App development in India: these are the advantages
It has of course long been no secret to decision-makers in the IT sector that the Indian market offers a wide range of interesting solutions for project awarding and outsourcing.
India positioned itself years ago as one of the most interesting countries for IT development.
While outsourcing was mainly limited to IT support for many years, the Indian market has recently come back into focus, especially for app development.
Lower costs combined with high expertise and a large selection experts attract interesting options.
But is outsourcing app development to South Asia really worth it and why do many companies choose this option?
Hub for mobile programming: What’s the status?
Ever since the first smartphones appeared, India has specialized in development in this area with its many agencies, start-ups and highly specialized talent forges.
The corresponding companies have usually discovered the potential well before their Western competitors and have therefore started early to train their own talents accordingly on the necessary programming languages and to build up an infrastructure for app development.
This gives them a distinct advantage now that development is becoming so significant for companies everywhere.
In the meantime, experts assume that more than 80% of all software projects are already realized in India in one way or another.
This can be either the whole project or a specialized part of it.
With a large number of app developers who are not only familiar with common standards such as Java, but also have knowledge of specialized programming languages such as React Native, the arguments are clearly on the side of the Indian IT market.
However, there are some misconceptions about how a project in collaboration with an Indian company might go and what you can really expect from these experts.
What are the common benefits to outsourcing projects?
While it can be seen that there are now other markets that are being sought out for IT projects, particularly by Western companies – Poland is seen as particularly up-and-coming here, with a young base of talent and a rapidly growing presence of start-up companies – India generally remains the first choice.
This also has to do with the fact that the Indian state itself is ensuring that the domestic IT market continues to have international appeal.
Of course, this relates primarily to costs, but also to the promotion of talent in universities.
When companies look at outsourcing app development to India, it is usually for the following reasons:
- Cost: Outsourcing IT services – and thus, of course, app development – can be up to 50 percent or more cheaper than it is for Western companies under good conditions. However, some points should be considered here, which we will come to later.
- High expertise: While native app development is no longer a rarity in Germany either, the Indian market offers a significantly higher number of specialized professionals. There are not only a large number of Java specialists there, but also an equally large number of experts for specialized programming languages such as Kotlin, Swift or Objective-C.
- Communication: Unlike many Asian countries, communication in English with Indian companies is easy and good. Here, especially countries like Vietnam or Thailand, which also have an emerging IT landscape, still lack a bit of the selling points.
The Indian market is not convincing on the basis of the status quo alone when it comes to IT expertise. With a growing startup culture and strong funding in IT, experts tend to be trained much faster when it comes to new trends and technologies.
In case of doubt, this gives decision-makers in Germany an advantage over competitors who are waiting for agencies to offer this expertise across the board in Germany as well.
Combine these facts from the Indian IT economy with a generally good work ethic and strong government support, and it’s no wonder that the Indian subcontinent is also leading the way internationally in app development.
What should be considered when looking for an IT partner?
Meanwhile, there is a wide range of companies that not only offer app development of various kinds, but have specifically specialized in this market.
Above all, however, market developments have shown that many of the agencies are no longer focusing on the work of large corporations, but are also making their services available to SMEs and small businesses – with the corresponding structures in terms of prices.
However, one problem that could often be seen in the past was a misconception of how favorable it really is to work with an Indian company.
While there is certainly a realistic potential for savings in comprehensive projects with a high level of effort, additional services such as cross platform programming or the use of rather lesser known programming languages, this does not mean that India is simply cheap.
Nevertheless, there are of course black sheep in the Indian market who are willing to fulfill this need of dumping prices in development. However, this can quickly make partner companies realize that this is not simply possible.
Realistic pricing should also be considered when outsourcing IT development to India. The expertise and quality of work wants to be remunerated, and the cost of living in the Indian region has also risen in recent years – and this despite strong tax relief from the state.
So the work should have a fair price here as well, if you don’t want to end up finding that rather inexperienced app developers are employed with your own project. This makes it all the more important to look into the various companies that could be considered for the project before entering into a collaboration.
Outsourcing IT projects: Is it still worth it?
It will take quite a while for the IT industry in Germany to consolidate.
Unfortunately, the growing demand in almost all areas was misjudged and, accordingly, the shortage of developers and IT specialists is now a reality that companies in Germany have to plan for.
Outsourcing projects to countries and markets where not only the expertise is available but also the costs are transparent and calculable is therefore only a logical consequence of the situation in Germany.
The Indian market is tailor-made for app development.
Countries such as Poland are also a possibility, but in India in particular, the necessary expertise for projects of all sizes can already be found in many companies and agencies.
Although price structures have adapted to demand and, above all, to developments on the world market, they are still generally considerably cheaper than is the case in many other countries.
In addition, there is a good work ethic, the necessary infrastructure for international cooperation and easy communication. So, if one is looking for a partner to realize a project from app development, the Indian IT market could be just right.
Interesting links:
More information on the Indian software industry
Information about app development in a blog post
Images: Canva
Sascha Thattil ist Blogger und Geschäftsführer bei YUHIRO. Wir bauen Entwicklerteams in Indien für Agenturen, IT Dienstleister und Softwareunternehmen auf.
