Hiring a nearshore software development team to help you tackle an IT project is both time and cost-effective. It allows your internal staff to focus on delivering core business instead of diluting their efforts across several projects. In fact, by working with nearshore developers instead of hiring a dedicated in-house resource, you could save up to 50% on your development costs and get your products to market twice as fast.

But you will only reap the benefits of nearshoring if you bring the right team of experts on board and implement a set of best practices to get the most out of the cooperation. In this article, we cover five of our top tips for finding the best nearshore development company for your project and working with an outsourcing partner in a way that yields the most value.

Nearshore vs offshore: What’s the difference?

First, let’s start by defining what a nearshore development team is versus an offshore model.

Businesses sometimes hire offshore development services located in far-off countries as a means of reducing their development spend since this model tends to offer some of the biggest cost savings.

But, while an offshore team does save you time and money, it lacks a certain amount of control. Partnering with a nearshore development company – located close enough to overcome time zone differences or cultural barriers and engage in on-site visits – offers a middle ground where you can benefit from cost-efficiency without sacrificing quality. Here are our top 5 pieces of advice to help you pick the right nearshore partner.

Five things to consider before you hire a nearshore software development team

1. Define a clear set of objectives for outsourcing your project

Before entering into any outsourcing relationship, it’s vital that you comprehensively outline the aims of your project and what you require from your nearshore cooperation. By bringing together all of the project’s stakeholders and drawing up a clear, specific and easy-to-follow set of goals, you will ensure that everyone is in alignment and that your nearshore partner understands exactly what is expected of them.

A good outsourcing partner should also provide you with their expectations regarding where the responsibility for certain tasks sits. For example, at ELEKS, we offer two cooperation models for nearshore software development: a Smart Team and an engineering team, which divide responsibilities slightly differently.

By defining a project’s scope, objectives, and obligations before you choose a nearshore development company, you can be sure that they have the expertise and portfolio required to achieve your vision.

2. Choose a nearshore development team that lives your culture

As obvious as it may sound, bringing the right people on board for your project is fundamental if you’re to succeed in whatever your digital endeavour may be. Nearshore software development teams can help you scale up to meet your specific development goals and plug any skills gaps you might have.

But while highly skilled engineers are essential to any nearshoring service, it’s also crucial that each individual embodies a team-player spirit. A nearshore software development team that understands and can rapidly adopt your internal culture becomes a true extension of your in-house resource, integrating with your team to transfer process and behaviour-change knowledge that will last way beyond the cooperation period.

The right nearshore development team will also be naturally inquisitive and proactive, with a genuine passion for solving complex technical problems.