What are IT outsourcing services and the benefits

The increasing digitalization of companies across all sectors over the last decade has drastically changed the business landscape. Today, if your company does not have a solid digital infrastructure, it is already behind the others. This is why most organizations are investing in digital acceleration processes: to quickly increase their digital capabilities and obtain the agility needed to face new challenges.

But to do this, they need the experience of experienced IT engineers who can work on the solutions these companies need to sophisticate their digital infrastructure. Since everyone is doing it, getting these engineers can be difficult, especially if you are in the US where there is a significant talent shortage that can make it even more difficult to find the right team to develop the IT solutions you want.

This is when IT outsourcing services prove useful. Through these services, you can access specialized software engineers and IT professionals on demand, as well as IT management and support services. So you can contact an IT outsourcing company with your IT requirements and find the help you need to develop solutions to meet them.

Let's dig a little deeper so you can really understand what IT outsourcing services are, how you can benefit from them, and some tips for finding the best ones out there.

What are IT outsourcing services?

Naturally, there are several ways to handle IT outsourcing. You can hire an IT outsourcing company to take full responsibility for all your IT requirements or just use them for a specific project – or even for just one phase of a project! What's more, you can use one IT service provider for all your IT needs, or you can outsource multiple providers that best suit your specific needs.

Which IT services are typically outsourced?

Virtually everything IT-related you have in your company can be outsourced, especially now that distributed teams and remote work have become a standard in the business world. However, there are certain IT services that are more commonly outsourced than others. This includes the following:

• Software development
• Web development
• Mobile development
• Network Management
• Quality assurance (QA) and testing
• Technical support
• Infrastructure management and support
• Datacenter management
• Cybersecurity, backup and data recovery
• Disaster recovery
• Mapping and planning technological roads

What IT outsourcing service models exist?

As mentioned above, IT outsourcing companies offer services through various models that aim to meet all possible needs. You will have to choose one of these services depending on the project at hand, your personal preferences, your budget, and your overall resources. Although the type of services may vary from company to company, there are three common IT outsourcing services for most of them.

• Dedicated teams . A dedicated team is a service where the IT outsourcing company offers a team with all the necessary functions to handle your IT project. Typically brings together a project manager, software engineers, quality control engineers and specific roles according to the project at hand. A dedicated team works autonomously and is jointly managed by a scrum master/project manager and the owner of product. And although they work independently, dedicated teams communicate and report status as often as you request. Dedicated teams are perfect for you if you don't have the bandwidth to tackle your IT challenges and need to focus on your core business.
• Increase in the IT team . Through this on-demand service, you can add talent to your team and fill any talent gaps you may have. IT staffing services can quickly fill any open position on your team, whether temporary or permanent. This allows you to quickly scale your team's expertise, giving you the speed, flexibility, and expertise to tackle your IT projects. This extended team will work as part of your local team, attending regular meetings and reporting to your managers. Therefore, IT staff augmentation is a cost-effective way to quickly increase the size and productivity of your IT teams.
• End-to-end software development. This is probably what most people picture when they talk about IT outsourcing: full-cycle custom software development. With this service you provide the project requirements and specifications and the outsourced team delivers the solution, from conception to the final product. This is a great service for those looking to build high quality software with the best cost-benefit, as it puts all development on the shoulders of an experienced development team that has the know-how to handle projects of varying complexity using the latest technologies.

What types of IT outsourcing are there?

While choosing the perfect model is important to the success of your IT outsourcing experience, you also need to consider the types of IT outsourcing available based on your location. Depending on where they are located, outsourcing companies offer different outsourcing experiences, which lead to the following types:

• Land outsourcing. Onshoring happens when you outsource IT services to a company or team in your home country. For example, if you live in New York and hire a Chicago outsourcing company, you will be onshore. This is a very convenient type of outsourcing if you do not want cultural and language barriers and want minimal time zone discrepancies. However, this type is often the most expensive and is not always available.
• Nearshore Outsourcing. A nearshore development company is an organization based in a country or region close to your country. For example, if you are in the US, you can find a nearshore company in Latin America. Nearshoring is a great alternative for those looking for minimal cultural and language barriers, similar time zones and competitive costs.
• Offshore outsourcing. Offshoring is probably the best-known type of outsourcing, as it has been around the longest. It basically means that you hire an IT service provider from a distant region or continent. So a company in the US working with a team in India or Ukraine is offshoring its IT needs. The most notable benefit of offshore outsourcing is its lower costs, but there are many challenges to this arrangement, such as potential language and cultural barriers and very different time zones.

Why outsource IT services?

There are many reasons that justify outsourcing IT needs, regardless of the model and type of outsourcing chosen. If you find the right IT outsourcing services company, you can enjoy the following benefits.

• Access to the best technology talent. Any digital acceleration process needs experienced engineers with the right knowledge to handle a wide range of projects. By outsourcing your IT needs, you will open the door to this type of talent because you will have a larger pool of professionals to choose from.
• High quality delivery. Specialized IT professionals can add value at each stage of the process, ensuring that your projects run smoothly and that you achieve the desired results within established deadlines. Reputable outsourcing companies aim to provide high quality at every stage of the project.
• Optimized workload. By outsourcing your IT needs, you free yourself from the burden of having to do everything yourself. This means you will have time to take care of the essence of your business while having your back protected by the best IT professionals in the industry.
• Shorter time to market. Digital acceleration processes are all about speed to respond to ever-fluctuating demands. In this context, having the perfect solutions to meet these changes is essential, which is why outsourcing is a good idea: outsourced IT teams can quickly deal with any project and bring the best results for you moving forward.
• Limited risks. Although IT-related projects always present risks, outsourcing them to a reliable company can drastically reduce them. This is because outsourcing teams can provide flexibility and agility to quickly adapt to new demands while delivering high-quality results.

When to outsource IT services?

While you can use IT outsourcing services any time you wish, there are specific cases where it can quickly provide the competitive advantage and value you are looking for. Some of these cases include the following.

• Talent shortage. If you are having difficulty finding IT professionals with the level of knowledge and experience required for a project, outsourcing is the perfect solution as it gives you access to a global talent pool.
• Hard-to-find papers. Some projects require hyper-specialized professionals that you cannot find in your area or that you do not need on a permanent basis. Outsourcing can help you find them and add them to your in-house team quickly.
• Tight deadlines. Scaling your team at critical phases can be the turning point between a successful project and a disaster. By outsourcing IT, you can quickly add critical roles to your team to accelerate development or tackle growing workloads.
• Problems with ongoing projects. If you are working on a project that is stalled or dead-end, you can find the solution in outsourced services. The right professionals can guide you in different ways to get the project back on track and add more value to the resulting product.
• Budget constraints. IT solutions can be expensive, especially if you keep their development and maintenance in-house. Outsourcing a portion of your IT requirements can help you alleviate costs and stay within your budget margins.

How to Make the Most of IT Outsourcing Services

Outsourcing your IT needs isn't necessarily difficult, but it can present some challenges. You can avoid most potential problems by following these suggestions:

• Define the specific parts of the project you will outsource, as well as the skills required . You need to have a clear understanding of what you are outsourcing and what you need from your outsourcing partner before you start contacting them. Create an outline of your project that includes the type of expertise and technologies you want so you can discuss it further with your potential outsourcing partners.
• Establish your project scope and future scalability. IT projects are rarely a one-size-fits-all affair: they often need upgrades and updates to scale and meet new demands. So, you have to define your starting point and where you imagine the project will go later. This will help the outsourcing service provider to design your IT solutions better.
• Consider your preferred workflow. You will have to take several things into consideration: the outsourcing model you want, the type of outsourcing you need, the type of tools you will use to collaborate with the outsourcing partner, and the overall timeline. Think about your project requirements and analyze your options before researching companies.
• Do thorough research. Finally, try to be as detailed as possible when researching IT outsourcing service providers. Check references and portfolios, read reviews and testimonials, ask for proposals and talk to the companies that seem best suited to you. After all this, balance all factors to reach a final decision.

A gateway to better IT development and management

As you can see in this comprehensive guide, IT outsourcing services may be what you need to finally start your digital acceleration process. These services provide the talent, agility, experience and knowledge to meet all your IT requirements quickly and cost-effectively.

Most importantly, outsourcing your IT needs can put you on par with the rest of the digital businesses. In other words, IT outsourcing services can be the key that opens the door to better IT development and management.