Types of Web Development Outsourcing

IT services have been recently become extremely needed by companies from across different industries and of all sizes. However, it doesn’t mean that there is an IT department in every big or small enterprise. Instead of searching for all necessary experts and hiring a whole bunch of permanent staff, you can simply outsource some services. There are a lot of different types of web development outsourcing, so let’s find out which is suitable for your business.

Outsourcing of services has recently become incredibly popular among entrepreneurs around the globe. Although you cannot completely rely on outsourcing of absolutely all kinds of services, speaking about IT outsourcing can save you sizeable sums of money and amount of time. The experience of American and European companies makes it clear that a proper formalization of all business processes is the initial step towards high-quality outsourcing. This results from the fact that outsourcing can be really beneficial for your company once you make sure that there are no inner changing conditions. When your workflow is well-arranged and your company is ready for hiring a remote dedicated team, you can choose the right type of outsourcing with the help of this article.

Types of outsourcing based upon the fullness of services delivered

One of the simplest classifications of outsourcing services results from the scope of work the customer company delegates to the services provider.

Here, two types of outsourcing can be singled out:

• Partial outsourcing services;
• Full outsourcing services.

By partial services is meant that an outsourcer performs just one or several peculiar tasks. In this case, the service provider team may join the customer’s team or work distantly to accomplish a certain operation. Such service may be represented in a form of a corporate website or application development, SEO/SMM promotion of the client’s website etc.

Once a service provider company performs a complete package of IT services to the client’s company. The client’s company needs a huge scope of peculiar IT services (i.e. system administration, intranet network implementation etc.), and the outsourcer becomes responsible for the whole IT department at the company.

Types of outsourcing services based on the time given

In this classification, everything is fairly simple.

There are:

• Long-term relationships;
• Short-term relationships.

If you order, for instance, corporate website development or some software installation, such procedures usually don’t take much time. So, an outsourcer will establish with you short-term relationships. But projects like system administration can be provided to you for several years.

Types of outsourcing services based on geographical location

According to the location of the services provider in respect to North America and Western

Europe we distinguish:

• Local;
• Nearshore;
• Offshore outsourcers.

It is absolutely clear that local IT companies, for example, in the States can provide local outsourcing services to anyone who’s in need of them. As for nearshore and offshore outsourcing, geography starts to matter. You will find nearshore IT outsourcing companies in Central and Eastern Europe, and offshore IT service providers are mostly located in India and other Asian countries. As a matter of fact, the main difference between these two types lies mostly in the quality of the services delivered. However, you should keep in mind that such division is quite subjective, and this classification is not the most important factor.

Types of outsourcing services based upon the level of involvement

Such classification is one of the most widely used when speaking about IT outsourcing services.

Here we differentiate:

• BPO (Business Process Outsourcing);
• KPO (Knowledge Process Outsourcing).

According to this classification, BPO outsourcing includes a ton of imaginable and unimaginable IT services from data entry and website design to system administration and DTP etc. Speaking about KPO outsourcing services they are notable for deeper and much higher level of the outsourcer’s involvement into the work. KPO services include database development, animation and simulation, data research and analysis and many more. Thus, it is obvious from the names of these services, that KPO is much more complex and sophisticated form of work rather than BPO and demands the participation of exceptional experts in the sphere.

Types of outsourcing services based on the business model

The huge benefit of outsourcing for business is its cost-effectiveness. That is the reason the entrepreneurs from around the globe are searching for a reliable and professional remote team to perform some IT tasks for their companies. Once an entrepreneur finds a perfect contractor, here comes the question what business model of relationships should they establish?

In this classification of outsourcing services based on the business model we differentiate:

• Fixed-Price;
• Time-and-Material;
• Dedicated Team.

In the fixed-price business model, the client provides all the requirements to the project at the very beginning and then pays for the ready-made product when it’s done. Time-and-material model is the most popular here as the client pays only for the hours spent on the team’s work and there’s always a possibility to suggest any changes or corrections to the project development. In case of dedicated team model, the experts from the outsourcing company will join your team to work temporarily on some peculiar project. In this situation, the client’s company will cover all necessary costs of the staff’s work and administration.

Conclusion

You will likely find some more different classifications of outsourcing services on the web. But we tried to reveal the most commonly used typologies in our article to give you an overall review of such form of cooperation. Now, if your company needs some IT tasks completed, you can look through this information and consider which type of outsourcing is the best. Keep in mind that before hiring an outsourcer it is very important to present clearly your needs and requirements for the future product so that you could experience all the benefits of outsourcing to the full extent.