Time. One of the relevant aspects of software development and IT projects that often determines the success or failure of initiatives. Recognizing this, companies are turning to nearshore development as a solution to streamline their projects and improve productivity.

In this article, we look at how nearshore development can facilitate real-time collaboration and faster turnaround times.

What will you find in this article?

• What is Nearshore Development?
• Facilitating Real-time Collaboration
  • Constant Communication
  • Immediate Issue Resolution
  • Rapid Feedback Loops
  • Shared Project Management Tools
• Faster Turnaround Times
  • Time-to-Market Advantage
  • Flexibility and Scalability
  • Access to Skilled Professionals
  • Lack of Cultural Barriers
  • High-Quality Infrastructure

What is Nearshore Development?

Nearshore development is a business strategy where companies outsource their software development or IT projects to neighboring or nearby countries. The goal is to leverage the advantages of working with teams in close geographical proximity (same time zone or a few hours difference).

For instance, a German-based company may decide to collaborate with a development team in Portugal. The time difference is merely one hour, and both countries are members of the European Union. Additionally, the high level of English proficiency among Portuguese professionals facilitates effective communication and collaboration.

Facilitating Real-time Collaboration

One of the key benefits of nearshore development is the ability to facilitate real-time collaboration between teams in different countries.

Nearshore development teams are strategically located in neighboring or nearby countries to ensure overlapping work hours with their clients. This allows quicker decision-making and immediate issue resolution, while eliminating delays and increasing productivity.

The shared working time creates a seamless collaboration environment, fostering a sense of unity and cooperation that can significantly enhance the project’s success.

Nearshore teams can leverage real-time collaboration in the following ways:

1. Constant Communication

Nearshore development teams offer significant advantages in establishing seamless communication channels and fostering real-time collaboration with clients. They have a strong command of the client’s language and cultural practices, which reduces misunderstandings and facilitates effective communication.

Within our teams, we utilize various communication tools such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, Skype, or Zoom.

Nearshore teams can easily coordinate meetings, brainstorming sessions, and workshops during overlapping work hours. This enables team members to actively engage in discussions, share ideas, and make collective decisions.

2. Immediate Issue Resolution

With real-time collaboration, nearshore teams can address issues as they arise, reducing response times and minimizing delays. This ensures that potential roadblocks are swiftly identified and resolved, keeping the project on track.

3. Rapid Feedback Loops

Regardless of the specific methodology used (such as agile methodologies like Scrum or Kanban), nearshore teams prioritize iterative and incremental development cycles that emphasize regular feedback.

By breaking down projects into smaller tasks and delivering them incrementally, nearshore teams can quickly provide results. This progressive approach enables them to swiftly gather valuable feedback from clients at an early stage of development.

The iterative feedback process has several benefits, such as enabling quick course corrections, avoiding rework in later stages, and accelerating the development timeline. Additionally, it creates a cooperative atmosphere where the team creating the product and the client collaborate to improve it.

4. Shared Project Management Tools

Nearshore development teams and clients typically use shared project management tools or platforms. These tools serve as centralized repositories for project documentation, task tracking, and issue management. They provide real-time visibility into project progress, allowing both parties to stay updated on the latest developments.

Here are some examples of tools our teams use:

• Project and Task Management Tools: Trello, Notion, Asana, or Jira.
• Shared document editing: Google Docs or Microsoft Office 365;
• Real-time code collaboration: GitHub or GitLab.
  

Faster Turnaround Times

Nearshore development is a method that helps businesses bring their products to market faster. It involves delivering projects or software solutions in shorter timeframes compared to other outsourcing models. Several factors in nearshore development contribute to faster turnaround times, such as meeting tight deadlines and gaining a competitive edge.

Here are some ways nearshore development can accelerate response times:

1. Time-to-Market Advantage

Time-to-market refers to the time it takes from the inception of an idea or product development to its launch in the market.

By working closely with nearshore development teams, organizations can benefit from efficient communication and collaboration, leading to shorter project cycles. The reduced communication barriers and quicker response times ensure that the development process remains on schedule. As a result, companies can get their products or services to market faster, decrease reaction time to market needs, and take advantage of new opportunities.

2. Flexibility and Scalability

Nearshore development teams can be more flexible in adjusting the team size as per project requirements and timelines. They can quickly scale the team up based on the workload, allowing for faster adaptability to changing project needs. This scalability ensures that the project can progress at an optimal pace without being delayed due to resource constraints.

For example, we have two cooperation models (team extension and full teams). Both cooperation models offer flexibility in scaling the team size. And whenever necessary, our clients can discuss their changing requirements with us, and we’ll work together to adjust the team size accordingly, ensuring minimal disruption to your project.

3. Access to Skilled Professionals

Nearshore development allows businesses to quickly assemble a team of skilled professionals with the required expertise. The proximity of the nearshore location means that the hiring process can be expedited, and teams can be set up more swiftly. This quick resource allocation enables the project to start promptly, reducing delays in the development process.

4. Lack of Cultural Barriers

Nearshore development involves partnering with teams from countries that share similar cultural backgrounds, which leads to smoother communication and understanding.

When teams have common cultural aspects like language, communication styles, and work ethics, they can better understand each other’s expectations and requirements. This shared understanding enhances communication channels, minimizes misunderstandings, and enables faster information exchange. As a result, teams can align their goals, exchange feedback, and resolve issues promptly, leading to faster project completion.

5. High-Quality Infrastructure

It’s necessary to have a good infrastructure for a project to run smoothly. Nearshore development locations often boast reliable and advanced IT infrastructure, including high-speed internet connectivity and modern communication tools. This infrastructure enables seamless collaboration, quick file sharing, and efficient remote work.

A reliable infrastructure minimizes technical obstacles and ensures smoother development processes.

Conclusion

As we have witnessed, nearshore development is emerging as a compelling solution for enhancing the quality and efficiency of software development.

Teams located in neighboring or nearby countries can enhance companies’ productivity. This occurs due to the shared working hours, which facilitate constant communication, swift problem resolution, and rapid feedback loops.

It’s no wonder that an increasing number of companies are adopting this work model, recognizing its potential to drive successful outcomes in the dynamic and demanding world of software development.

As the situation continues to unfold, many companies which lack an agile approach, are facing challenges due to the absence of automated or planned processes before covid-19. Factors that are now essential for companies to continue the path towards digital conversion and automation of their processes. However, this also created a unique opportunity for organizations to build better systems to protect against similar situations. Naturally, the unforeseen crisis has brought challenges, but not without its improvements.

In the beginning, most companies were facing hurdles in adjusting to a work from a home plan, partly due to their new introduction to an unknown work methodology, and the demands that came with it. However, the IT outsourcing industry has always succeeded in remote work. Despite the pandemic, IT outsourcing proved to be capable of continuing its software development services despite a completely remote scenario, and this was especially true for the Nearshore Portugal team who continued to support and work together with customers despite the lockdown.

Nearshore IT Outsourcing – The Aftermath

Now, more than ever, the need for an experienced and qualified Nearshore partner is critical as it offers the ability to maintain a high level of control even amid an unforeseen and critical situation. Although Nearshore IT outsourcing delivers key advantages, such as quick travels, greater team engagement, and cultural similarities, one of its major benefits focuses on communication.

At Nearshore Portugal, we know that strong relationships are essential. One thing that was set clear during the pandemic is that well-founded and kept relationships between clients and service providers are a must, especially during a crisis. For Nearshore Portugal, this meant having a well-prepared communications plan with our clients in place before a lockdown, ensuring the continuity of projects, meetings, development, and delivery.

As in any business relationship, communication is key but being available to set your clients’ minds at ease and answering questions is only half the battle. Providers need to have a plan of action for unforeseen situations. Nearshoring is the ace in the whole of outsourcing, and the right nearshore partner can lead to an efficient outsourcing relationship, a mutually beneficial two-way street. After all, outsourcing is about increasing the efficiency of your organization, and for outsourcing partners that provide talent, this means protecting what values the most: people.

New Priorities!

The future of outsourcing will bring a new age of connectivity with a much needed cultural shift. In a way, the pandemic has encouraged action that was already taking place — digital transformation. From night to day, workers from across the globe began working from home and this sparked a critical question: How can we, collectively, guarantee employee health?

A survey performed by Qualtrics in April 2020 found that 44.4% of newly remote workers have stated that their mental health had declined since the outbreak of the pandemic.

The solution to this problem won’t be as simple as returning to the office but rather to how to support people, and this will be a determining factor for talent retention. Companies need to develop wellness support programs to create steps to ascertain employees’ health. At Nearshore Portugal our team is our biggest asset, and we are committed to ensuring each employee health by:

• Providing all members of our team with wellness benefits;
• Implementing steps to guarantee a workspace where employees feel safe,

The Big Picture

Nearshore outsourcing is driving digital transformation, a necessity for businesses of all sizes. Although outsourcing models such as offshoring have advantages, nearshoring has the capabilities of quickly and reactively responding to sudden changes due to its strong communication-based model which, due to the similar time zones with external teams, allows for higher levels of engagement and responsiveness.

The coronavirus phenomenon has shown how seamless communication is critical for a robust partnership that, among many, protects organizations from what lies beyond the horizon, unseen. Regardless of what is to come, one thing is certain, companies need to protect their people.

In a year marked by change, highly-qualified professionals will continue to be a regular, and a sought-after resource. As hiring picks up, companies that fail to invest in their people’s wellbeing will struggle to retain these key professionals. For outsourcing companies who decide to start a new year focused on investing in their talent pool, they won’t just be setting a new standard, they’ll be leading it!

If you liked this article, don’t get to check out: The Future of Office Work: Is it Finished?

Get to know more about us!

In the context of nearshore outsourcing, it’s clear its effectiveness in enhancing collaboration, scalability, and performance. Every day, organizations struggle to optimize their operations to gain faster development cycles. Otherwise, they risk losing ground to a competitor due to a lack of specialized talent. Working with someone who can deliver what you need is rare. Luckily, there’s a solution. We call it Nearshore Portugal!

How can nearshore outsourcing improve your time to market? This is what you need to know!

From the top

In a competitive market, organizations should focus on reducing their time to market. This means decreasing as much as possible the duration between developing the product and putting it on the market. Businesses that become faster and more responsive to customers’ needs and demands can quickly become ahead of their competitors and evolve to top leaders.

In order to achieve this, changes must be made and new procedures acquired. It all comes down to a collaboration methodology. In other words, workflow efficiency. An optimized approach that becomes a time to market accelerator and this is how!

Communication Experts

As in any business, especially in the IT industry, staying agile is a must. In other words, communication is crucial for agile software development. This means being accessible whenever you need your team at any given moment of the workday so if potential issues or unforeseen adjustments happen, it can be dealt with immediately. In contrast, this isn’t possible with offshoring.

If your team is based in India and you’re in Germany, there is a big-time zone difference that will compromise communications, schedules, and team efficiency. Offshore doesn’t just compromise any type of Agile principles, it eliminates them altogether.

Of course, an Agile approach doesn’t exclusively focus on improving collaboration. It allows for faster and efficient work methodologies. With Agile, QA and developers test the software at various stages of project development instead of at the end of the project while building new features and testing. Naturally, this is massively improved when there are expertise and a shared time zone. Plus, increased efficiency means less need for resources which equals less investment.

As you might have guessed, all of this decreases delays and improves time to market.

At Nearshore Portugal, we work with organizations across Europe. This gives us a strong cultural understanding of the many enterprises we work with. Allowing us to deliver a custom-made approach to nearshore solutions. More than delivering the talent you need, we focus on augmenting your in-house IT staff. Through specialized developers experienced in the agile way, filling the skills gap in your team. Thus, resulting in greater performance and, once again, faster time to market.

The new Outsourcing

Although outsourcing throughout the years has been about lowering costs, not all providers shifted to new practices. More than just cost-saving, we believe in combining improved processes, augmenting capabilities that only the nearshore approach can deliver. As your partner, beyond being handed tasks or requirements from customers, our approach is about finding a team that works effectively as an extension of your own in-house IT staff. In other words, we don’t just focus on talent, we find the right people for your project. Professionals that combine hard and soft skills needed that adjust to your company culture and goals.

Although no one knows with complete certainty the future of IT outsourcing, some predictions can be made. Better yet, specific tendencies become more visible. With the sudden lockdown across industries due to the COVID-19 pandemic, remote working has shown its many advantages and adaptability. This new adjustment has proven what was already known by many, that remote workers continue to produce at high levels with little disruption, without comprising results, efficiency, and communication. This means customers can gain access to expert developers at competitive rates without having to concern themself with office space, recruitment, and so on.

At the end of the day, the key advantage of nearshore outsourcing is the innovation it can offer. By working with Nearshore Portugal, you’ll gain access to a partner with market experience and the needed knowledge to take your operation to the next level with the support of a seasoned pool of tech talent, fully committed and specialized in the latest technological languages.

If you’re wondering where you can find all your software development, design, cloud, and DevOps needs in one place.. You just did!

Did you like this article? Get to know our Team extension model

Nearshore outsourcing delivers companies with greater performance, faster growth, and a higher response when it comes to time to market. All of this is achievable through specialized talent, and at Nearshore Portugal, as a nearshore development provider, we know all about that. Among the many advantages, the benefits of a similar time zone difference are undoubtedly one of the most well-known assets.

So, is there really that much of a difference in developing projects with a time zone difference?

Agility At Its Best

The Agile methodology plays a crucial role in nearshoring, revolutionizing a company’s efficiency and overall output. With Agile development, developers must work closely together. This means, collaboration with cross-functional teams to continually grasp new knowledge with constant communication. This approach is all about turning the collaboration knob to 11. Making sure there is constant information and feedback between the team and the customer.

Here’s a typical scenario: Imagine you have a team on the other side of the globe, both parties arrange a specific time for a meeting to discuss the project, it’s evolution, and issues. Meetings done, everyone goes home, and the developer from your provider realizes there’s a high probability of disaster concerning a deployment that wasn’t discussed in the meeting. Instinctively, this must be discussed ASAP. Urgent matters of this sort can’t be delayed. Otherwise, the whole process of communication becomes inefficient, and there’s a name for it: Offshoring.

With Agile development, constant communication prevents such situations. Allowing the customer to be well aware of any potential problems, progress, and decisions making needs on the minute. Practically speaking, there’s no beating the efficiency that nearshoring can provide when comparing to the offshore way. 

Nearshore Development More Relevant Than Ever

Organizations worldwide are working at full-speed, preparing for the future economic struggles created by COVID-19. More than ever, companies need to balance their software development projects output, and nearshoring is the solution. According to a study by Statista, 39% of surveyed CIOs and IT executives worldwide expect a decline in their IT budget for 2020 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. On the other hand, 21% expect their IT budget in 2020 to increase, while 40% forecast no change in the IT budget.

These projections force companies to look at their current situation and evaluate what type of outsourcing solution is ideal. Yes, offshoring can be less expensive but will compromise cost-effectiveness in your teams, collaboration, time to market, and potentially increase delays. On the other hand, nearshoring become less costly over time, has competitive rates, provides expert developers experienced in an agile approach, delivering greater performance with one key advantage: a similar time zone. This means a much larger communication window, proximity, reduced expenses, and quicker travels when you decide to visit your providers HQ

Quality Regardless Of Location

Nearshore development companies have top-class developers and engineers with competitive rates as the ones offered by offshoring companies. With over 10 years of experience and 400 IT professionals, Nearshore Portugal provides customers with seasoned and expert professionals in multiple technologies, experienced in nearshore projects across Europe. Furthermore, Nearshore teams have little cultural barriers. What makes these experts so efficient and adaptable is precisely their different backgrounds. This drives better problem solving, increased creativity, innovation, and new solutions. As a result, building optimal software becomes quicker and less troublesome.

This level of innovation and adaptability are essential trades. Especially in current times where businesses worldwide need resilient, yet flexible and focused professionals to deliver results even with unpredictable lockdowns. With remote working common with nearshore developers, an adjustment comes easier as developers are used to remote meetings with a flex-work approach. This is turn, enables these talented individuals to optimize their environment and workflow to the max.

More than ever, ensuring your business is as agile as possible is key. With leading talent and an experienced provider, organizations can guarantee they project continuity with access to specialized developers.

Is your organization looking for greater innovation and support? We provide a Team Extension, End-To-End Teams, and Project Development services.

Get to know more about our methods at

https://nearshoreportugal.com/how-it-works/

Contact us at info@nearshoreportugal.com, we’re eager to hear from you!

When it comes to adding specific tech talent to your existing in-house IT team, the team extension model has become the first choice for my companies. However, some companies choose a “Do It Yourself”. An approach that can become costly since the talent they seek, in general cases, has specific skills. In other words, it takes time and effort to find these people. A process that can become costly, even more, if the company doesn’t have a dedicated team of tech recruiters.

So, what can you do if you need to add new people to your existing team of developers but you don’t want to deal with the extensive hiring process? Nearshore Portugal is the answer!

As a leading company offering Nearshore development services, we focus on finding the right fit for your business. To achieve this, we’ve developed a successful approach, a business model for companies of all sizes. Nearshore Portugal, as a Nearshore software outsourcing provider, operates a team extension model. Considered one of the most reliable and convenient models when you already have developers in your in-house team.

What is the Team Extension Model?

When planning to work with a Nearshore outsourcing provider, such as Nearshore Portugal, the team extension model is a great way to operate in a more direct and tight business partnership as it enhances productivity and improves communication. In essence, a team extension model focuses on augmenting your in-house IT staff with experienced and specialized developers that fill the skills gap in your team, providing you with greater control over the project.

Once you have at your disposal the desired talent, approved in advance by you through an involvement in the recruitment process, you gain operational control. In other words, the developers become your resources to manage by you, with our support. Although a paid service provided by us, they become part of your company, its culture, methodologies, practices and vision.

At Nearshore Portugal, we optimize this model by creating teams with outstanding tech talent. Developed with the desired know-how and experience needed to surpass challenges, improving your time to market. Through our model based on constant support, advice, and transparency established on open and direct communication, we have become partners of international brands in the forefront of their fields.

Key advantages of the Team Extension Model

Among the benefits mentioned above, by blending your need for seasoned professionals with the talent pool of Nearshore Portugal, not only will you gain a competitive edge over the competition, but will at the same time acquire several other advantages:

• Allocate responsibilities and tasks as you see fit to enhance team effectiveness;
• Scale your team as needed, with the possibility of additional resources being provided at short notice;
• Members of the extended team work closely with your in-house staff. This enhances the building of your product with the same commitment, while teams share the same responsibilities;
• You define the direction, resources, and schedule;
• Experience faster time to market;
• Gain greater transparency and efficient communication among teams by eliminating the middleman;
• The remote development team will have access to the latest equipment, working from a modern office;

By working with a partner such as Nearshore Portugal with a developed team extension model, you’ll achieve greater speed, productivity and reliability. While at the same time, removing any straining from your internal team of developers.  When it comes to software outsourcing, it all comes down to an experienced Nearshore provider with the right track-record.

So if you’re looking to scale your team in the most efficient way, we would love to hear from you and discuss your project needs via skype!

It also comes down to the seasoned talent and their ability to deliver quality work, regardless of location.

Today, what was once thought as a trend, has become for many companies a logical step, if not the next stage in their business as a way to continue competitive while reducing costs and adjusting to possible unforeseen shifts in the market. Partnering with an experienced partner allows businesses to continue on this beneficial path, gaining access to support and skilled labor. However, when deciding to outsource talent, there’s more than just making sure it’s the right fit for your business. It’s important to have the right tools and mindset to efficiently manage a remote team. Knowing what to do and how to do it is crucial as it’s tied with productivity and delivery.

At Nearshore Portugal, over the years, we’ve learned many things about building and managing remote teams. Whether you have a big business or small, with an abundance of resources or limited access to a talent pool, when it comes to being remote, it’s more than possible to scale your business with the right people and with the right nearshore partner.

How can you manage a remote team? Consider this your go-to guide!

When hiring a remote team, take your time

Time is money, but taking the time to hire the right talent will ensure you don’t waste both. When selecting an individual to join your current team or when choosing specific people to build one, there are plenty of things to take into consideration that you won’t find on a resume.

At Nearshore Portugal, we focus on more than presenting talent. We specialize in building teams that harbor the proper skills, and knowledge to fit your company’s culture and goals. However, as in any business partnership, both parties need to be involved. In this case, that means the hiring process. It’s crucial you take an active part in the interviewing process as a means of getting to know who you’ll be committing to. This is the perfect opportunity to asses each candidate in terms of their personality, work methodology and abilities.

Break down your company and project

Explaining who you are and what’s your vision is important. In this stage, it’s essential to describe in detail who are you as a company, goals, and target audience. Besides explaining why you’re different from the competition or why your business will revolutionize the market, it’s critical to make clear in detail what is your project. This will serve as a great approach in providing understanding, and what will be expected from each member of the team in terms of tasks while also pass an important message: that you are engaged with your team, making sure no doubts are left to clarify, providing from the start a stage where everyone has a voice.

Being part of the company

Although part of your team may be a resource from your outsourcing provider, it’s important to make them feel like they are part of your company. This is even more important for those that are remote workers. Let them know you value their efforts, make sure communication is open and daily. Remember, the teams with the best performance are the ones that are passionate about what they do and feel appreciated for their dedication and hard work.

Provide direction

Even with remote workers, if you have the best talent there is, sometimes giving direction is needed and that’s ok. Providing support will show you’re available to guide and offer a helping hand. It also allows you to strengthen what needs to be done to ensure the workflow follows as expected and is delivered in the agreed deadline. In addition, give your team feedback whenever possible. This will allow them to receive valuable insights regarding their performance and progress, opening a window for further improvement.

Face-to-face communication

With a remote team, face-to-face communication is key. Besides being a great tool for collaboration which enhances communication, it becomes the basis of social and work relationships at a distance. In other words, regular live meetings are a necessity if you’re serious about working with a remote team. Keep in mind that this way communication is also a strategic tool as it turns into a time-savor and an efficiency-booster, allowing you to quickly connect to multiple people at the time, follow-up on each task and ensure each goal is being met.

With a remote team, trust goes a long way

Working with a nearshore team is all about trusting its experience in connecting organizations with the right talent. This means trusting the talent itself. By doing this, you’ll bring several benefits to both your project and your organization. Trust will be the guide for dedication, high levels of performance and motivation

As businesses continue to expand, remote teams will grow as well, becoming a strategy for organizations worldwide. With a virtual team at your side, you will gain a valuable alley focused on your businesses and its growth through experienced professionals from a trusted partner. Their success will be your success and it’s all about setting a foundation of engagement, collaboration, communication, transparency, and clear leadership.

The requirement for experts has increased, and likewise, the number of openings for tech jobs that won’t be filled. Canada, for example, is predicted to have 218,000 tech jobs open by 2020 and they’re not alone, the U.S market is expected to follow in giant figures as well. This drives companies offshore to countries like India too, as expected, to keep up with development needs. The reason for offshoring software is all about meeting affordable necessities with knowledge and expertise. However, there’s a but: the Agile way does not work for offshoring.

Traditional Offshoring challenges

With Agile development, developers must, unsurprisingly, work together. This means, collaboration with cross-functional teams to continually grasp new knowledge through client feedback, delivering new code that can be tested regularly. This is used to increase the speed at which the company can test hypotheses concerning the client’s wants and needs without wasting precious time or above effort. At the end of the line, engineers will present a minimum viable product, testing it to determine if it works. Providing feedback from clients until all potential issues are gone before the product hits the market. Unfortunately, due to the traditional offshoring software model, part of the flexibility and iteration speed becomes difficult to achieve.

Using the offshoring model presents itself with some issues. A company in the United Kingdom and its outsourcing partner in Finland may only a bit more than a couple of hours to solve issues, discuss future needs, and organize their work. This leads to less time for team members to communicate. Resulting in an extra effort when it comes to communicating, with only two options: or very early or very late.

One way to tackle this passes by the Canadian team producing documents with detailed instructions and recommendations that the Spanish team can read before the work starts. Still, this may pose another problem. Besides reducing real-time meetings, it can add complexity to the overall task since the risk for different interpretation exists.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Nearshoring!

Companies far and wide are realizing the impact of an agile environment and how outsourcing software must walk hand in hand with the agile way. The answer has increasingly become a nearshore approach, which provides several advantages, in this case, similar time-zones are crucial.

Top tip: If you want to know more about key nearshore benefits, take a look at our article Nearshore vs. Offshore: Why Nearshore is the best option!

By applying a nearshore model, developers from the U.K have the possibility to partner with a foreign development team in a country set in the same time-zone, such as Portugal. Providing a more efficient and increased means for communications. With the nearshore model, you’ll have the benefits of a talented workforce. That is to say proficient and different languages, mainly in English, in a country classified as one of the safest in the world with the ideal technological infrastructures, technical quality, and attractive costs.

Offshoring will always be the first choice for many companies. However, in the near future, those who will lead the market will be nearshore companies. Resulting in the optimal choice for cost and reliability, providing speed-to-market and a functional agile approach

Even though nearshore IT is beneficial, the question stands: in what way can nearshoring support the challenges faced by businesses?

New technology is constantly being developed, which translates into the need of having the time to learn it, apply it, and ultimately, master it. However, realistically, it’s not always easy to learn new technology. Besides the reduced availability to train your in-house team, it isn’t feasible to assume that your team has expertise in every area of demand. When it comes to adapting to new technologies, organizations face three challenges. Once grasped, what was a challenge will soon become a path for an opportunity.

Grasping the new technology

Let’s face it, with so many rising technologies coming into the market, it’s difficult to stay up-to-date with every new thing. As said previously, it’s not viable to expect your team to implement flawlessly a “just on the market” technology. So, what can you do? On one hand, you need to keep up with competitors and above all, innovate to keep delivering the best service. On the other hand, there’s the need to start applying this new tech in projects. The answer is nearshore IT provider but not just any provider. What you need is an experienced partner that executes the best practices, as we explained in our article: The value of the right nearshore IT team.

A nearshore team comprises a seasoned group of people that understands your needs, your costumers, and the technology. Partnering with nearshore experts means you’ll reduce your costs since you’ll be outsourcing. Thus, avoiding re-training your in-house team, as well as buying licenses, hardware, and overall, ensuring you have the needed infrastructures. Ultimately, it’s less time and less money spent, all thanks to a team that knows the tech and the paths.

Acquiring top-notch talent

Finding the best talent for your project is a must. Be that as it may, with so many headhunters and companies with above-average competitive rates and benefits, hiring an individual with the right skill set can be a very difficult task and an expensive one as well. IT outsourcing companies such as Nearshore Portugal have seasoned specialists and teams, experienced in providing the ideal solution for businesses. These teams can benefit organizations tremendously through their innovative thinking and understanding of technologies, problem-solving skills, and forward-thinking, providing an advantage. As a plus, it is less costly to acquire talent from an outsourcer than to hire one since you may only need an expert for a specific period of time.

Budget discipline

At one stage or another, the speed that a company needs to grow can achieve maximum levels. This, in turn, can make the costs of training your in-house team an expensive operation due to the rapid growth. Keep in mind, there is no guarantee that your team can master all the necessary knowledge at the required speed. As we know speed plays a major role in any project. Usually, companies have a set budget for a project which may not be viable to keep due to the speed vs learning time of the in-house IT staff. How can you tackle this issue? Nearshore IT experts are all about adapting to a time-frame and a budget while still providing the same support. You’ll still get the A-team or expert you need while matching your requirements.

In short, nearshore IT supports businesses through experts, experienced in the technological requirements of organizations, and ultimately, a dedicated partnership. Providing a service-based on innovation and the future. Working closely with companies such as Nearshore Portugal translates into a wide range of professionals for all tech necessities, resulting in a booming business.

Outsourcing is the name of the game and picking the right partner to help your business grow is crucial. Yet, there is more than just choosing the ideal ally – you guessed it – location, location, location. More than ever, Portugal has shown the world that it’s ready to play the leading role in the world stage and the future looks promising.  However, from north to south and within the potential of all cities, Lisbon is still the center point. So, the question is, why a nearshore Lisbon team?

Portugal has become a tech hub and Lisbon is the doorway. This is due to the internal and external investment, the start-up blowout, attention from big-name companies and the relocation from the web summit, which provided major growth and media attention.

Getting to know Portugal

Lisbon is just one of the many cities in Portugal where you’ll find an assembly of highly skilled labor. According to the IMD World Talent Ranking 2018 Portugal is ranked 17th above countries such as New Zealand (20th), Ireland (21st), United Kingdom (23tr) France (25th), Spain (31st), Poland (38th) or Ukraine (48th). Many professionals are moving to Lisbon caused by the events earlier described. This in turn makes Lisbon even more into a multicultural city. Making it an ideal location for any company searching for outsourcing solutions.

However, other factors are equally important. Specifically, social and political stability, diversity of talent, and safety, being Portugal the 4th safest country in the world. In other words, any company can find the tools needed and we at Nearshore Portugal know it. After all, we are all about talent.

Key advantages

If you’re still not sure about a nearshore Lisbon team, there are other factors to consider. Portugal is known for being very cost-efficient when compared to other countries. If you want to optimize your business, you should choose a nearshore destination such as Lisbon which guarantees a healthy cost of living. Of course, technological infrastructures are equally important, both in telecommunications (broadband, fiber optics) and data centers, for the storage of large volumes of data and applications and Portugal does not disappoint. Lastly, language.

Portugal is one of the most multilingual European countries and has a big number of English speakers. Plus, the Portuguese people are known for having great knowledge and adaptability to other European markets and cultures. What does all of this mean you ask?

By deciding to outsource, you’ll have at your disposal plenty of options. By choosing the nearshore Lisbon strategy you’ll be able to take advantage of an attractive city, placed in a well-known country, with the same time zones as other European cities. In addition, your operation will be open to key professionals. Talent focused specifics skills and growth, and more importantly, the future, and we at Nearshore Portugal are the gateway to outsourcing solutions!

For the longest time, nearshore has had to deal with several myths based on misconceptions. This in turn results in a negative idea of what it really is about and its overall benefits. Due to these misbeliefs, many companies don’t see the advantages that providers bring to the table. For that reason, we’re debunking some common nearshore myths. Today, we bring to light the truth about this outsourcing model!

Nearshore software providers are less reliable

In the IT industry, reliability plays a major role, if not the most valuable feature sought-after and outsourcing providers have, from time to time, to deal with this statement that questions their dependableness. When it comes to nearshore myths, reliability has nothing to do about the type of outsourcing solution, geographic location, size of the software company or the number of employees. The truth is this: a nearshore provider with reliable developers and management is more reliable than others. It’s as straightforward as that.

Nearshoring is based on miscommunication

There is a common misconception concerning the language barriers that could possibly come up. Unlike popular belief, nearshore teams are proficient in English. In Portugal, 60% of the population speaks at least one foreign language so communication isn’t a problem, thanks to the highly skilled workforce. In addition, Portugal is close to many key European countries, having a great understanding of their cultural structure, enabling a more efficient and less complicated iteration.

At Nearshore Portugal, for many years we have built a model focused on the development of international projects, set on top tech talent, skilled on current technologies, and more importantly, with clear lines of communication. Regardless of what you seek, vetting your future provider is a must, playing an important role in the future health of your operation. How do you filter the good from the great? Find out what to look for in our article The value of the right Nearshore Team!

Remote teams slow down delivery

No matter the business, communications are an integral part of any endeavor. Yet, remote teams are capable of more efficient means of communication than on-premises teams. Remote collaboration tools such as Slack result in less time spent on meetings, and overall processes. In addition, there is no time spent on commuting, resulting in less consuming tasks and costs to workers. Essentially, remote teams follow a clear collaboration methodology focused on communications. This means daily meetings, constant updates on work, progress, and overall feedback. This method allows clients to be completely aware of how the project is developing minute-by-minute, thanks to the similar time-zones.

Local talent is better

Once again, this is another nearshore myth that has spread. Location doesn’t guarantee you’ll have the best talent, that can only be determined by valuable qualities such as knowledge, ability, and overall commitment to developing the best work possible. There is a shortage of tech talent all over and more than ever, developers are in high demand. As a result, many companies are hiring within their area which won’t guarantee the skilled workforce they are looking for. In fact, it’s possible you will find a more expensive developer in your city than with an outsourcing provider.

Despite the many nearshore myths out there, we hope we’ve clearered up the top misbelieves, contributing to a more understandable representation of what nearshore outsourcing is all about!