6 Reasons for Digital Agencies to Outsource Web Development
Should digital agencies keep web development in-house, or outsource it?
6 Reasons for Digital Agencies to Outsource Web Development
Written by Louisa Gee
Louisa loves Carl Sagan, noise rock, vociferous online debates, and writing content for websites.
December 11, 2019
Both options can have their advantages. Here are the 6 main reasons why it’s better for a media business to work with and outsource their web design remotely.
1. Outsourcing Web Development Saves You Money
If your digital agency hires in-house web developers, you’ll be paying recruitment and retaining costs on top of the person’s salary. You’ll also have to purchase top of the range equipment for her or him to deliver the best results.
Also consider that you’ll pay premium salaries for full-stack web developers. These are the guys who know how to make a site look good AND collect user data from it effectively.
After you’ve gone to all the trouble of sourcing the best, they might decide to quit! You’ll have to start the process all over again – and end up paying all over again too.
If your outsources your web development, it’s their problem to hire and retain staff. All you have to do is anticipate your cutting-edge, great-looking digital product!
2. Outsourcing Gives You Access To Web Dev Experts
Your digital agency might have a competent, creative web developer in-house – but he or she isn’t going to know all the tricks of the trade. Software innovations and new technology happen so fast that it’s almost impossible for one person to work on your projects, AND keep abreast of the new tech.
Web developers have to take courses, read expensive books and attend conferences and workshops to stay ahead of the pack. These take time away from your other in-house projects – and they cost money.
An outsourced web development team will handle the development of their developers. All you need to concern yourself with is getting your projects back on time, perfectly done.
3. Outsourced Web Developers Don’t Take Sick Days
Of course, everyone takes days off – but if you’re waiting for a big project to be completed, and your main developer gets sick or has an emergency, you can wave goodbye to that deadline as it rushes past. Your digital agency’s business reputation is entirely at the mercy of bad luck and Mother Nature.
An outsourced web dev company will ensure continuity of work. They’ll handle their own staff rotation and leave days – you don’t have to worry about missing your own client’s big launch date.
4. Outsourcing Web Development Means Better Security
Outsourcing software development will ensure that you get better coverage against IT security breaches. A professional software development team will take great care to secure the code and processes. They might also undertake to sign a legal non-disclosure agreement.
With in-house developers, you run the risk of breaches happening through disgruntled employees. Even a satisfied and competent employee might not be completely up to date on the latest data security measures.
5. Outsourcing Means You Don’t Need HR Contracts
Hiring in-house web developers means that there are going to be employee contracts involved. Not happy with the performance of your employee? Good luck wading through all the complicated labour law red tape!
South African labour law, while designed to be fair to workers, can be a little more tricky for companies. You have to give an employee a notice period of termination. During that time, your employee is hardly going to put their all into your projects, when they’re already fired! Remember we mentioned the issues with disgruntled employees and web security…?
When you outsource, the only contracts you have to deal with are business agreements – which are much easier to dispute if you’re unhappy with the work produced.
6. Outsourcing Web Development Means More Focus On Your Business
As a company, you have a ton of responsibilities to take care of. Project management, equipment, online marketing and media, the everyday logistics of running your company, the everyday issues of office politics – all of these take a lot of time and energy.
If you’ve landed a big new project with some complicated web development required, the dev part takes a LOT of time and energy that you could be using to focus on other aspects. When you outsource your web development, it’s their business to handle that side of things. Your agency can focus on its core business processes when you outsource web design.