Contrary to a popular belief, cost is no longer the factor that drives successful enterprises towards IT project outsourcing.
Companies seek for customer-centricity and unlocking new technological capabilities, rather than purely cost cutting. When done well, IT project outsourcing give your company a competitive edge.
But there is a way to do it even better. If your company benefits from just one provider, imagine what business advantages can be achieved by having more than one reliable software partner or more than one IT company on a shortlist. Here are some of the benefits:
Combined skills and knowledge
Two heads are always better than one, as long as you choose heads which strengths lie in different areas. Varying competence will help you keep some balance, compliment the expertise pool and establish wide knowledge in your organisation. Working with more than one company multiplies IT talents and visions, thus significantly increases expansion opportunities and adds value to what you do. Bringing a second partner to the table creates diversity and unlocks greater potential for achievement.
Sound competition
Measuring commitment of your IT partner is a tough nut to crack. Creating more than one partnership enhances motivation, morale and responsibility of each provider, as they strive to deliver top-notch software solutions to proof their value against the other, offering more beyond staff augmentation.
Scalability
Having more than one partner allows you to smoothly juggle competencies and business models you currently require. Need more manpower? Large scale partner will surely help you with that. Need newest technology experts for example in AI or machine learning? Another partner is a specialist here. Looking for just a simple app development? You have a vendor ready for that. This model allows you to expand your expert team on demand and in no-time. No more missed business opportunities!
Different points of view
Alternative software providers guarantee alternative views on the same problem. Especially when they don’t share the same cultural background. This is also a huge plus in terms of disaster recovery. If you’re not happy with the progress of the project, you have another partner with a fresh insight ready for the rescue mission. Also, partnerships in different locations allow you to benefit from tax and legal systems of more than one country.
Our experience tells us, that nothing in life is perfect and there is always something that could be improved. That’s why it’s reasonable to employ more than one partner supplementing your IT project – especially when you already have positive experience with outsourcing. Just don’t forget to ensure you get the best match of your own business goals, skills, values and leadership style!
Take a look at the table below for a brief overview of this issue:
| One partner | More than one partner |
| Limited skill pool within one company | Broadened skill pool – choose competencies on demand |
| Scalability limited to resources of just one partner | Extended scalability – expand remote team to suit your needs and do projects ad hoc, benefit fro the presence on many employee markets |
| Partner engagement in the project lies solely on his side | Having multiple partnerships create a situation when partners compete between each other, allowing you to measure engagement |
| Single view on the problem | Multiple insights on the same issue, possibility to rescue failing projects |
| Usually very difficult to get constant 24/7 support form only one software development partner | Possibility of 24/7 operational support, if you work with more than one company |
| More vulnerability resulting from political or market changes | Having software partners in different countries makes you more resistant to political changes, market turmoil or changes on the partner’s side |