Outsourcing is gaining mass popularity and more companies are looking for a better market to hire freelance employees. Ukraine is one of the most promising regions for companies of all sizes searching for competent, responsible, and hardworking freelancers whose services are inexpensive. In the field of IT and software development Ukraine is the best option nowadays.
More than a hundred international companies in the field of telecommunications, e-commerce, software development, and game creation have located their offices in Ukraine. Among them are Grammarly, Magento, Ericsson, and Crytek. The percentage of Ukrainian software engineers is the highest in Central and Eastern Europe. The country is expected to have about three hundred thousand IT professionals by 2022.
Ukraine Makes a Powerful Breakthrough in Outsourcing
It is expected that in the nearest future the IT development market in Ukraine will keep growing. Partly it’s due to the government with its initiatives like tax breaks for IT businesses. But it is also because of strengthening the laws on intellectual property rights. Ukraine has recently experienced a technological boom; thus, more than three thousand technology companies have emerged, a thousand of which specializes in software development. It creates fierce competition: outsourcing companies are struggling for both the best IT professionals and the most promising customers.
Outsourcing in Ukraine — The Best Startup Solution
Ukrainian software developers break down the myth that IT engineers with British or American education are better than their Ukrainian counterparts. 83% of Ukrainian specialists have higher education. This is one of the reasons why most of them are reliable employees. Almost two-thirds of Ukrainian freelancers have graduated from the technological faculties of universities, whereas 57% have more than three years of experience in their specialty.
Seven Ukrainian universities are included in the ranking of the best universities, according to the QS version, three of which are located in Kyiv. In terms of computer science, the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute stands out greatly, offering a large number of courses on programming languages. Most Ukrainian freelancers are fluent in English, over 70% at the intermediate level. It’s no wonder that many people want to work with educated, experienced developers who can understand instructions and communicate in their language.
Projects to be Outsourced to Ukraine
More and more tech startups are outsourcing software development in Ukraine. Such companies as UrbanSitter, Mailburn and We Are Off The Record have successfully taken this step. Still, they advise being careful with the decision which projects to outsource. For instance, UrbanSitter donated its first prototype of the product to third-party developers, which was not planned to be used for a long time. Mailburn used the services of remote iOS developers, working under the supervision of an internal product manager and head of iOS development. The CEO of Tilt outsourced small but time-consuming tasks like user testing. Here is a list of recommended projects for outsourcing to Ukraine:
- the initial prototype of the product you plan to give up with more funding;
- website design and its development;
- small static pages that are not critical to the product;
- secondary product updates that don’t require interference with the main code.
Reasons Why Tech Startups Choose Outsourcing Software Development to Ukraine
The first reason is the budget. The vast majority of tech startups are constrained in funds. Often, they finance themselves and simply can’t afford an official developer. They need the best specialists at the lowest cost. That’s exactly what can be found in Ukraine.
Management if the second reason. Software development outsourcing allows startup executives to focus on the overall picture, without being distracted by control over their own developers.
And we should not forget about time because funding is received by the team that first presented the prototype of their product. The startups who suffer the funding have to show a prototype as soon as possible — outsourcing is the only way to solve this problem.
Overcoming the Fear of Outsourcing to Ukraine
There are still many anxieties caused by thoughts about the outsourcing of software programming. In most cases, the anxieties do have real grounds. Investors want to know who else is involved in the development, there are still venture capital firms that are not ready to invest in a product that is being developed by a third-party team. Indeed, without the necessary caution outsourcing in Ukraine can be risky. A startup whose co-founder or technical director is a developer should not share the key code. Disclosure of key code without restrictions, access to databases, and other important processes may one day lead to disaster.
It is also important to be clear about who owns the code. Intellectual property ownership plays a critical role in tech startups. If remote freelancers have important knowledge, the company can permanently lose the rights to the product. Intellectual property rights is a slippery slope, although Ukraine is working hard to improve laws in this area.
Most of the difficulties can be overcome with the proper level of preparation and a well-written contract. The contract must include issues of ownership of intellectual property, a special clause on non-disclosure of information — this will not allow remote employees to give away your secrets.
However, freelancers rarely sell ideas to competitors, it usually brings more problems than benefits. It is also important to clarify who is responsible for hosting and correct code operation. A startup doesn’t need a situation in which the paid code does not work with the required hosting, and the developers have already got out of sight.