#Nearshore Outsourcing
We live in a time where remote development is a necessity, rather than a choice. This applies especially to software development teams, be it due to difficulties of hiring onsite or to match the demand of the increasing number of engineers looking for flexibility.
For US companies considering setting up a tech hub in Europe, there’s never been a better time to use the outsourcing model. And there are few better locations than Madrid and Wroclaw to find a development partner for nearshore outsourcing right now.
Software development talent pool in these cities are massive, costs are comparatively low, and software engineers enjoy working for US and UK companies which typically prize tech talent. But building a nearshore development team is not just a route to reducing costs or accessing a wider pool of talent: it can also be a more efficient process than growing your team at home. You not only cut through the hiring process, you also start operating in different time zones; doubling the online availability of your team.
We know it propels software development speed because we’ve done set up fully operational development teams in as little as eight weeks.
Here’s our 5 step guide to building a nearshore software development team in Europe with Zartis as your nearshore partner.
Step 1: Getting to Know You and Scoping the Nearshore Outsourcing Needs
The first thing we’ll do is sit down with you to understand your software development needs, development process, the scale of team you require, the type of software developers you’re looking to hire, and your expectations on what this development team will deliver. We want to make sure we can deliver on our promise to help you hire some of the best engineers available. The first thing we’ll do is establish that Madrid is the right location for your nearshore team, and if we should be widening the search to other locations like Berlin or Wroclaw. We have development centers and various software teams in Madrid and Wroclaw, which are great locations for finding modern software developers sharing cultural similarities in terms of development processes.
It is a candidate-driven market in Europe right now, candidates have a lot of options, and they all want to work for the best companies. And so we want to know what makes your company one of the best, what’s great about your company culture, work ethics, and the technology you’re building. Maybe it’s the fact that you build software that impacts people’s lives. Maybe it’s the fact that you give your software engineers the time to work on special interest projects.
As the primary employer we work hard on keeping an excellent reputation as an outsourcing company but that is not enough on its own, if the developers are not impressed by the software project they would work on. The abundance of tech roles has lead to software developers being picky about the application development process, and development methodologies used in companies. Today, software companies need to adhere to modern software development practices to stay attractive for potential employees.
Step 2: Nearshore Solution Design
Once we are confident that we can help you succeed, we’ll work with you as your outsourcing partner to map out what the project management will look like. From the moment we get the green light, we’ll aim to have your nearshore team set up and running in their own office in six to eight weeks. The key questions to be determined include:
– What you’re offering the software engineers?
– What will the technical testing part of the recruitment process will look like?
– Will there be a final-round interview event where you meet the tech talent in person?
– Who makes the offer, what are the salary levels for your engineers and when are we issuing contracts?
As your nearshoring partner we will take care of all the operational stuff, but we first need to decide on the key elements with your help.
Step 3: Interviews & Hiring the Best Developers
We contact an initial cohort of software engineers and screen them for relevant skills, attitude and cultural fit. From that initial, top-of-funnel pool, we carry out screening interviews with interested applicants. Of these, one third is usually very suitable, motivated, and have the clear communication skills. They will progress to first round interviews.
Remote interviews take place with the hiring manager. By now, we’ve reduced the potential candidate pool to technically skilled candidates who are the right cultural fit, carrying similar work ethics.
Within the interview process, we also issue a technical test, agreed in advance with the client.
Final round interviews take place in Madrid to determine which remaining candidates are the best match. Our clients’ hiring managers normally fly in for these meetings. We manage all coordination and venues.
Aside from the abundance of technical skills offered in countries like Spain, and Poland, one of the major advantages is that candidates are a great cultural fit for companies in the United States, UK, Ireland or other parts of Europe. When we set a nearshore development team, we don’t look at it as offshore outsourcing. Unlike offshore vendors, we’re creating an extension of the client’s development team who will work as full time employees on their software project and be as committed to providing quality software as their in-house software development team. We believe that finding the right cultural fit is just as important as the technical skill set to enable this. Cultural differences, or differences in the development process like a developer’s approach to agile, quality assurance etc. reveal a lot about frictions that may occur in the future among team members.
Step 4: Making Offers
Zartis manages offers, contracts of employment and setting up the new office facility. We can manage the starting dates based on your needs and the candidates availability to make sure you have a successful project launch exactly when you need it.
Step 5: Ongoing Management of the Nearshore Team
Our job is not done once contracts have been signed and the team is set up. We also look after the office facilities – everything from renting the space for the team, purchasing equipment, providing payroll services, making sure that the local health and safety legislation is adhered to, and even that the coffee machine is working. We want to make sure that all the headaches that usually arise from managing a remote development team are taken care of. When you think about your team in Madrid or Poland, we want you to be able to focus on technical productivity, instead of how you have to pay a fine because they didn’t put a fire extinguisher in the office. Working with a nearshore company and using these outsourcing services pays off in quick ROI. We believe there is great value in having a single monthly invoice to cover all of those operational costs and to take care of all the headaches. No hourly rates, no changing agendas and resources, just a dedicated team working towards your business goals and software projects.
You can have the peace of mind of knowing that we can help identify and navigate issues as they arise. The time zone difference is often looked on as a challenge, but we think of it as an advantage – it allows you to go to a position where your software is being built 15 or 16 hours a day. It can take a minute to get used to different collaboration and development methodologies, but there is a tremendous value to any company in doubling the productive hours in a day.
Our goal is to get to a place where your software development team in Europe is an extension of your internal team, and we’re always looking for hacks to make the whole software development process more seamless. One of the great ideas a client in Spain came up was to set up speed dating calls with their counterparts in the US, so they could interact more with one another and enable easy communication.
From those small initiatives, you build trust and rapport around the common cause — which is to build great software products and innovative solutions to push software development further.
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Zartis has deep expertise in large-scale outsourcing projects across different European locations, serving clients in the US, UK, Ireland, Germany, Denmark and Spain. One of our key competencies is helping companies hire entire new software teams, ranging in size based on our client’s software engineering needs.
Email us at sayhello@zartis.com to find out about our nearshore services in more detail. Let’s plan how we can help you build a development team in Europe together!
