Outsourcing companies from every industry and not just IT service providers typically use the terms "onshore", “offshore” and "nearshore". These terms refer to the geographic place of the resource being outsourced.

Onshore refers to the fact that outsourced resources are based in the same geography as the client organisation. Onshore outsourcing can be a local professional who is in the office to help with a specific issue or work with a marketing agency located in the same area.

Outsourcing resources including software developers, to support staff at call centres, is the essence of what offshoring refers to. They can be based overseas and work remotely via the internet or phone. Offshoring is usually motivated by the need to cut costs, however not always. As a result, outsourced resources referred to as "offshore" are usually based in geographies where salaries and other overheads are lower than those of the country where the client organisation is based. ParallelStaff provides you with the greatest chance of selecting software development outsource.

A sub-category called offshore is nearshore. While the resource that is outsourced is still in the distant region but it is located in a country that is close to the organization of the client. Nearshore computer software is a term used in Europe to mean developers based in Eastern European countries such as Ukraine, Bulgaria and Romania, Poland, Serbia, Belarus, Serbia, Serbia, etc.

Nearshore is not often used to describe nations that are located in the Southern European region including Greece as well as Portugal. In these countries, the cost of similar skills are usually much lower than those in Western European economies like Germany and the UK, Holland, and Scandinavia.

Outsourcing software development can have its advantages  

Nearshore software development provides advantages over both onshore, offshore and in-house alternatives. There are disadvantages too. There are always flaws. It will all come down to the context of whether the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.

We've already covered the strategic advantages of outsourced software development in comparison to. in-house software development. What are the advantages of offshore vs. onshore software development?

Onshore Software Development vs. Offshore Software Development. What's The Difference?

The advantages of outsourced onshore software development are:

Simple face-to-face collaboration

Face-to face communication can help resolve issues and conflicts better than remote communication.

Language compatibility. Client organisation and onshore outsourcer use the same native language.

Cultural compatibility Client organisations and outsourced software developers come from the same cultural background, which can ease communication and ensure that professional standards coincide nicely. There is always a chance of poor understanding on an individual level but this can be less likely when broader cultures are closely aligned.

The normal working hours are exactly the same.

Nearshore software development can be significantly cheaper than in-house or onshore alternatives. But there is still a range of alternatives that are cheaper or more expensive staff augmentation companies. Your business case or budget might dictate where you should focus your selections.