Recently, I connected to a prospective client on LinkedIn, and he shared some concerns:
“I was referred to you by a friend who has worked with Mindfire and highly recommended your services. I was impressed by the technical competence of my emails and discussion with your group. However, (and I’m sure you know this), I have been “warned” by people in the SaaS business I know over here, that subcontracting to some offshore firms can be “a nightmare” and that work, though much less expensive, can take three or four times as long. Some even say the quality of the coding is poor.”
This summarized some top points of apprehension for anyone about to start a relationship for off-shore software development. All 3 problems and points of apprehension are true in general, but at Mindfire we have these points covered . Although working with us is the only way to get a real impression of things, let me share thoughts about these as they relate to Mindfire.
1. Quality of code is poor: yes, in many cases.
Most IT/software companies in India do everything – from programming to design to graphics to SEO to data-entry to marketing and so on. You cannot be the best at everything. Often you end up being mediocre in each. We do only one thing – “off-shore small-team software development” – and we do it very well. Starting from hiring to testing to reviews to environment to training to culture, we are focused on being the rock-stars of software development – only.
2. Takes longer: yes, in many cases.
Sometimes it is due to incompetence (related to first point above) and sometimes it is intentional over-reporting for financial reasons. We have neither problem. Money has never been a driver – we want to earn with pride and only want money that we deserve. We have been around for 13 years now and want to be around for much more than that – you cannot violate Truth and Integrity, and last that long.
3. A nightmare: yes, in many cases.
Sometimes it is due to communication issues, sometimes it is due to clients expecting magical solutions to unexpressed desires (our people may weave technical magic, but no other types!). Sometimes it is due to lack of mutual respect, sometimes it is due to plain old incompetence or inexperience. In any case, we offer a pleasant experience to our clients. We have selfish reasons – when our clients can relax about work, they can focus more on growing their business, which will create more work for us! When you are focused on the long run, things are quite simple actually.
This small exchange has not touched upon even more issues in off-shore software development! Those related to communication, culture, engineering replication, understanding, attrition – the list goes on.
It is sad to have to accept these points, but often they are, indeed, true. At Mindfire, we are building an organization that accepts and addresses problems in off-shore software development, rather than denying problems. Every day we find ways of doing things better, and each of them adds up.
Author – Chinmoy Panda