Technology-Watch - Insource or Outsource

by: Simon Hughes
date: Saturday, Jul 4, 2020
category: technology-watch insource outsource

Almost all of the companies I work with have started off by having an MVP built by an external design agency, but usually struggle to get the focus their products require post launch. At this point there are many options that I explore below.

Having had an MVP built by an agency it's sometimes desirable to continue with the agency and develop a long lasting relationship building on the MVP. The issue that most of my clients get is around consistency from the agency. Sometimes we get their best developer and works gets done in double quick time, but more often than not the agency have newer clients they need to impress and their star employees are busy elsewhere. This often leads to a deterioration of the relationship which often leads to the question of what now?

Having not had to employ developers a lot of my clients immediate thoughts turn of offshore or nearshore developers where you pay by the hour. This immediately seems like a great option, but there are pitfalls. My ultimate belief here is if you a technology company then you should be employing technology staff directly. They don't have to work in your office, and in the current climate of covid-19 remote working has been proved by many organsiations to be a viable alternative. The strengths of the offshore model is around scale. You can have no work done for months, and then when you have a chunk of work you can get a number of developers up and running quickly to deliver. But the main issues will always be around the quality of the code that gets produced, and the ability to communicate exactly what it is you require. Not to mention that you always get different staff so they will always be spending a good chunk of time getting familiarised with your codebase.

In case you are in any doubt, if you are running a technology company my preference will always be to directly employ a technology team to deliver your business needs. There is obviously a great cost associated with this, but don't forget about support and maintenance. If your site goes down in the middle of the day you really want your team 100% focussed on getting it back up and running as quickly as possible. If you are 1 of 1,000 clients with an agency then it will be a long queue of sites to be fixed and brought back online.

A permanent employee will always have your best interests at heart. They will be invested in your company, and will feel ownership towards the code. This means they will always go the extra mile to ensure the quality of the code they write is good, as they will be the ones who have to support and maintain it and build on it for the longer term.

Why don't you give me a call and lets discuss how we can recruit and provide a high quality delivery team for you. Feel free to contact me, pick up the phone or drop me an email.