these advantages and has set up a global platform for nearshoring and offshoring with branches in Slovakia and the Philippines, based on a Swiss mindset and adapted to the requirements of customers in all parts of the world. Swiss Software Engineering stands for absolute reliability and precision – the implemented solutions are extensively tested and function like the proverbial Swiss clockwork. At the same time, the platform is flexible and modular in structure, while the project management team takes a pragmatic approach and ensures economic processing.