Top 15 IT Outsourcing Examples of Tech Giants

Published on October 21st, 2024

Today’s IT leadership is indeed under constant pressure to optimize resources and innovate faster in this competitive landscape.

The global IT Outsourcing market is growing at a very fast pace. It is estimated that, in 2024, the value of IT Outsourcing would be about 98 billion US dollars. Such a dramatic expansion is not an exaggeration of the state of the world but depicts how leading tech companies have shifted in their business models. From cost optimization to access to highly specialized skills, outsourcing stands bestowed with various advantages; however, deciding upon a path and its implementation is rather too complex.

The 15 examples of outsourcing along with the tech companies that have effectively utilized IT outsourcing to speed up and bring improvements to their business are discussed in this blog.

You will also find yourself benefiting from reviewing evidence about the strategies and success that have been put into actual real-world applications as you will acquire a more complete concept of outsourcing and avoid problems with outsourcing. Benefit from the experiences of those companies that managed to reach the top in those challenging times.

What is IT Outsourcing?

The term “IT outsourcing” refers to the hiring of outside service providers to administer or execute your company’s IT projects or operations. The fields this may encompass can additionally include your software development and network management and assistance for helpdesk support and cybersecurity. Let us start our discussion with the benefits of outsourcing app development as well as why you should outsource IT services and when.

Benefits of Outsourcing the IT Services:

Cost-effectiveness: This provides an opportunity for you to tap a global talent pool with cheaper labor inputs, thereby not enabling the cost of development through the sacrifice of quality. IT services outsource: It reduces the total cost of operations by up to 60%.

Faster time to market: Offshore coding teams that are skilled can help indigenize an application, thus enabling it to reach people faster.

Tap into specialized talent: Identify specialists in a particular area or specific technology domain where you would need an expansion of service from your team.

Scalability: Scale up/down the size of your development team with the specific needs of a project. Therefore, rapid resource management.

To improve focus on core competencies: Tasks should be outsourced to external partners, focusing only on strengths and strategic importance for the team.

Reduced development risk: As this exposure helps reduce risk in in-house development through professional partners with experience and proven processes.

Must Read: How to Outsource IT Support

Why Your Business Needs IT Outsourcing Services:

Limited in-house resources: You would lack the necessary technical capabilities and/or development capacity to achieve it in-house.

Tight deadlines: You must get your app online as quickly and cost-effectively as possible to meet market demand.

Specialized skills required: Searches for expertise in particular technologies or industries that are in short supply in-house.

Budget considerations: The requirement for a cost-effective solution when building an app without quality loss.

Scalability issues: Providing flexible resources in cases where there’s a change in project requirements or changing market scenarios.

Focus on core strengths: Free up internal resources to spend more on your core business functions.

When to Outsource IT Services:

Launching a New Product: With the aid of an outsourcing development team, you can send your application to the market quickly and cheaply.

Adding new features to an existing product: With the help of outsourcing expertise add new features to your already existing application.

Upgrading and maintaining an already existing application: Give up tasks of maintenance that are required to be done on a perpetual basis, and free up the resources so that it can work on innovations.

Crossing specific technological hurdles: To overcome specific obstacles in the way of your application development process, acquire specialized expertise.

Entering new markets: When involving local developers who may best modify your app for a given cultural setting.

Testing new technologies: Probe cutting-edge technologies with the help of external experts before developing them in-house.

Now that we have reviewed the benefits, reasons, and when to outsource IT services for outsourcing application development, let’s consider some real-life examples of 15 actual cases in which IT companies applied this technique.

15 Successful IT Outsourcing Examples of Tech Giants

Do you ever stumble upon the promise of the potential of outsourcing and then get lost searching for how to get started? No problem because we’ve compiled 15 deep case studies showing the brilliance of outsourcing through many different types of industries. These studies demonstrate companies of all sizes-from nifty startups to behemoth corporations. Some of these are vibrant evidence for the viable growth accelerator for the business which can blow the minds of even small-scaled or just-started enterprises. Why wait? Let’s get going!

1. WhatsApp

Who does not know about WhatsApp? It is the global leader in messaging apps. Today, WhatsApp has about 2 billion users worldwide, but it was not ten years ago. Initially, WhatsApp outsourced core development, especially iOS development to bring down the cost.

WhatsApp with an offshore development team whereby they would use other people’s expertise and resources without necessarily hiring many people to tend to the workload back home. This would allow them to focus much on features and user experience while keeping development costs at bay.

The app rose to the pinnacle of the Google Play and App Store in a short time, almost pushing the SMS technology to the background.

Related: How Much Does It Cost to Develop a Chat App like WhatsApp?

2. Google

The Google name is enough to estimate the popularity of the company as well as the user base. And despite being a tech giant, it outsourced its support service for Google AdWords and other services.

Google entered into partnerships with other third-party support vendors to deliver high-quality customer care and technical support to its customers in every corner of the globe. This allowed Google to take advantage of the finest capabilities to focus on the core competencies such as search engine technology and product development and hand over the support functions to the vendor.

Suggested: Outsourcing to India: Here’s What You Need to Know

3. Skype

Skype has a significant user base, with 40 million daily users. Skype outsourced its back-end development to avail itself of the specialized knowledge of outside suppliers. To Skype, smooth user experience was paramount. They worked together with its back-end development team to improve scalability and performance on the platform.

Skype outsourced European professional developers to develop the app. This outsourcing strategy has helped Skype access specialized outside expertise without diverting internal skills from its core business.

4. Unilever

Imagine now the great consumer goods company back in 2005, with 200,000 employees and operations in every corner of the Earth! They could have so easily built their own tech team, right? Nope! What they did was something pretty smart: they outsourced it. Yep, even back then big companies knew the value of getting the right experts for the job even if it meant looking outside those big walls they have.

Unilever is a multinational consumer goods company. Unilever wanted to contract for the integration of its ERP system; it should automate and expand its business operations. A non-technical company like Unilever was well aware that enterprise resource planning system implementation and integration require technical support.

The ERP solutions provider that Unilever contracted also offered it the integration of systems that made its operations efficient and therefore ensured business growth.

5. Alibaba

No discussion of tech giants is ever complete unless Alibaba is discussed. Alibaba is a leading e-commerce company that outsources website development to cope with localization issues. Alibaba needed to develop local websites where its operation was vast to cater to every market and language.

However, the founder of Alibaba (Jack Ma Yun) has decided to outsource from the US so that he can make a website appealing to a wider extent of people from home to the globe.

Alibaba has alliances with outsourcing development teams and created culturally sensitive and user-friendly websites, each targeted towards the market so that customers are provided with a better experience for driving international growth.

6. Basecamp

Another example of an outsourcing company that has been successful would be Basecamp, especially in the domain of project management software. The fact that it could eliminate doing important items like accounting, legal services, and design work by outside firms enables Basecamp to pursue its core business: designing and developing its tool for project management and, by extension, its improvement.

This not only prevented the waste of time and resources of Basecamp but also prevented them from hiring different sets of specialized expertise in various fields. At the same time, they accelerated growth by not requiring additional employees or infrastructure investments.

7. Slack

Slack very popular communication and collaboration tool. Outsourcing again helped this company achieve its success by outsourcing to expert teams that would focus on software development. That allowed Slack to concentrate on building a user-friendly platform without having to respond to market-changing demands.

Outsourcing also afforded Slack the freedom to tap on diversified talent pools, searching for unique aptitudes they would not find elsewhere in-house. This allowed them to keep at par with their competition and enhance the products they offered. Customer support services were outsourced, too; it was through this that Slack was able to deliver quality services anytime without increasing their workload.

Also Read: Offshore Software Development Process – Benefits, Challenges, Costs and More

8. AppSumo

AppSumo was another digital marketplace, where software deals were being sold on the same track for outsourcing to drive growth. It outsourced content creation, marketing as well as customer support to the remote teams, which helped it speed up its offerings at a very rapid pace.

Outsourcing frees internal resources and lets the company focus on developing strategic partnerships and unique deals for the customer. Cost also lowers; however, access to special skills in accomplishing a certain task is not a concern.

9. GitHub

Even GitHub, with such a vast platform to develop and collaborate on software, outsources components that rely on it for managing daily operations. Consider, for example, the housekeeping and security monitoring of the servers in their system. By outsourcing these operations to another team, GitHub can focus more on developing new features and improving the experience of its users.

Outsourcing allows GitHub to rapidly scale up its operations when there is a surge of input and need for services without necessarily investing in extra infrastructure or hiring staff. This flexibility has been a crucial factor in its explosive growth.

10. Transferwise

Another low-cost, international money transfer fintech company is Transferwise, which also uses outsourced outsourcing to upgrade its services further. Transferwise can focus all of their energy on developing new features, market-entry, and so forth by subcontracting some of the components involved, like compliance and customer service, to other third-party teams.

With outsourcing, Transferwise was able to always update its knowledge of differing regulations across various countries and output great assistance to its numerous international customers. Its cost stays low while being highly efficient.

11. Apple

Even the greatest multinational companies in the world like Apple outsource some of their duties. For example, Apple outsourced its manufacturing and assembly processes to China, for example to Foxconn companies.

This way, Apple will focus on producing design and marketing while simultaneously offering cost savings and the skills of professionals. It is one way through which Apple will also be in a position to meet demand during peak seasons for such products without investing in new facilities and equipment.

12. Facebook

Another giant social media company, Facebook, also outsources most of its activities. An example is content moderation on Facebook since outsourcing the activity to third-party companies helps in limiting access to inappropriate or harmful content.

Outsourcing such an activity helps Facebook focus on creating new features and improving the user experience while simultaneously maintaining its platform as a safe and positive place to be for its users.

13. Netflix

A great example would be the Netflix streaming company. Today, this popular company relies heavily on outsourcing in content creation and production. Original shows and movie content are outsourced to production studios as well as independent producers.

Therefore, Netflix can afford to maintain an enormous volume of diversified, high-quality content without spending money on the purchase of expensive equipment and offering on-site jobs. Meanwhile, this allows them to learn new trends and customer preferences very fast by working with many creators.

Related: How Much Will It Cost To Develop A Streaming App Like Netflix?

14. Oracle

Even the greatest technology companies like Oracle, which major in enterprise software and cloud solutions, outsource business processes. Companies like Oracle send several jobs such as software development and customer support to countries where labor is relatively cheaper.

This allows them to lower their operation costs without having to compromise the levels of quality and services they offer to their clients. They can also spread their presence overseas due to opening outlets in other locations with local partners.

15. Abode

Abode is another name of creative software, which provides software for design and media and also, outsources some tasks. For instance, they have outsourced manufacturing of their product in physical form from various other countries’ manufacturers.

This not only reduces their cost of production but also gives them exposure to particularized expertise and access to resources that they cannot generate in-house. Using outsourcing allows Abode the opportunity to focus on innovation and deliver quality software products to customers, while still making it possible to deliver physical products.

Which is the Better Country for Outsourcing: India OR Ukraine?

Global companies seeking efficiency and talent face a big dilemma: to the extent that the question of where to outsource arises. India and Ukraine, top-notch competitors, each put forth the best options for your company. Further, by knowing which country to select, you can get away from IT outsourcing problems.

Let’s discover the variation and pick an appropriate outsourcing destination!

Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each country to possibly succeed in outsourcing. The analysis will be a guiding force for your decision-making, thus ensuring that the chosen country is in alignment with your specific business needs. In the India vs. Ukraine scenario, you have to ensure whether the primary focus is on cost-efficiency, talent specialization, or ease of collaboration. This way, it is aligned with your strategic goals.

Also Check: 10 Software Outsourcing Trends to follow

How Can iTechnolabs Help You With IT Outsourcing?

iTechnolabs is one of the innovative providers of IT outsourcing services with a comprehensive range of options for companies that are considering sourcing their technology needs through outsourcing. With vast experience and knowledge in the industry, we are the ideal partners in helping businesses make an informed decision on which outsourcing destination will be most suitable for their specific needs.

Our experts have profound knowledge of the Indian IT industries and Ukrainian IT industries. Recommendations based on specific needs will be provided for each client. In addition to this, we also guide clients through cultural and language barriers while dealing with teams across both countries.

• Years of Experience: Involve the years of experience our team has to gather a deep insight into the outsourcing IT landscape.
• Personalized Recommendations: Recommendations come tailored to the specific needs and objectives of your business.
• Cultural and Language Expertise: Be guaranteed our expertise in cross-cultural and linguistic differences from Indian and Ukrainian teams.
• Comprehensive Market Research: Leverage our in-depth market research to help you decide upon final outsourcing destinations for your projects.
• Cost-effective Solution: You will learn how you may have alternative options that are cost-effective, yet appropriate for your budgetary needs without quality compromise.
• Continual Support: You will have continued support towards ensuring successful cooperation in achieving the desired outcome according to what was agreed with your outsourcing partners.

Conclusion: 

As technology advances and businesses go more global, the demand for IT outsourcing will only increase. And therefore, at iTechnolabs, we overcome the complex landscape to support businesses so well and make better decisions about their technology needs. This way, we deliver broad industry experience, tailor the recommendation to suit individual needs, know the dominant cultures and languages, provide in-depth market analysis, and strategic planning support, offer cost-effective solutions, and also continue support to be the most trusted partner on an outsourcing journey.