An introduction to Nearshore Software Development

The benefits of outsourcing software development projects have long been recognized by IT firms throughout the U.S. In fact, a?survey?conducted on IT professionals revealed that nearly 48% planned to outsource functions rather than hire full-time staff, this was back in?2012. Since then, the global outsourcing industry has grown to a massive $85.6 billion in 2018, according to?Statistica.

Outsourcing software development – or any project for that matter – has evolved into three main categories: offshoring, nearshoring, and onshoring. In this blog, we look at what nearshoring software development is and why it is superior to other methods of outsourcing.

Nearshore Software Development

In nearshore software development, labor and services are exported to a geographical location that is near to the firm’s origin yet not within its borders. In the case of U.S based companies, it refers to Canada or Latin American countries that are rich in IT talent such as Costa Rica.

For businesses seeking Agile development strategies, user-centric design, easy and fast communication, rapid prototyping, and cooperative development procedures, nearshoring is the way to go.

The following are a few benefits nearshore software development has over offshore options.

Few Cultural and Language Barriers

Latin American universities are known to produce highly skilled IT candidates thanks to robust IT programs. Places such as Costa Rica are known to have an active developer community with annual events such as?hackathons?that highlight bright and upcoming talent.

For most countries in that region, literacy rates are high, and English is the second language making it easy to communicate with foreign developers.

Most importantly, these countries also share a western culture with well-known U.S. American brands, U.S TV shows and music, which have been re-broadcasted to Latin American countries for many years, and even the news is viewed by more people compared to European or Asian sectors.

Shared Time Zones

During the early stages of the outsourcing industry, countries such as China and India were the main hubs for outsourcing software projects; this created many challenges for U.S based firms because of the vast differences in time zones. According to a recent?survey, one-third of U.S firms that outsourced to India considered the 10-hour time difference to be a major challenge.

In contrast, nearby countries such as Costa Rica and Peru are in the same time zone and make collaboration in software development projects much easier.

Nearshore software development has other benefits as well, like including lower project costs, higher quality services, and access to top-notch talent.

Outcoding is a?nearshore software development?firm located in Costa Rica. The company is home to some of the most skilled developers in the area and provides software development services of the highest order.?Contact?us today for more information.