The war in eastern Europe has now raged on for over two years. The Middle East is a powder keg starting to explode. Those are hard facts, not possible concerns.
In the past, for organizations in need of ongoing software development services, partnering with 3rd party software engineering organizations in Eastern Europe and the Middle East made perfect sense – i.e. taking advantage of technical talent, readily available resources, at a fraction of the cost of hiring local in-house developers.
However, delegating any strategic responsibility to a 3rd party represents some degree of risk. What if they don’t deliver? Are time zone differences problematic? Are cultural differences an obstacle? Well, on the whole, up until recently most companies typically overcome those basic concerns and perform adequately. But when it comes to the very real possibility that, with little to no warning, they may or may not be available at all, due to circumstances completely out of their control, then that potentially crosses a line of risk that is no longer acceptable.
What do you do if you total your car? You have to get a new car – a new vehicle. Likewise, rather than wait for a crash to adversely impact your software production capability, it would be wise to take proactive action. In this case we’re talking about migrating software production out of potential danger, and at the same time improving productivity.
What is Near-Shoring? It is leveraging software development relationships with partners in the western hemisphere, not the eastern hemisphere, and particularly not in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. In particular, we’re talking about South America, which is, like Europe, loaded with top talent development resources at a fraction of local prices. Plus, the time zone issue is eliminated, and cultural issues are very compatible with the Western mindset.
Naturally, the first thought of someone who has been working with Eastern Europeans and/or Middle East vendors is: We’ve been working with our vendor for years! How can we just switch to anyone else?
The answer is like the old joke: How do you eat an elephant? Answer: One bite at a time.
In this case, it happens in the form of a migration: one project at a time; or one function; or one module, etc. It happens every day. And planned wisely, is not that difficult or painful. And in the end, a very real and major risk is eliminated, and at the same time organizations end up eliminating two other potential negative productivity issues – time zones and culture disconnects.
If you are currently working with a software development vendor in a potentially risky area of the world due to the turmoil of war and potential other conflicts, please realize that you do have other options. Maybe it’s time to seriously consider those other options, a little bit closer to home – before the car is totaled.
For more information, please contact Ensolvers by clicking here.
