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The software development industry has progressed through many changes in its relatively short history, although perhaps the biggest change came when offshoring became the norm for many larger organizations within the industry.

In many ways this revolutionised the development industry all over the world, opening up new opportunities in many regions and lowering cost of entry for others. However, while the premise of fast internet connection makes all of this possible, there are reasons why offshoring has become an issue that will at some point need to be addressed. It is easy today to communicate over more or less any distance as near to instantly as possible, as long as each party has a reliable internet connection, but the digital aspect of communication over distance is not the only factor in the equation, and while that digital barrier has long been conquered, other more practical issues have not, and likely never will be.

One of the chief issues with outsourcing to other continents comes from the basic reality of time. Communication does not just need us to send each other information, even across the internet both parties need to be at their relevant communication devices at the same time for any meaningful real time communication, such as is often required for a project development process to function effectively.

For two organizations who are separated by several miles, this is not as easy as it first seems. Time zones become a major factor in the ability to communicate due to the disparity between office hours between the two parties. For some projects this is manageable and never becomes too much of an issue, but for many, it can become a genuine issue.

The ability to communicate in real time with both clients and other stakeholders during a project can be essential to the continued success of the development, and issues with time zones, that can at best shrink the available time for such real time interaction and at worst make it impossible, are an important consideration when looking at offshoring options.

It is here that an alternative has grown to combat the worst issues with offshoring, the nearshore software development companies that are now offering a viable alternative to offshoring that retains many of the benefits but also eliminates many of the drawbacks.

The most obvious benefit is location. A nearshore software development company will be located close to the client geographically, often in a neighboring country, and that means continuity with time zones. While even here they can differ slightly, in most cases they are one or at most two hours difference, meaning that there is easily enough overlap between the working hours of the different locations to nullify the issues of real time communications that can be a problem for offshoring to organizations much further distant.

Having a relatively local partner is beneficial in other ways too, culturally they are far more likely to share similarities, and legal frameworks for business and products are often shared within regional trading groups today, further reducing administrative issues from the offshoring option. All of these combined offer a smoother operation during the development process that can save significant time and cost for both parties.

Of course, offshoring is primarily about cost reduction, so the question that comes to mind when discussing using a nearshore software development process instead is inevitably going to be a fiscal examination. The ultimate choice of nearshore will, in many organizations, become a decision of cost, and while they obviously vary region to region, savings by using nearshoring is certainly possible. However, initial cost savings are not likely to be of the same scale as possible when collaborating with organizations from much further away, but that may not be the final answer.

As mentioned nearshoring can save time during a project due the location, be it time zone, legal or basic administration, and in many cases this can ensure that nearshoring is just as competitive over the life of an entire project as offshoring.

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