The competition in the market is intense. For success, we need to launch digital products faster and lower expenses. Businesses seek to decrease the cost of hiring, which is high in developed countries. In addition, finding a niche expert for the software development project may be a challenging task.
Therefore, a company from Northern America or Western Europe would want to outsource software development. A popular option is to set up an offshore development centre in Asia, Latin America, or Eastern Europe. The thriving IT sector has made Poland one of the top IT outsourcing destinations in the world.
S-PRO is one of the companies that conduct software development in Poland. We attract clients from the EU, US, UK, and other countries. They choose us due to our high level of expertise, devotion, and innovative approach. In this article, we would like to share the peculiarities of applying the offshore development center model in Poland from our experience.
Why Does Your Business Need an Offshore Development Centre
An offshore development centre is a physical office opened by a company in any distant country beyond the country of origin. The companies do it to augment their capabilities for software development, cybersecurity, and other operations.
Setting up an offshore development centre is pretty similar to opening a branch in a new location. However, delegating software development to an outsourcing company is much easier. Outsourcing is beneficial due to several reasons:
- Reduced delivery costs. An offshore development centre allows a business to lower capital expenditure and operating expenses. For instance, it comes with smaller back-office payments, lower developer salaries, and lower other IT infrastructure expenses.
- Access to a vast talent pool. Countries like Poland are rich in skilled software engineers. Such IT outsourcing hubs have huge talent pools making finding and hiring the necessary professionals easier.
- Lower infrastructure costs. Allowing your partner to set up an offshore development centre for you instead of renting your own office saves you a lot of money on bills, furniture, and equipment.
- Shortened delivery period. When your technology partner builds an offshore development centre for your project, they provide best practices for tried and tested processes, tech stack, and software project management. It ensures lower managerial and operational overhead, leading to faster software delivery cycles.
All these benefits boost business performance. However, where should you open an offshore development centre? We gathered information on why Poland is one of the best outsourcing destinations in 2022.
5 Reasons to Build an Offshore Development Centre in Poland
Poland has the largest number of software developers in Central and Eastern Europe. More than 2.16% of global developers reside there. According to the Tholons Globalization Index 2021, it holds 14th place in the list of the top 20 digital nations.
Google, Microsoft, Cisco, Oracle, and other intercontinental IT giants have their research and development centers here. This fact alone is testimony to Poland’s great reputation as software development outsourcing hub.
We gathered the top five reasons that make software development outsourcing to Poland attractive.
No cultural barrier
Polish people share a similar mindset with Western countries. There are no critical differences in the attitude of Polish and American developers to work, salary, communications within the team, etc. Minor dissimilarities may exist, but they will have little impact on the software development process.
In this respect, specialists from Asian countries are much more complicated to work with. Consequently, conflicts and misunderstandings are more likely to occur.
Knowledge of languages
As outsourcing to Poland becomes more and more popular, most Polish software developers aim to collaborate with foreign clients from the EU or USA. Therefore, they demonstrate high English proficiency, promising there will be no communication problems.
High level of service and quality of code
Poland occupies 15th place among the countries represented on Topcoder, a 1.5+ million member IT community. They receive the highest marks in international programming contests like Google Code Jam, the Central European Programming Contest, or Microsoft Imagine Cup.
The glowing reviews on Clutch and other review platforms also show that Polish developers are reliable, innovative, and highly professional. They communicate according to high business etiquette standards, stick to deadlines, and apply the latest technologies.
Stable economy, legislation, and taxes
Despite previous difficulties, the Polish economy is now the most stable in Eastern Europe. Furthermore, the GDP of Poland is constantly rising, making it one of the most resilient economies in the EU.
Poland joined the European Union in 2004. This means that the legislation there is very similar to that of other Western European countries. For example, like the rest of the EU, Poland, is currently subject to the General Data Protection Regulation. It means that the client data will be safe and secure when collaborating with software houses in Poland.
EU membership is especially important for fintech startups. The conformity of offshore or nearshore services in Poland to the EU regulations is an essential requirement for financial businesses.
Furthermore, major Polish cities, being special economic zones, may grant income tax exemptions. This way, the government tries to stimulate the growth of the IT industry in general.
Proximity and small time zone difference
Poland, located in the heart of Europe, is close to major European commercial centers such as Berlin, Paris, and London. The train trip from Warsaw to Berlin takes only 5.5 hours, and an average flight to London lasts approximately 2.5 hours.
The time zones are nearly identical or differ by up to two hours for Western Europe. Depending on the state, the time difference between the United States and Poland can be as little as six hours. That ensures the business hours overlap long enough for comfortable cooperation.
How to Build an Offshore Development Centre in Poland
There are various methods to find a trustworthy partner for building an offshore development centre. We tried all of them and will spare your time describing each of them below.
Tech Talent Marketplace
The simplest is to address remote contracting websites. Some of them are Pracuj.pl, Careers in Poland, Praca.pl, Jobs.pl.
You post job offers, and developers apply for your vacancy. Also, you can browse the CVs of the developers on freelance platforms, for instance, Upwork or Guru.
Searching freelancers, analyzing their CVs, sending them invitations to an interview, etc., take a lot of effort. Besides, you have to provide onboarding to build a team.
In general, it takes time before the team can communicate and work smoothly. Therefore, building your offshore development team this way may be challenging.
Local Recruiters
There are a lot of freelance or self-employed recruiters, for instance, on LinkedIn, etc., who can help to build an offshore development centre in Poland for your business needs. Such recruiters have a wide range of contacts with developers.
One thing you need to do is to send your project requirements and desired skill set and then interview the shortlisted candidates.
Though working with a recruiter saves you time on candidate search, hiring the whole team and signing all the contracts to start the project may take a while.
Outsourcing Software Companies
Being the most “traditional” way of building an offshore development centre in Poland, this is the most reliable one. You hire a team of developers employed at the Polish software development company and have the skill set that suit your project.
You get a tailored and well-rehearsed team. Likewise, you need to:
- Contact the offshore development company in Poland to give information about the project, set the deadlines, and specify the skill set required for the project's successful completion.
- The company’s internal talent acquisition specialist or recruiter interviews the chosen candidates. In some cases, you can personally interview the applicants as well. But it is not an obligatory step.
- Hire candidates.
Note that often the client is required to cover expenses for payroll, vacations, sick leaves, insurance, office space rent, etc. Nonetheless, you will have to account for those additional costs, whichever hiring option you choose.
Collaboration with S-PRO is the Shortest Way to Build an Offshore Development Centre in Poland
S-PRO is an international full-cycle software development company with over 250 team members. They work remotely from various countries, including Germany, Switzerland, Poland, and others. We have representatives in Germany, UK, and Switzerland, and R&D offices in Romania and Poland. Our company was recognized by Clutch as one of Poland’s leading B2B service providers for 2022.
How We Work: the Crypto Wallet Mobile App Case Study
Custom mobile app development is among our key services. A German client came to us with the idea to create a mobile application that would allow users to operate with the XXX coin. They needed their users to Deposit XXX and other tokens, exchange different crypto coins, conduct transactions with other token holders, etc.
We gathered ten professionals from our database who managed to deliver the product in five months. As a result, they created mobile apps for iOS and Android. Ten thousand users have already appreciated their effort. We continue to support and improve this solution.
We owe our success to the special recruitment strategy. We hired people from different professional domains, trading, marketing, and banking, as well as people with strong mathematical backgrounds. Furthermore, we are always focusing on the continuous improvement of our team’s expertise.
Wrapping up
Poland is a European country with great potential in IT. At the same time, it is not as distant from Western Europe or Northern America as Asian countries or India, both in terms of geography and culture. Polish specialists speak fluent English and share a similar approach to business, project management, and marketing.
If you want to reduce the cost of hiring, hence the total project budget, creating a nearshore or offshore development centre in Poland is a great way to do it. The rates of software developers there are much lower than in the EU or the USA; meanwhile, you still get high-quality code.
S-PRO is one of the top software development companies in Poland. With hundreds of projects completed and dozens of specialists hired, we know how to find a proper solution to suit your business goals. Contact us, and our representative will get in touch with you within 24 hours.