The alarming sounds about shortness of developers starts sounding faster and louder. More and more ICT systems have to integrate and communicate with each other, the demand for mobile apps and Iot apps is growing. Business critical projects are delayed or indefinitely postponed. Making businesses vulnerable to disruptive competitors who do have solved the ‘war on talent’.
Finding good Software developers becomes more important than the actual cost of the dev’s
Nearshoring is very often promoted as a less expensive version of Western European Developers Teams. Companies keep their local developers but expand the teams in the East. Making the average cost per developer lower. So they can do more with the same budget.
But the growing and widening need for expertise is changing this. Years ago you could be a mono tech developer (only Java for instance). Today you have to know 4-5 programming languages if you want to create an application. A result of the growth of ‘screens’ and their specific need for technology (Desktop, Laptop, smartphones, tablets, Iot, ….). And it’s this dynamic that is making the problem worse.
The demand for software developers is becoming higher and the technological knowledge for every individual developer is becoming higher too. Making full stack developers even harder to find.
All these evolutions of widening technological demand and a growing market for all kind of applications makes the cost for not be able to develop apps bigger than the actual cost of the developers. Not having software developers is the actual cost.
The opportunity cost (including the risk of a disruptive competitor taking over your market share) will drive the decision to nearshore rather than the ‘low cost’.
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Rudi Van den Bossche
CEO Silvae Technologies