Outsourcing IT projects is rightly seen as a cost effective way to deliver software projects. But it may rise questions about security or reliability of the tech partner, too.

Knowing how many factors have to be taken into consideration when deciding on a software development partnership with a vendor from another country, I’d like to introduce you to the benefits of outsourcing IT to Poland.

“Do what you do best, and outsource the rest.” Peter Drucker – Management consultant, educator, and author

With many outsourcing advantages like closer location for Western-based companies, similar culture, language proficiency and great skills, Polish developers stand out when it comes to hiring a remote team for your project.

As anyone could brag about their strengths, let’s back the above statement with some data from authoritative sources, shall we?

1. Coding skills

Among Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) countries, there’s no other one than Poland with such a vast pool of talented developers. According to StackOverflow Ranking for 2017, a quarter of 1 million software developers living and working in the CEE works from Poland.

Most of them (76%) are employed by tech companies from Warsaw, Krakow, Wroclaw, Katowice and Poznań.

Polish software developers are one of the best in the world, too! It’s not an empty boast, as there’s a HackerRank data behind this bold statement.

Based on developers’ skills in the most popular domains like algorithms, languages, databases or security, the site ranked Polish developers on the 3rd place worldwide, just after China and Russia.

You may also like: Web app scaling: 6 tips on how to do it right

What makes Polish developers so good at their job? First, they tend to start learning to code quite early as compared to other countries (#4 after the UK, Australia and the Netherlands), with 7.7% of programmers starting coding at the age of 5 to 10.This is followed with great results in science and mathematics (according to OECD PISA) and the most affordable higher education among the CEE countries (after Study.EU).

2. Frictionless communication

Communication is a foundation of successful outsourcing. Even the best developers may not deliver your project according to its specification, if communication between you and the team lacks clarity or understanding.

Being fluent in the same language definitely improves sharing information, so costly mistakes are less likely to occur. Conveniently, Poland ranks #11 globally by English skills, as stated by the EF English Proficiency Index.

The EF EPI is an authoritative source collecting and compiling the data of English proficiency in countries and regions where English is not the native language.

This pretty much sums up how well Polish professionals communicate in English, so you don’t have to worry about fluency of communication with your remote team.

3. Little to no time difference

Another advantage that comes with outsourcing to Poland is the small (or even nonexistent) time difference. For UK’s businesses it’s just one hour. Other Western-European countries will see no time difference at all.

For US-based companies it depends on the location, and the time difference spans from 6 hours for the East Coast and 9 hours for the West Coast companies.

Even though it’s less convenient than communicating with a company from a different state within the US, there are still overlapping hours during a day to call your outsourced tech partner.

Worth checking: The advantages of outsourcing web development

4. Cultural similarities

Working with companies coming from different cultural background may sometimes lead to misunderstandings that may even leave some parties feeling offended or mistreated. It may also cripple information sharing between teams.

Poland, with its cultural similarities to the Western countries, faces no such problems. Polish teams have similar cultural references, which—according to a paper on cross-cultural communication—reduces friction in communication and requires less effort to be understood by both sides.

Worth checking: How to build a successful software development team in 7 steps?

Plus, Polish developers employ a work ethos that’s typical for Western countries, one that finds its reflection in delivering good quality outcomes, building relationships and treating clients as a partners more than just another “deal”.

5. Competitive prices

One of the reasons to outsource development is to reduce your project’s cost. And the prices can vary not only between regions, but within a country, too. Hourly rates may be dependent on programmer’s seniority, tech stack, or even the length of the contract.

According to a comparative study of average hourly rates, software development may cost around $30-49 per team member in Poland, which is similar to other CEE countries.

Compared to over $150 per hour in the US, the UK and Norway, and around $100-150 in e.g. Canada, France or Germany, Polish prices are really affordable, while the quality remains high.

6. Growing ICT market

With its growing economy (GDP is expected to grow by 3.6% in 2018 and 3.3% in 2019) and labour market, lower costs of operations and a vast pool of skilled employees, Poland is a great country to outsource software development to.

Companies like Microsoft, Google, Oracle, Cisco, Samsung and Intel have already established their offices and R&D centers in Poland. The country also ranks high for outsourcing destinations according to Tholons’ Top 50 Emerging Outsourcing Destinations.

That is to say, Poland has already earned recognition and trust of global companies and research agencies, being a recommended destination for outsourcing IT services.

7. Nearshoring vs Offshoring

Offshoring is a practice of moving business activities to foreign countries, as far as it’s possible to lower the costs. Nearshoring is moving these activities to nearby countries, which may not offer as low prices, but are closer to companies’ HQ, which makes communication and business travels far more convenient.

As an example, if a UK based company hires software developers from India, then it’s offshoring. Nearshoring, then, would be moving the development to CEE countries like Poland.

With nearshoring, you may experience several advantages, such as little time difference and culture gap, English proficiency and skilled employees. The only disadvantage is slightly higher average hourly rate, though, compared to Asian companies.

Also read: ​​What is Agile software development? Detailed overview

Outsourcing IT to Poland: What it’s like to work with Apptension?

Working alongside world’s renowned agencies and digital studios, premium brands, top events and emerging startups, we’ve learned our way to deliver quality software.

At Apptension we want to keep you in a loop, that’s why we’d invite you to participate in communication with our team, get to know us and manage the delivery of your project together.

A vast portion of projects we run comes from recommendations from previous clients of ours, which sums up our focus on building relationships pretty well, rather than just signing deals.

Sounds like a partnership you’d like to have with your tech vendor? Don’t hesitate to leave us your project’s details on our estimation page, so we can get back to you promptly.