A UK software company or an offshore development team?
An offshore development team can do excellent work, often for less money than a UK supplier. The differences worth weighing are the working hours you share, the law your contract falls under and how handover and continuity are arranged.
| Aspect | An offshore development team | A software company |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Usually lower for the same amount of development time, sometimes by a wide margin. This is the main reason businesses look offshore, and it is a sound one. | Usually higher for each day of work. Defined work is priced as a fixed sum against a written scope, so the total is known before work starts. |
| Shared working hours | It depends on the location. Some teams share most of the UK working day and others an hour or two, in which case a question may wait until the next day. Many offshore firms adjust their hours for UK clients. | A UK supplier generally keeps UK office hours, so calls and questions fall within your working day. |
| Contract and jurisdiction | The contract may be governed by the law of another country, and enforcing it from the UK can be slow and costly. Some offshore firms contract through a UK company, which changes this. Check, and take legal advice. | The contract is with a UK company, which is usually simpler to rely on if something goes wrong. Read the governing-law clause in any contract, whoever it is with. |
| Communication | Many offshore teams communicate well and run projects in a disciplined way. Detail is more easily lost where requirements pass through an account manager before they reach the developers. | Familiarity with UK business practice helps where the requirements are subtle. A UK supplier can put layers between you and the developers too, so ask who you will speak to. |
| Personal data | If the team will see personal data, UK data protection law sets conditions on sending it abroad. They can often be met, but they must be dealt with in the contract. Take advice. | A UK supplier is itself subject to UK data protection law. Still ask where the people who will see your data are based, and get the answer in writing. |
| Scale and range of skills | Larger offshore firms can supply many developers at short notice and cover a wide range of technologies. | A small UK company has fewer people and a narrower range. CodeFirst works mostly with Microsoft technology. |
| How the work is priced | Often time and materials, with a team billed by the month. Some firms offer fixed-price work. | A fixed price for defined work, and a monthly plan for the care of an existing system. |
| Handover and continuity | It varies by firm. Ask whether the same people will stay on your system, how knowledge is recorded and what you receive if the arrangement ends. | It varies by firm here too, so ask the same questions. With CodeFirst the client owns the code, the accounts and the documentation, kept in a state another team could pick up. |
An offshore development team is the better choice when
- You need a large amount of development done, and the budget would not stretch to it at UK prices.
- You have a technical lead in-house who can write detailed specifications, review code and manage a remote team.
- The work is well defined and can be handed over in writing without daily discussion.
- You need several developers quickly, or skills in a technology that few UK firms offer.
- You have worked with the team before and trust it.
A software company is the better choice when
- The requirements are still forming and need frequent conversation during your working day.
- Nobody in the business can review technical work, so you rely on the supplier to answer for the result.
- The system handles personal or commercially sensitive data, and you want the supplier itself to be subject to UK law.
- You want a fixed price, agreed acceptance checks and a contract you could enforce in the UK if you had to.
- The work is the takeover and care of an existing system, where continuity over years matters more than the cost of a day.
What usually decides it
Whether you can specify and check the work yourself. Offshore development works best for a client with its own technical lead: someone who writes precise specifications and reviews the code that comes back. Businesses in that position often get very good value. A business without that person relies on the supplier’s account of its own work, and distance makes that harder to test.
How settled the requirements are. Work that is clearly written down can be handed over and done outside your working day, which is an advantage. Work that is still being worked out needs conversation, and conversation needs shared hours. With an hour or two of overlap, a question asked in the afternoon is often answered the next morning.
What the contract gives you. Read which country’s law governs the agreement and where a dispute would be heard. A contract that is hard to enforce still has value, since most suppliers care about their reputation, but it changes what you can do if things go wrong. This is a matter for legal advice, as is any transfer of personal data outside the UK.
Questions for any supplier, wherever it is based
Location is a poor guide on its own. A UK company may use developers abroad, and an offshore firm may have a UK office and offer a UK contract. Ask each supplier directly:
- Who will do the work, where they are based and whether the same people will stay on it.
- Who you will speak to day to day, and during which hours.
- Who owns the code, and whether it will sit in a repository you control from the first day.
- What you receive if the arrangement ends: the code, the documentation, the credentials and a handover.
A middle route
A nearshore team. A supplier in a country within an hour or two of UK time usually costs less than a UK company and shares most of the working day.
An independent check. If you use an offshore team and have nobody technical in-house, a periodic review by a third party gives you a view of the work that does not come from the supplier. A code audit does this, and also tells you whether you hold everything needed to move the system elsewhere.
If a project is already in difficulty, with any supplier, our page on software project rescue describes how we assess what exists before recommending whether to finish it.
Questions we are asked
Is offshore development lower in quality?
Not as a rule. Quality depends on the firm and the people, wherever they are. There are excellent offshore teams and poor UK ones. What differs is how easily you can check the work and act if something goes wrong.
How much cheaper is offshore development?
It varies with the country, the firm and the seniority of the people, so we do not quote a figure. Compare the cost of the whole project, including the time your own staff spend specifying and checking the work, and not daily rates alone.
Does CodeFirst take over systems built by an offshore team?
Yes. Where the code was written makes no difference to the method. We start with an assessment that establishes whether the system can be built from its source code, released in a controlled way and restored from a backup. Our work is mostly on Microsoft technology, so we confirm what the system is built with first.
What should we check before signing with any supplier, UK or offshore?
Who owns the code and where it is kept, which country's law governs the contract, where personal data will be handled, who you will speak to day to day and what you receive if the arrangement ends. Take legal advice on the contract itself.
Not sure which suits you?
Tell us about the system and what you need done. If one of the alternatives is the better fit, we will say so.