Outsourcing is an attractive and cost-effective solution for both large and small companies - it allows you to effectively grow your business, better control your budget, accelerate project execution time, and enables your internal team to fully commit to your company's main goals. In addition, permanent cooperation with a trusted IT partner is a guarantee of data security and support in digital transformation. Currently, one of the most profitable outsourcing destinations is Central and Eastern Europe, led by Poland. Enterprises are left to learn the answer to one question - how much does outsourcing in Poland actually cost?
What is outsourcing?
Outsourcing is nothing more than the use of external resources or services. It consists in delegating some internal tasks to a specialist or a whole team of specialists tailored by the outsourcing partner to the specific needs of the project. The main idea of such a solution is to reduce costs, maximize effects and speed up the implementation of the indicated processes.
How can we support our organization with outsourcing? The options are many and depend primarily on the needs of our business. Outsourcing partners offer several models of cooperation depending on the characteristics of the project - among the most popular we can mention the outsourcing of programmers, which we wrote about in detail in the article: Outsourcing programmers - a flexible way to scale an IT team.
Depending on the specific goal we want to achieve, we can choose to hire a particular specialist for a short period of time - the selected developer will help us close a problematic stage of a larger project without exposing us to delays and additional costs - or start a long-term and comprehensive cooperation with an IT provider. In the case of the second solution, the outsourcing partner will offer us a whole range of services - from audits and testing, to building new solutions, migrating data or improving system productivity by refreshing the code, to taking over the overall management of a particular service - providing our company with continuous development and optimized IT systems.
The most popular models - strategic and selective outsourcing
In the market we can distinguish two main approaches to the use of outsourcing - strategic and selective, also called tactical. Both models have their advantages, and the choice of one of them is closely related to the approach to business development. What is the difference between strategic and selective outsourcing? And what are the benefits of both solutions?
What is strategic outsourcing?
It's a business model that focuses on making the most of all the advantages offered by IT outsourcing. It is based on long-term and comprehensive cooperation with a trusted business partner, and outsourcing itself is one of the key elements of the company's strategy.
You can read about where and how to find a trusted outsourcing partner in our article.
Strategic outsourcing is characterized by a focus on long-term goals and directly affects the company's business model. This solution is primarily chosen by companies determined to achieve digital transformation and focused on gaining a competitive advantage and a strong position in the market. By constantly increasing the scope of tasks outsourced to an outsourcing partner, we can focus on achieving the company's main business goals.
Among other advantages of strategic outsourcing, we can also mention the constant increase in the quality of services offered and the high level of data security. Long-term cooperation with a business partner is also an opportunity to build a relationship based on trust and improve communication. It is also a number of other benefits for both parties. However, it is worth remembering that such an approach also carries certain risks - outsourcing a company's main processes in extreme cases can even lead to the loss of identity of our business.
What is selective outsourcing
With this model, the company uses outsourcing services only for single tasks. The purpose of such outsourcing is primarily to solve specific problems related to the functioning of the company. This model is used most often in the case of a shortage of specialists, insufficient competence of the internal team or lack of access to appropriate tools.
Such a solution allows us to reduce expenses related to recruiting and maintaining an extensive in-house team. It also avoids delays in urgent projects. The main disadvantage of selective outsourcing is the risk hidden in the process of finding an IT provider. In this model, we usually decide on a one-time cooperation - which means that the chosen partner may not live up to the assigned task or compromise the security of our data.
We wrote about the security of working with an IT partner in one of our previous articles.
What does the cost of IT outsourcing depend on?
There are many factors that affect the price of outsourcing. The amount of the cost depends, among other things, on the size of the company, the internal IT infrastructure, the size of the project, the scope of support, the hours of service, and, in the case of software outsourcing, there is also the experience of the specialist hired, the popularity of the technology needed and the start and end dates of the project. For example, the rates of Polish specialists in the DACH market range from 40 to 75 euros net per hour, depending on the level of experience. IT service providers with more integrated business and customer-facing applications tend to be priced higher.
The price of outsourcing is also affected by the billing model we decide on. Among other things, it determines whether we will pay for the implementation of a specific service, or whether we will bill a daily or hourly rate. At the stage of choosing a billing model, it is worth remembering to determine in advance the issue of any additional costs that may arise during the implementation of the service. The appearance of errors or the need to work overtime and night shifts can increase the final price of the outsourcing service. The need for changes or rotations in teams may also expose us to additional costs. All these circumstances should be discussed with the IT provider much earlier.
Only a thorough analysis of all the most important aspects will help us make a preliminary cost estimate. Taking into account the potential benefits of cooperation with an IT provider, we may come to the conclusion that professional outsourcing services are not at all such a big expense that we should not consider them. Outsourcing to external contractors can directly affect our position in the market, the quality of our offerings, and contact and customer service - which will translate into business results. Establishing long-term partnerships opens up even more opportunities.
For example, at Britenet, we start our cooperation with potential long-term partners by using the "small steps" method, which allows us to build a business relationship with the customer. At the beginning, we offer our clients a simple and small service in the form of a solution audit, for example. In this way, our team of specialists gets the opportunity to demonstrate their strengths, while the customer can benefit from a service offered at an attractive price.
Is IT outsourcing in Poland paying off?
Poland is currently among the top of the most attractive destinations for outsourcing IT services - a particularly favorable destination for companies in the DACH (Germany-Austria-Switzerland) region open to nearshoring cooperation. This situation is due to a number of factors. One of them is the favorable price-quality ratio of the services offered. On the other hand, the high quality is influenced, among other things, by access to qualified specialists considered to be among the best not only in Europe, but in the world. Poland is among the top countries with the best developers in the world, while Polish programmers are the best specialists in Java technology and rank high in technologies such as Phyton, Shell and Ruby. Also in favor of Polish IT providers is their extensive experience in working with foreign clients.
We describe more reasons to cooperate with Polish IT providers in the article: Why should Germans cooperate with Polish companies in IT outsourcing?
Summary
IT outsourcing is an attractive solution that can solve specific problems in our company or contribute to significant business growth and strengthen our position in the market. Taking into account the future benefits of using outsourcing services, this solution proves to be a tempting possibility very often worth the price. Determining how much outsourcing may cost us is not a simple task - as too many factors influence the price. It will be much easier to get an answer to this question if we carefully define our needs, determine the specifics of the project, choose the optimal billing model and the budget we have at our disposal. Certainly the search for an attractive outsourcing partner should begin on the rapidly growing Polish IT market.
