Multi-Cultural Business and Nearshore Software Development

1) Getting to know each other on a daily basis is the key for successful business relationships

Since I began my internship in sales a couple of years ago, I’ve realized through my meetings with past, current, and potential clients in software development that customer needs evolve on a daily or, even in some cases, hourly basis. That’s because of the wonderful and unexpected blast technology has experienced over the last decade. As a consequence, we can't just assume that our customers are settled with email exchange or monthly meetings — we need to be able to communicate constantly through every available means so that the final result of our business relationship is not solely based on a single deliverable product, but also on a strong business relationship that can evolve throughout the years. 

If you want to dig deeper on delivering successful software development projects, I invite you to check this post by Paul Hahn.

2) The customer is not always right

We provide a holistic vision of the expected final result, helping the client understand the product that is going to be delivered under an end-to-end vision. This small act of communication can make all the difference between success and failure when dealing with clients, and is also the difference between the feasible and the impossible on the side of our developers. Clients who insist on micromanagement end up paying three to four times what they expected to spend on their software development project.

That's why it is so important to consider and filter the best available options when hiring nearshore software development teams — not only in terms of pricing but also in terms of project understanding. 

If you want to know more about rates for software consultancy, I invite you to read this article by FullStack Labs CEO, David Jackson.

3) A long term relationship with many stakeholders involved

How can nearshore software development firms show its value to clients and stakeholders? From the beginning, it is crucial to realize which areas of the company will be impacted through our project. I can confirm from personal experience that once you realize this, everything you expect of your project changes, regardless of the client’s location.. 

We must also understand our customer culture in order to deliver a product or project that reflects mutual understanding. Otherwise you might have to call your CFO and inform them that the P&L will start growing in the L part. As a result, you might lose your customer permanently and other opportunities that might have arrived in the future.

All told, I want to emphasize that the formula for long term success with your customer is based on mutual understanding and getting in the shoes of the other side of the relationship.

If you want to gain a deeper understanding about times and efforts estimation and why it’s one of the key aspects for successful long term relationships, I invite you to read this article done by Mike Piccolo, our CTO:

4) Discussions are healthy, they produce some of the best solutions

We think that this point is clear for everybody once we begin a business relationship, but nearly always forget it when those relationships reach points of dispute. When I began working with software development teams and customers around America, I realized that I could not push the same business vision to every customer I talked with. Instead, I realized that the magic of nearshore development is and will always be the heterogeneous vision of the world. 

This is the spark that ignited many of the businesses developed throughout my experience, mainly because we put on the shoes of our customers and understood through our nearshore vision which was the best solution for both parts, so that in the end we could reach a compromise, not walk away having declared one party the victor. Rather, we could discuss how, through different worldviews, we were able to produce the best solution for both sides.  

This point also reflects how and why many startups end up failing in their initial phase. In case you are having issues with your startup growth, I invite you to read this article written by our CEO, David Jackson.

5) Your comfort zone won't lead you to great results

One thing to know about nearshore software development is that it’s not always about the final price you pay. Ideally, software development is all about experience and a customer-centric focus. My short but strong experience has shown me the way many companies around the world were impressed by the wonderful and unexpected results produced by nearshore software development teams. 

I sincerely hope you can adopt this vision as fast as possible, in case you haven’t already. If for whatever reason you can’t, it might be a good time to analyze if your development teams are giving their best efforts, or if they can be boosted by our nearshore software development teams at FullStack Labs.

If you want to understand our approach for staffing developers, I invite you to read this wonderful article written by David Meza.

Conclusion 

More than ever it is necessary to understand how multi-cultural teams can provide an incredible value to your organization through the delivery of unique and outstanding projects and products. I invite you to get involved with this vision and start providing a different value proposition for your customers.