Many technology companies are presented with a real challenge today. Very often it is not the funding or cash flow issues. It’s the developer talent. Or, rather, the shortage of it. As demand for software engineers grows, companies are finding it difficult to attract the skilled developers they need, particularly in the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Israel, Sweden and the US.
Life is most difficult for startups. They are often unable to draw top talent into their environment and are losing to larger tech companies that can pay much higher salaries than a local startup can afford.
Developer shortage
According to Code.org, there are going to be 1,000,000 more IT jobs than students by 2020 just in the USA, reflecting global trend. These unfilled positions could be translated into $500 bn of lost opportunities. Many countries are forced to rethink their education strategies in the look-out for ways to attract more top-notch IT professionals to fill the gap.
Can dedicated developers in Ukraine be a solution?
Ukraine has 250,000 IT specialists in the country, the number that is expected to grow to 350,000 by 2020. Many of them are working according to the engagement model called Dedicated Development Team, which allows the companies to hire external developers dedicated to them only and integrate them with the in-house team. It also provides companies with the possibility to select candidates, and grants full management control over the team. The model has been successful for the couple of years now and has been proven especially applicable to agile development projects. Dedicated developers work full time like a part of company in-house teams but are based in the environment of software development companies equipped with everything needed for effective daily communication.
A simple overview of what custom software development companies do to help build dedicated development team for software vendors and innovative startups:
- Set up your team of dedicated developers in Ukraine that works exclusively on your projects and is fully integrated into your company’s processes and culture.
- Integrate your team of dedicated developers in Ukraine with your in-house team ensuring communication runs smoothly and processes are clear.
- Foster continuous, effective communication and collaboration between the dedicated team and your location.
- Provide a sound work environment that helps your dedicated team achieve high levels of performance and creativity.
- Ensure that all the necessary facilities and equipment are in place for effective, efficient and quality operations.
- Allow you to develop high-end IT solutions while removing the complexities of hiring and maintaining additional in-house personnel.
To build your team, custom software development companies can either use internal developer resources or recruit to your hiring requirements. There are high chances that your team will stay unchanged for years because of low retention rate – an advantage of this cooperation model. Some companies succeed to sustain this annual rate at 96% and therefore privileged to keep product knowledge in-house.
The cost and trust factor
On average, Ukrainian developers’ salaries are twice lower than their American counterparts. With broad technical knowledge base obtained from strong science schools, Ukrainian developers have necessary technical and communicating skills for efficient daily cooperation. It’s not surprising that large international companies have long realized the economic and strategic value of Ukrainian IT market and built their R&D centers in the country, e.g. Siemens, Samsung Electronics, Abbyy, Gameloft, Crytek and many others.
