The Nearshore Development trend has been around for a while, and due to the numerous advantages that the outsourcing process offers, many IT and non-IT firms across the globe are actively engaged in outsourcing their software development needs to offshore software development centers. The general decrease in costs connected with outsourcing has been one of the main forces behind this trend. Companies were focusing on cutting expenses during the credit crunch brought on by the global financial crisis, and the offshoring process helped lower overhead and boost the outsourcing company’s bottom line. In other instances, non-IT companies with small or no IT teams also outsource their software development needs because it is frequently prohibitively expensive to develop such software internally. Another common reason for such outsourcing is a company’s lack of experience in the usage of a particular set of software tools or platforms required for the development of one or more apps. These non-IT companies are from a variety of industries, such as banking and financial services, education, healthcare, transportation and logistics, and others. However, each of these industries, and even individual businesses within an industry, needs specific solutions catered to their particular requirements. In order to build the necessary solutions, many firms also adopt a hybrid approach that combines in-house knowledge and outsourcing.
Priorities for Leading Offshore Software Development
According to customer needs, numerous businesses worldwide are currently creating new software goods and applications. In 2012 and beyond, it is anticipated that a sizable amount of software revenue will come from new software development. The demand for businesses to update their current software application by integrating new technologies/modules into their already implemented solutions comes in second place. The integration component is anticipated to advance more in 2012 as new technologies and applications raise the advantages that firms receive from the current solutions. The company’s reduced deployment time and lower development costs as opposed to in-house development are the major advantages of such integration. Users’ increasing demand for these solutions to give an improved user experience is starting to have an impact on the market, which is known as the consumerism of IT (Cot) trend. The focus of many offshore software development companies is anticipated to shift toward using new technology to develop better User Interface (UI) and graphics for solutions that were deployed earlier in the enterprise as the market for solutions that go beyond delivering basic functionality expands in 2012 and beyond. This type of development, which is sometimes referred to as custom software development, is anticipated to rise strongly among offshore development organizations in 2012 as well as in the near future due to an increase in demand across numerous industries.
Performance improvement-based Nearshore Development, as well as the ongoing maintenance and support for current solutions, are additional crucial functional areas for offshore software development operations. The number of performance improvement agreements between organizations and offshore software development companies is anticipated to rise as more businesses implement software solutions to acquire a competitive edge in the fiercely competitive industry. The creation of specialized mobile apps is another area of software development anticipated to experience rapid expansion in 2012. The increasing organizational mobility requirements and the expanding adoption of the BYOD (bring your own device) mindset by businesses is projected to drive the focus on developing apps for mobile to continue in the near future. The creation of cloud applications for business usage and the improvement of security solutions to guarantee superior data security and compliance with all applicable data protection laws are linked areas that are expected to expand in 2012.
Leading Sectors for the Deployment of Software from Offshore Locations
Since there are many different industries that need software generated by offshore centers, the list of potential deployment locations is rather long and is projected to keep expanding in 2012 as new applications become available. However, it is anticipated that in 2012, the top business sector for offshore software developers would be the development of data storage, management, and business intelligence software. Wide-ranging sectors are using these solutions to deal with the explosion of digital data and enable informed decision-making, which is anticipated to drive the market for business intelligence solutions to continue growing. Applications required by the financial and healthcare sectors, as well as solutions deployed for managing processes/projects and applications which are necessary to facilitate enterprise-wide networking and communications, are some other leading deployment areas for software developed at leading offshore locations.