Today, virtual reality technology is in active development and has already found its application in different fields, from manufacturing to healthcare. Meanwhile, VR solution development requires the presence of a professional team of specialists, that not every company can afford to hire. In this case, outsourcing the development process to another company is a more convenient solution.
In this article, we’ll highlight the key advantages of VR outsourcing and why it’s becoming more popular in business.
Flexible and Cost-Effective: How VR Outsourcing Can Transform Your Business
One of the most important reasons why companies use outsourcing services is to save money on personnel, additional equipment, and software. Thus, your enterprise can use outsourcing company experience and resources and pay only for required services. It also provides businesses with additional flexibility by allowing them to adjust the scale of VR projects according to their specific needs.
Thanks to outsourcing, your company’s employees can concentrate on their main duties. Meanwhile, outsourced developers can perform their VR-development-related work.
Moreover, VR outsourcing gives companies access to the latest virtual reality trends and news.
How VR Outsourcing Connects Your Business with Top VR Experts
By transferring the VR program development process to an outsourcing company, you get access to a team of developers that specialize in different aspects of VR app design. Moreover, this team has the needed experience, knowledge, and technologies to manage the entire cycle of your project development, including 3D modeling, programming, UI/UX design, etc.
Also, when you involve a bigger number of specialists with the required skills, you can release an effective final VR product faster and more economically.
Faster Product Launch and Innovative Ideas With VR Outsourcing
Outsourcing companies have access to virtual reality innovations and solutions allowing them to release your product on time. That means a possibility to schedule your product release on market and get ahead of your competitors.
From Risky to Reliable: Benefits of VR Outsourcing for Your Business
Outsourcing companies know the most common mistakes to avoid and how to reduce development risks. Moreover, by collaborating with clients from different fields, they can provide high-quality service and innovative solutions, that correspond to the standards of a certain field.
All-Inclusive VR Outsourcing: How VR Studio Can Provide Your Business with Comprehensive Support
Providing technical support, regular updates, and bug fixes are important factors, which may tip the balance in favor of outsourcing. And this factor ensures the smooth and efficient work of your VR solution. Moreover, it allows companies to concentrate on their main duties, leaving technical nuances of virtual reality development to experts.
Outsourcing offers companies numerous advantages for their development and design of VR apps. When transferring VR app development authorities to outsource company, your enterprise will get a qualified team of specialists, who can produce an efficient product quickly and accurately. If you consider VR outsourcing, make sure that the company you choose is a reliable and worthy one with the required experience and a positive reputation.
Image: Freepik
When it comes to hiring a software development company there are fears such as lack of communication, lack of resources and pricing. So in this article we will review how Ukrainian developers fit in considering their culture and work ethic.
Team Players
Ukrainians focus on personal success, but for them, group achievements tend to be a lot more important within the workplace. Competition inside of a group is not popular in Ukrainian culture and people are focused on supporting one another.
Communication Skills
When interacting with people who are considered to be strangers Ukrainians appear very formal, direct, and distant as formality is often used as a sign of respect. Ukrainians are in for a long and deep relationship and open up gradually.
Planning
Detailed planning is very common among Ukrainians. Ukrainians react and adapt fast, they act on the spot when facing a difficult decision and aren’t afraid to take risks.
Foreign Languages
The vast majority of Ukrainian programmers have an intermediate or upper-intermediate level of English proficiency. It’s considered normal for Ukrainians to be proficient in 3+ languages.
High level of involvement
Ukrainian developers tend to ask a lot of clarification questions, disagree with a client if they see a better solution, and explain why it might be better to take a different route. This approach means more discussions upfront but results in a minimum of wasted time and better quality of the final product.
Business Trips (once the world can travel again)
Ukraine is located within 2-3 hour flight from the majority of European capitals. Ukrainians have also been able to travel to the EU visa free since 2017. As for North America, now there is also a great number of major airlines that fly to Ukraine. Both EU, USA and Canada residents are able to visit Ukraine visa-free.
Growing amount of Tech Graduates and Community
From 2015 to 2020 the amount of IT professionals in Ukraine has doubled – it went from 90 000 to 180 000. Every year 15 000+ of computer science students graduate across Ukraine – this number is expected to keep growing as well.
Therefore, Ukrainian software developers are a great choice when selecting an offshore development team. It is a wise choice not only in terms of cost-efficiency and skills availability but also due to their ability to adapt and work well in diverse cultural environments. If you have any questions or a project idea you would like to discuss – reach out to us!
Mariia Kalashnyk, Qualium Systems, Business Development Manager
The classical values of outsourcing are stronger than ever: cost, standardization and global delivery, according to “2013 State of outsourcing” Study, conducted by KPMG.
But before make a decision to outsource your IT tasks, we suggest you to pay your attention on those few points.
SOME FACTS:
– Ukraine is among the TOP 10 countries with the most certified IT professionals;
– since 2007 Kiev is listed in Tholon’s TOP 100 Emerging Outsourcing Destination Cities List;
– since 2008 Ukraine was enrolled to A.T Kearney’s Global Services Location Index (GSLI) and increases its ranking year after year.
- Costs reducing. According to research, the most important reason to outsource still “low price”. Unfortunately, such approach could lead to unfortunate results. Of course, working with Asian countries will help you to reduce the price, but you have to understand all the risks you will get and product quality.
- Skills and Expertise. Finding skilled resources is one of the biggest challenges faced by companies today especially against the background with ‘cost reducing’ purpose.In this case you have two options:
– to outsource in Asia/India only because of the low price.
– to outsource in Eastern Europe (Ukraine, Belarus, Romania etc.) This region offers highly skilled IT specialists at an acceptable cost with high quality, at the same time. - Communications and people management. Sometimes customer-outsourcer relationships break down simply due to lack of communication. It happens as a result of essential distinctions in mentality on different continents, like Asia and Europe. When you distribute IT functions outside your organization, you need a great deal of coordination and back-and-forth communications – best solution is to find professional IT supplier similar in mentality and culture.
- Time zones. Eastern Europe covers a vast region, but time difference is not essential, making it easier to communicate within working hours.
- Intellectual property protection. The Ukrainian system of intellectual property (“IP”) safeguards combines both national (laws and by-laws) and international standards (more than 15 international treaties on IP protection of which Ukraine is a party to). According to KPMG report “Your Business in Ukraine” 2012.
Currently, about 60% of European companies enjoy the benefits of technology outsourcing their IT projects rather than having their own IT specialists in-house. Organisations can gain a number of benefits by outsourcing their IT function but only in case of choice reliable supplier.
Experts in IT are short in supply and prices for freelancers are constantly on the rise. This brings nearshoring into focus on IT Development. Especially small and medium enterprises (SME) recently started to accept nearshoring as a cost-effective alternative to mandating developers on a homeland.
According to a recent survey of the GULP project marketplace about two-thirds of German-based freelancers demand hourly rates ranging from 60 to 80 Euros with no imminent end of this increase of fees to appear.
“As an alternative to the rather high fees demanded by freelancers located in their home country, prospective clients more and more consider Nearshoring when looking for highly qualified developers”, – says Serge Salenko, Business Development Manager of Qualium Systems Ltd., headquartered in Kharkov, Ukraine. – “We have noticed a steady increase in inquiries and requests for experts in all fields of IT development.”
Increasingly this is especially true for small and medium-sized corporations and online agencies in search for developers that offer a wide range of IT expertise, from outsourcing parts of projects all the way up to hiring complete teams of developers abroad.
In order to successfully execute such a cooperation model, it is crucial to follow some important rules: besides a transparent and to the point means of communication, detailed technical specifications, clear milestones and project goals have to be formulated.
Each cooperation we undertake with clients abroad follows a specific set of rules which are also clearly outlined in legal contracts. This has worked very well for us and our former clients and gives each contract party the peace of mind necessary in cross-border cooperations.” – said Olga Krivchenko, CEO at Qualium Systems Ltd.
One trend that has become quite popular is the request for so-called “Offshore Dedicated Team” or “Dedicated Development Center”. DDC is a model of cooperation, accordingly with which the specially formed team is completely engaged with customer’s tasks without being distracted by extraneous projects.
Our IT experts in dedicated development centres work eight hours a day, five days a week exclusively on a specific client’s project. All work and development is controlled and overlooked directly by the clients themselves” – said Olga Krivchenko.
This type of cooperation offers clients considerable cost savings, having a team of developers “on board” for a specific time period without the need of hiring long-term employees themselves. Besides, clients considerably profit from income disparities between Western countries and East-Europe.
The market for IT development has become more open-minded for Nearshoring Cooperation Models in recent years. Many companies have recognized the considerable potential savings whilst discovering additional development resources that can be mandated quickly – at the same time being able to focus on their own core business.
A recent survey of the “Ukrainian Hi-Tech Initiative”, the leading association of IT cooperations in the Ukraine, has uncovered the massive growth of the IT sector in the country: revenues within the industry for IT outsourcing and development have risen to 1.1 Billion Euros in 2011 whilst the number of IT experts has grown by 20% to 25.000 employees. By far the largest IT technology centre in Ukraine is Kharkov – the silicone valley of Ukraine – which is also the headquarter of Qualium Systems Ltd.
According toThe Computer Economics IT Outsourcing Statistics 2011/2012 study the amount of organizations that outsource IT work is increasing every year. The percentage of their total IT spending going to service providers rose from 6.1% in 2009 to 7.1% in 2010 and then leveled out, showing no year-over-year growth in 2011 and expected to go up in 2012 (Figure 1).
IT Outsourcing has become a multi-billion industry worldwide during the last ten years. The most common reasons why companies decide to outsource include: cost reduction and cost savings, the ability to focus its core business, access to more knowledge, talent and experience, and increased profits.
However, outsourcing couldn’t be the “panacea” like it’s expected by some of organizations. Over the last few years there were numerous reports in the media about the problems that organizations got with outsourcing their IT processes. That’s why so important to understand the main principles of IT outsourcing. To make IT outsourcing process successful there are 10 simple principles to develop “win-to-win” strategy:
- Establish clear goals. Make sure the outsourcing service provider understands the project goals and specifications. All details are important.
- Clearly define the scope and schedule for your project. This might seem evident, but any successful outsourced project always starts with a clear statement of what you are wanted to reach. Give as much information as you can about what you need delivered and be clear and realistic about your schedule requirements – project schedules can have a huge impact on project costs.
- Don’t choose provider based only on price and Brand Name. Often even small IT outsourcing companies could generate really worthwhile product. Experienced Managers who have outsourced many successful projects recommend discarding the highest-priced and lowest-priced bid. You should try to find balance of good value and quality results.
- Review portfolios and samples. Check the outsourcing company’s previous work (“portfolio”) and make sure that their previous work meets your expectations for quality and way of doing. Additionally you could ask them to provide a basic draft of a work plan. But never cross the line between asking for a basic draft and insisting that a contractor provide you with full done work. No qualified professional expects to work for free.
- Work with a compatible provider. IT outsourcing company’s staff needs to be compatible with your company’s culture and business objectives, with the right experience, communications skills, and working style. Because they will become part of your Company.
- Communicating openly from the 1st day. Sometimes customer-outsourcer relationships break down simply due to lack of communication. When you distribute IT functions outside your organization, you need a great deal of coordination and back-and-forth communications – even more than when you distribute across your internal organization.
- Take a Test Drive. Before signing a long-term cooperation agreement for it services, you can order a small paid test project to ensure the quality of provided services.
- Primary feedback. Organization of regular meetings (by phone or Skype), constant communication for clarification of current issues through chat (Skype, Gtalk, MSN, Yahoo Messenger etc.) or by e-mail, reporting about executed work and reached progress (usually weekly).
- Retain responsibility. Outsourcing shouldn’t mean that you are abdicating responsibility. You still own the overall results, so you need to be actively involved in working with and managing the outsourcer.
- Ask for more. There is a model of cooperation in IT outsourcing service called Dedicated Development Center (DDC), accordingly with which you have your own IT-team located outside your office but working for you. These people are not your employees and you don’t need to pay any taxes, insurance or retirement benefits. But they work for you 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. They are perfectly aware of your corporate culture, work under your business processes and you weekly get reports from them.
It can be greatly effective if you have a continuous need for software development as there’s no need to look for software provider every time you need to upgrade your system and to develop a new one. DDC is effectively used by many companies to save expenses, lower business risks and accelerate project start-ups.
Finally, while following these ten steps will set the right course for your IT outsourcing relationship, for it to truly succeed it must be based on mutual trust and respect. In any case you shouldn’t undervalue communications tool to achieve “win-to-win” results in IT outsourcing. Poor communication is second only to poor planning as a cause of outsourcing relationship failure. Communication on all aspects of the project must be frequent and two-way. A high level of integrity will ensure a high level of service and great results.
Our company receives regular requests for completion of partly-made websites. And in such cases the clients are genuinely convinced that their 90% ready sites just need to be finished with tiny efforts. But in fact the things appear different…
In such cases there is the only question with two items:
- why the team that began the website’s development hasn’t finished it, and
- in what degree the website’s readiness corresponds to reality.
Qualium Systems’ experience of cooperation with such clients shows that the first item can be answered in two ways excluding force majeure clauses of either software provider or its customer.
Hard divorce
Oddly enough, but in matters of computer programs the human factor often plays a vital role. It means the customer simply fell out with software provider and now he’s simply looking for a new dev team. Such “love story” seems alarming as the client would unlikely explain true causes of the conflict.
Well, we may assume that the divorce happened due to initial incoherence of the work scope or as a result of client’s financial default. But anyway, the new provider should carefully assess all risks before taking a project with a dubious history.
Hidden dilettantism
Another possible answer might be that the dev team is incapable to finish the job, and even clearly admits it. So, we gradually move to another side of the issue to be clarified as well: who and how has evaluated the actual project readiness (why 90 %?) and how much effort will it really take to be fully completed.
Most often the reasons of project incompletion lie in primary architectural and structural failures making a half-done software product go into pieces: after fixing one thing the other ones stop working or load test fails due to incorrect database structure, etc. So, before you agree to finish an off-site project, we strongly advice to estimate its true readiness for further modification and tech support.
Evaluation – conclusion – decision
Full functionality testing and examination of the project’s internal structure allows indicating all parts needed to be improved. Also the meticulous review of project code gives ground for quality assessment of ready-made parts and the whole website architecture. SRS (software requirements specification), use cases or test cases could either help significantly, but our experience shows that such projects have been usually implementing without proper documentation.
That’s why it’s best to start with internal examination, since the analysis of the undone website can be finished just after its code review. Once the results are negative, there are more reasons to discuss rather the website’s full rework than simple completion.
But if the client still firmly insists on using his “legacy code”, the project can be completed under time & material model. In this case the software provider carries out the client’s instructions on required corrections without any responsibility for bad functions being not fully retested beforehand.
Don’t rush to dead end
Many customers however keep following the misconception that finishing uncompleted project is quick and easy task; or at least it’s faster than doing it from scratch. Right, a project will be done like piece of cake, if it has originally competent architecture, well-designed modules and good-structured code.
But once the current status of the project needs much to be improved, its further development will definitely lead to a dead end regardless of many money-wasting “patches”. Perhaps it’s wiser to admit the failure and spend more time for careful selection of a new provider. Such an approach surely gives your failed web project a chance for survival and long productive life.
Recently, natural disasters and economic crisis seem to be the subject of any small talk since the crisis affects not only economy, but our mind. A terrible feeling of insecurity is easily comparable to an earthquake slipping the ground under your feet.
Just don’t panic
Human experience shows that the pessimistic expectations of customers regarding the future income increase the share of savings in asset management. Psychologically such phenomenon is quite easy to understand, though hardly to justify.
Kitchin cycles discovered in 1920s can provide a simple pattern traditionally associated with delays in time (time lags) related to the flow of information that affects business decisions. Therefore, an understanding of these cycles’ nature allows potential investors to overcome the phases of recovery, rise, boom, recession and depression more easily.
In fact, not all businessmen consider crisis as a disaster. After all, those who manage to prepare the ground during recession or depression, may count on higher return rate on the recovery phase, while their overly cautious competitors can do their best just to maintain the existing position.
He who hesitates is lost
Even if people tend to spend less, it doesn’t mean their needs are reduced. One should keep in mind that the project creation takes certain amount of time. More serious problem requires more hours (or even days) for its technical solution and further debugging. And indeed, the current recession is likely to be transformed into depression offering enough time for product to be promoted and upgraded.
Speaking about the IT-industry, we need however to underline the obvious point that the development of software and various web services can’t be frozen for months like the sleeping beauty’s kingdom. The unstable behavior of NASDAQ just indicates upcoming profound restructuring of the industry, but not its dramatic decline.
So, there are some reasonable questions: what kind of resources needs urgent investments, can we talk about elasticity of demand for IT-products, and if so, how this elasticity could be measured?
Dead money kills your ideas
In fact, there are no clear measurement criteria, and they can’t even exist. Through the past 10 years an attitude to entertainment has been changed dramatically. Nowadays it is viewed as an ordinary part of people’s daily lives. Thus, while choosing a business, game or social network solution, one should firstly pay attention to its idea and quality, rather than to a dubious pseudo-statistical economic forecast on growth or decline of investment attractiveness within a particular segment.
The only thing one can trust for sure is that the number of those wishing to use free services is expected to be much greater than before the crisis. Such an approach, in turn, could ensure the future recognition of the service leading to its use for a fee since other start-ups have not even started yet.
No one would argue that creating a product only for its creation appears to be initially ineffective. And no one would be enriched by the money saved on non-implementation of promising new ideas. Of course, the storage of cash and investments is just one of possible options for risk diversification. But it’s always worth remembering that the “dead capital” rarely helps in achieving the goals and realization of great insights.