4 Reasons to Outsource Large IT Projects During Economic Headwinds

Large IT projects are hard to execute, particularly when in-house staff are often pulled into their day jobs and distracted by other priorities. This can be costly for organizations. In fact, McKinsey suggests that early cost and schedule overruns can cause projects to cost twice as much as anticipated. One common resolution to this challenge is for companies to seek outside support to ensure success. 

There are four critical ways that outside support can make a difference.

1. Rapid talent aggregation

One of the most challenging aspects of software engineering in today’s environment is assembling quality talent. CIO magazine identifies the top 10 most in-demand tech jobs and says that 86% of technology managers say it’s challenging to find skilled professionals. If your current team does not have the capacity or skills to tackle the required project, consider an outsourced partner.

The right partner can bring a team of highly skilled engineers together in a matter of days or weeks, allowing you to accelerate development and deliver your key projects in a timely fashion. Key talent can be added and removed from projects as needed. Selected properly, your outsourced provider will have a group of tried and tested experts with deep knowledge of the chosen tech stack and therefore can iterate and compose much faster.  

• Developer velocity 

Time to market is critical for the success of any project, particularly when it impacts revenue. Therefore, IT projects must be scoped, ramped, and run expeditiously in order to take advantage of market dynamics. 

In an in-depth study of 440 large enterprises, McKinsey identified the most critical factors that enabled organizations to achieve high developer velocity. Four key areas have the greatest impact on software development performance: tools, culture, product management and talent management. The study revealed those with higher developer velocity outperform competitors by up to five times. 

When selecting an outsourcer, validate what tools and project management structure they will bring to the table; validate past project success in terms of both budget and on-time delivery. Inspect project plans to ensure it includes full and rigorous testing, especially around security, full quality assurance, and performance optimization. 

A project outsourced to an established applications platform provider with dedicated experts, like Edgio, will include rigorous testing and rollout plans, full quality assurance, and performance optimization—ensuring that your investment ultimately delivers peak efficiency for your customers and your business.

• Knowledge sharing

Great professional services teams accumulate best practices over time and will bring complementary skill sets into the business they’re partnering with. Shared knowledge helps grow the skillset of your internal team, and enables them to contribute more meaningfully to the success of your business.

Your employee satisfaction can even increase from personal and professional progress felt when learning new technology, frameworks, or languages throughout major IT projects developed in partnership with external experts. 

This aspect cannot be overlooked, given that 91% of employees report being frustrated with inadequate workplace technology and 71% consider looking for a new employer as a consequence. Expert teams have the depth of knowledge on a breadth of tools that help save tremendous time and many headaches by creating ​efficient, automated workflows. 

Ensure that your team gets the opportunity to work directly with your outsourced development team to facilitate knowledge sharing.

4. Faster deployment cadence

Companies integrating software development with IT operations are seeing increased productivity and 83% faster releases. We’ve personally seen deployment cadences double through the use of Edgio’s integrated workflow for web application deployment. 

Leveraging experts who start on day one with automated deployment and testing, standardized processes, and improved development and operations communication can bring releases to market faster. Enable your team to innovate more and wait for code less. 

To outsource or not to outsource?

Large projects can take a significant toll on an organization if they are not managed properly. To be effective and efficient, project teams need a common vision, shared team processes, and a high-performance culture.

If you’re asking yourself the following questions, consider hiring a team of experts: 

• What architecture do we need to support a next-generation operating model?
• How can we rapidly build, scale and sustain a cutting edge customer-centric tech stack?
• What technologies, frameworks, or API integrations provide a high-quality experience? 
• How do we create the most secure workflow for fast releases and updates?

At first glance, outsourcing can seem an expensive option. However, I advise businesses considering software development outsourcing to think long-term. The right team will minimize costs and bring more value by delivering a better product quicker with a more robust and flexible IT architecture, and will ultimately generate significant ROI.

Edgio accelerates your web development and application performance. Learn more about Edgio and our expert services.