The ever increasing demand for better software development services has made outsourcing popular. Establishing an extended development center(EDC) means creating an open ground for exceptional talent – thereby gaining high-quality solutions with low-cost investments. With the right strategy, an EDC can be the most valuable asset for meeting a company’s IT goals.
Impact of cultural differences in an EDC
Despite all the plus, establishing an EDC demands more than just setting up a center. One of the significant challenges is the cultural differences between the parent company and the EDC. It is essential for companies to have a clear understanding of the cultural differences between the two entities and to have processes in place to address any cultural challenges to effective communication and collaboration. Cultural differences are known to have significant impacts on an EDC’s success. For example, varied views on:
- time management can lead to misunderstandings, delays, and budget overruns.
- communication and teamwork can lead to disagreements and lower productivity.
Getting a clear idea of the differences
Being aware of cultural differences is the first step to building a healthy workspace. Next comes understanding these differences and assimilating them to create a common ground for both the teams – the home team and the EDC team. Cultural training, study, and communication can help reach this understanding. For example, understanding the EDC location’s cultural attitudes on communication, teamwork, and time management can help avoid misunderstandings and miscommunications.
Steps to build trust and team spirit in an EDC despite cultural differences
- Clear communication
Effective communication and collaboration are vital for the success of an EDC. Clear communication procedures and collaborative technologies like instant messaging and video conferencing can assist in creating trust and prevent misunderstandings ensuring that all team members are on the same page.
- Proper cultural training
Proper comprehension of the EDC team’s cultural attitudes, values, and behaviors can aid in developing cross-cultural understanding and trust. Hence, cultural training should be emphasized for team members.
- Building an online work culture
Building relationships between the EDC crew and the home team is critical to the success of an EDC. Effective communication through regular meetings, team-building exercises, and social gatherings can help to create relationships and decrease cultural disparities. Thus, team members will understand each other, communicate effectively, and collaborate to achieve project goals.
India – a hotspot for EDCs
A study by Deloitte indicates that the use of EDCs has increased drastically over the past couple of years and concludes that more than 59% of companies outsourcing their projects have their EDCs established in India.
Despite the wide variety of cultures within the country itself, establishing a successful EDC could have been taxing, however, companies willing to adopt and assimilate the local culture have proved themselves as the prime players. Additionally, the Indian government encourages foreign companies to set up their EDCs with lucrative prospects such as tax benefits, investment incentives, low-cost development grounds, etc.
TechVariable has a dedicated, skilled group of software engineers involved in services related to staff augmentation. We have handled multiple large-scale projects that have been outsourced by prominent clients residing in the U.S., Canada, and Dubai. There are multiple other organizations in India such as ours, who dedicatedly work on outsourced projects from companies such as Clinify, Pfizer, Amazon, Meta, etc.
Conclusion
Building an EDC is a lucrative standard solution for firms competing in today’s global economic climate. However, cultural differences can substantially impact an EDC’s performance and must be managed effectively to ensure the success of their projects.
