Why you should outsource your development to South Africa
Choosing the best destination to outsource software development is a challenging decision.
The competency of the outsourced development agency and their accompanying processes and project management, will directly affect the success of your project, therefore making the correct decision is vital.
South Africa has become a popular outsourcing place and a truly competitive market for outsourcing development projects.
In this article, we look at various beneficial factors which make South Africa a strong destination to outsource development work.
1. VASTLY EXPERIENCED AS AN OUTSOURCED PARTNER
Many South African based web development agencies have been providing development services to companies abroad, as outsourced partners.
Outsourcing has been a common offering for South African dev houses since the early 2000s, with many overseas companies taking advantage of the quality of work and strong project management.
The regions that have been the most engaged from an outsourced perspective are the United Kingdom, Europe, Scandinavia, The Middle East, North America and Australia.
In truth, outsourcing could be done in any country in the world with today’s advances in technology which streamline communication, project management and collaboration.
Outsourcing has its own challenges, with projects needing to be managed efficiently and communication needing to be on point, to ensure that the clients are aligned with the progress of a project and that deliverables are clear.
Having vast experience as an outsourced country comes with its own benefits and the ability to mitigate the risks from a client’s perspective of working with an offshore development team.
Clients need to know that they can trust the processes and development team to deliver but more importantly have faith and confidence that the project will be delivered on time and according to the agreed upon specifications.
2. ENGLISH FIRST LANGUAGE AND SIMILAR CULTURE
South Africans are first language English speakers. This is tremendously advantageous when we deal with clients who are English speaking.
The development projects that are outsourced to South Africa, are often highly complex, containing many features, lots of custom functionality, a high degree of automation and many process flows.
Grasping the requirements of the client and being able to fully comprehend what the solution needs to entail is key to the success of the project.
Every tiny piece of information related to the project needs to be fully understood in order to know what needs to be built and also to be able to provide alternative solutions and suggestions to the client.
This part is extremely important - as many web development agencies don’t merely want to take instructions but want to challenge them and act as a tech partner. This is achieved by being able to query certain processes and providing innovative solutions to complex problems that the client may not have even considered. This enhances the relationship and makes the end result that much better.
Being able to converse freely, without miscommunication is key to the entire software development life cycle and ultimately benefits all parties.
3. SAME TIMEZONE AS EUROPE
A big focus for South African web development companies is to outsource work to the United Kingdom and to Europe. The big reason for this is due to the timezones being virtually the same.
That’s not to say that outsourcing to different timezones can’t work, in fact that can work very well.
Many development projects, at times, require rapid communication between the client and the development agency. Being in similar time zones is an obvious benefit as the working hours overlap, which allows for the speedy flow of communication.
This benefit is attractive to many clients who are looking for a development partner that they can work with where strong relationships can be fostered.
4. FAVOURABLE EXCHANGE RATES
The South African currency is called “the Rand” or the South African Rand (ZAR) is derived from the Dutch Zuid-Afrikaanse Rand (ZAR). The Rand has fluctuated greatly in recent years, with the currency weakening due to both local and international reasons.
To give you an idea of the weakening, the Rand Dollar exchange rate was at R2.59 to a US Dollar in 1990, in 2000 the rate changed to R6.39 to a US Dollar and more recently the Rand has hit R18 to a US dollar.
This continuous weakening of the Rand has made it attractive for foreign companies to outsource work to South African development companies, as they get more bang for their proverbial buck.
What this means is that foreign companies can get world class web development done at more affordable rates compared to development agencies that are locally based.
However this doesn’t mean that the cost of the work is cheap. The cost is much more affordable compared to first world countries and their respective rates, however, the quality of work is extremely high and therefore is on par with development agencies in these countries but the rates are lower.
5. SOUTH AFRICANS ARE KNOWN FOR THEIR STRONG WORK ETHIC
That’s right! South Africans have a very good reputation for their work ethic and ability to simply get things done.
When it comes to web and mobile development projects, these can be very big and complex, and require the skills of an experienced team. As with any development project, there is always tons of pressure to get the deliverables completed and shipped to market as quickly as possible.
This is where the South African work ethic and ability to get things done to make a difference. Our ability to focus and power through copious amounts of work allows us to have great velocity from a project progress standpoint.
This leads to the projects being done at a fairly rapid pace which allows our clients to launch new features and functionality of their products in a timely manner.
6. QUALITY WORK COMES FROM PASSION
South Africans are a proud and passionate nation. This pride extends to all aspects of life including the work aspect.
We are fixated on producing high quality work that we can be proud of. This level of output is achieved through passionately produced work so that the outcome is one that all stakeholders will be happy with.
Being passionate about our industry and the work we produce has always yielded great results and we believe that when passion, pride and skilled work come together, the end result is highly desirable.
Transparency, trust, and a detailed understanding of the client’s requirements combined with intense focus on excellence rather than average results are some of the qualities that make outsourcing to South Africa beneficial.
7. CAPE TOWN IS THE TECH HUB FOR AFRICA
Cape Town, a city based in South Africa, has a vibrant and highly active tech community. The city boasts a massive Startup scene that has grown rapidly in the last five to ten years. Cape Town is a leading city when it comes to Startups, with a combined tally of over 450 tech firms, from small tech Startup companies to giants, such as Amazon and Takealot to name a few.
The ecosystem in Cape Town is scattered with innovative Startups, accelerators, incubators and investors. More and more companies are moving to Cape Town, which has seen significant growth in terms of foreign investment.
Through the growth and scaling of these Startup companies, Cape Town is well placed to rival top Startup cities, in terms of talent and expertise. Through the vast experience gained by working within the rapidly paced Startup scene, Cape Town development companies are able to produce exceptional work at world class standards.
This makes it another beneficial reason to consider outsourcing development projects to South African and in particular Cape Town based development agencies.
OUTSOURCE TO A SOUTH AFRICAN BASED WEB DEVELOPMENT COMPANY
If you’re a new Startup looking for the ideal team to take your idea and vision into a fully fledged digital product or whether you’re an existing company that needs additional development assistance on projects, we’re here to help.
Elemental has over 15 years of custom development experience as an outsourced partner to companies in the United Kingdom, United States, Europe, Dubai and Australia to name a few countries.
We honed our processes and enhanced our internal systems to be able to work seamlessly with clients that are based abroad, allowing for strong communication and projects to be delivered to a high quality standard.
It’s clear that being based in South Africa has many benefits and attractions to companies that wish to outsource their development work and we’ve refined how we work to make this as efficient and beneficial to clients as possible. More and more foreign companies are turning to South Africa for their development work.
If you’re considering outsourcing your development to South Africa why not contact Elemental to discuss your requirements.
