Exclusive Interview with Vasily Malyshev - CEO, Messapps on "Top App Firms"

In this exclusive interview, He shared his insights on outsourcing and several more things. Let’s check his success story and thoughts.

1. What are the different types of outsourcing?

Different types can be distinguished according to different criteria. For example, by type of process, we can single out IT Outsourcing, Business Process Outsourcing, Outsource Manufacturing.

2. Why do you think companies outsource, what benefits does outsourcing provide them?

The main benefit of outsourcing is cheapness in comparison to hiring a team of specialists. For example, to develop a mobile app you would hire at least UI/UX designer, iOS or Android developer (or both), and QA Engineer. Plus, you will have to monitor all the processes yourself. Also, by hiring an outsourcing company you have some sort of guarantee that you'll get quality professional services.

3. What would you say are the top risks of outsourcing?

From the obvious, you could deal with unscrupulous service providers. Because of that, you could lose your time, money or there is a confidentiality risk.

Do not forget about the cost, sometimes it might be higher due to different reasons such as additional unexpected work, various external factors, etc.

Also, some risks arise from miscommunication. For instance, your outsource company may do not exactly what you want from them, or you may lose control of the project without proper reporting from their side.

4. What challenges do companies face when outsourcing their call center functions and how should they minimize risk to their core business?

 

Besides other factors which were mentioned above, in call center outsourcing area is a high confidentiality risk. They may sill or sell your client base or the data your clients provide.

You could minimize this by making an NDA agreement with the contractor. Also, make a thorough review of service providers before hiring one.

5. What are the top 3 questions a company should ask a potential outsourcer?

Talking about the app development industry, you should ask about their previous clients and/or portfolio. It gives you a better understanding of company capabilities. Ask about their pricing method and if they have any warranties. Among other things, don't forget about the NDA before telling your idea and start working.

6. What industry sector outsources the most?

In the modern world, almost every industry is striving for digitalization. Therefore, it is really hard to choose a specific area. However, we can say that often in the financial industry they resort to outsourcing for the development of mobile applications or software. Also, IT outsourcing is popular in industries where until recently it was not customary to have their own software, for example, in the field of construction.

7. What are the top 5 reasons organizations outsource?

Speaking on behalf of our company, the top things that we help our clients solve:

Saving time and money on hiring their own design and development departments. In our company, you won't need to pay someone who just sitting all day in the office and do nothing. Instead, you pay for the work that has been already done.

Getting a ready team of experienced designers, developers, testers, and project managers.

Implementing a project from the stage of competitor analysis to a ready-made solution.

Launch of app or website, plus we offer post-launch support.

Saving time, because instead of wasting it on everyday monitoring, our clients get a personal project manager who always ready to answer all their questions and who provides reports of what been done.

8. What challenges do offshore outsourcers face that domestic ones do not?

I'm not fully capable to answer this question because we are a US company and most of our clients are from the United States. Yet, we have worked with clients from abroad and I think the main challenge is a timezone because you can't affect it. Also, it kind of challenging to make an app in a different language.

9. What are the key drivers for companies to outsource offshore?

I think that it's two main reasons:

Sometimes hiring a development company from another country is much cheaper in comparison to the United States.

Tons of development companies spread around the world, so sometimes you could find a company from another country that perfectly fit your needs.

10. How have the campaigns and projects companies outsource changed over the last 5 years?

As mentioned before, for the last several years our world has changed in the favor of the digitalization of processes. Сleaning services, taxis, construction companies, the beauty industry, and many others began to need IT outsourcing to make a custom mobile app or software to develop their business.

11. What management and motivation challenges do outsourcing companies face with their staff?

I can't say that there're any challenges, like any other company we always try to do our best and my employees understand it perfectly.

12. How can outsourcers and clients ensure a fair partnership agreement?

It's important to take care of every aspect of your future partnership in advance. Discuss every detail. And then reflect that in the contract.

13. What are the main advantages of using brokers when considering outsourcing some, or all, of your contact center functions?

In Messapps all of the processes we do in-house. We ourselves don't outsource any work to third-parties or freelancers.

14. What is the role of service standards when outsourcing?

As in any service sector, we strive to adhere to the highest standards. Our goal is to build software that satisfies clients’ needs.

15. Have you seen any trends in your area on the type of outsourcing companies that have established themselves in your area and what would you attribute this to?

It is hard not to notice that due to the pandemic, remote work has greatly developed. This was significantly impacted on the IT sector. Over the past year, the quality and usability of the remote-work software improved a lot so now it allows employees to provide their work from home without any loss.

I think that it's a good trend because now we have an opportunity to make each employee feel comfortable during the workday, whether he or she loves to work from home or they would like to go to the office.