Taking your Big Data Offshore: Benefits of External Big Data Team

Taking your Big Data Offshore: Why You Need an External Big Data Team

In 2017, the Economist expressed a remarkable, game-changing concept: The world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data. That thought perfectly describes a new era in technology where companies treat data as their most valuable asset. To that end, Big Data teams help companies uncover vast troves of valuable insights hidden inside the company’s data streams that have the potential to take their business to new heights.

Given that Big Data is a relatively novel branch of technology, the job market is yet to catch up with the increasing demand of companies to handle their Big Data needs. In fact, Big Data-related specialists are among the most sought-after professionals nowadays. With that in mind, companies must put their best foot forward in a bid to create a well-rounded team of Big Data professionals.

As a company that has 13+ years of building offshore units for companies worldwide, we believe that Big Data offshore teams can address a lack of expertise you may have in your organization. Big Data lies at the intersection of a variety of skills, ranging from Data Science and Data Engineering to Machine Learning specialists and Data analysis. All of these roles are critical to building an effective Big Data team – and Big Data offshore services excel at sourcing the right kind of talent you need for your project.

We define Big Data offshore units as teams of Big Data specialists that work from a foreign country, located in another time zone.

If you’re here, you’re likely aware of such an opportunity but probably feel a bit of hesitation in taking the first step towards moving your Big Data offshore.

Hopefully, after reading our post, you’ll see how this kind of team will benefit you.

Benefits of delegating Big Data offshore

Tapping into relevant expertise. Big Data activities, such as building data pipelines, warehouses, algorithms, pattern identification, and data analysis, require virtuoso tech skills. Given that Data Science is in its early stages, the pool of talent you have locally may not be sufficient to meet your development needs. Thus, if we were to name the biggest strength of taking your Big Data offshore, it certainly would be the availability of Big Data talent.

We at nCube help companies worldwide delegate Big Data offshore and build tech teams in Ukraine. You may wonder, why Ukraine? Ukraine has validated its worth as an offshoring destination for many Western companies in helping companies source technology specialists with various backgrounds, including those related to the Data Science field, ranging from Python, C++, and Java to qualified Data Scientists, Data Engineers, and Data Analysts. To pinpoint this idea, let’s have a look at some numbers.

According to LinkedIn data, Ukraine boasts:

Nearly 30K specialists that list Data Engineering among their key skills;
14K professionals specialized in Data Analytics;
10K professionals involved in machine learning;
Over 55K engineers who identify themselves as Java developers;
Nearly 40K developers list Python as their key skill;
30K engineers have experience in C++ development.

Many engineers already have vast experience working as part of offshore Big Data analytics teams, and thus have expertise in developing Big Data enterprise solutions as well as solutions for smaller data-driven organizations. With such a vast pool of Data Science specialists, you’ll be able to scale up fast, adding developers with the skills you need.

Cost-saving. Given the current buzz around Data Science and local talent scarcity, Data Science teams are associated with sky-high costs, and will probably remain expensive for a long time. For instance, hiring a full-time Data Scientist in the United States or Western Europe costs nearly $100-180K per year, including taxes, recruitment, onboarding, administration, and benefits packages.

At the same time, delegating Big Data offshore lets you save on the costs associated with building a team locally. For instance, our offshore model at nCube relies on flat-rate pricing where you only pay for the hours a full-time employee works each month. Thus, we can guarantee that by delegating your Big Data offshore, you’ll leave the burden of the added expenses behind, as they will rest on the vendor’s shoulders.

If you’re working with an external Big Data enterprise analytics provider, they will be responsible for the following:

Setting up the IT infrastructure for your team;
Providing comfortable office space;
Ensuring employee retention;
Sponsoring employee benefits, including health insurance, paid vacation time, motivation, and professional growth.

Focus on your core activities. By delegating your Big Data offshore, you’ll be able to build a strong Data Science branch and let your in-house professionals focus solely on your business. You and your team can further rely on insights provided by your offshore unit and center your business activities around them. At the same time, in an offshore model, you’ll retain control over your external team while leaving the burden of administration on the vendor.

Agility. When you need to build a solid Big Data unit, the offshoring model will provide you with more talent hired with fewer obstacles over a relatively short period of time. That lends itself to increased flexibility which may be that extra competitive advantage you’ve been looking for.

Enhance customer-centricity. Handing over your Big Data offshore helps your organization become more customer-centric. In the ever-changing market, you may be faced with the hardships of staying relevant for your clients to keep them around. Given that Big Data offshore teams are more low-maintenance than their in-house counterparts, you can concentrate fully on your customers. On top of that, the qualified Big Data experts you’ll source through offshoring will help you build better solutions that will help you increase personalization, find the right kind of market, and build long-lasting relationships with your customers.

Increased security. Another reason to delegate your Big Data to an offshore vendor is to increase security at your organization. Your offshore team will build a shield to identify and ward off fraudulent actions by developing natural language processing and voice recognition algorithms. Big Data enterprise analytics providers can also be efficient at building scalable solutions to process data coming from multiple sources.

Ukrainian Big Data offshore companies operate in line with the world’s security standards, such as ISO/IEC 27001 that guarantees confidentiality and integrity of data. When it comes to financial data, Big Data offshore vendors are obliged to act in compliance with PCI Security Council standards. Last but not least, in Ukraine, Big Data related to Healthcare is protected by HIPAA regulations.

Summary

In the end, we’d like to emphasize that the availability of Big Data specialists in offshore pools of tech talent, such as Ukraine, will make it easier for you to expand your delivery capacity and find new resources faster. The quantity of developers we mentioned above proves that Ukraine has already achieved an honorable status of being one of the world’s tech talent powerhouses.

When it comes to nCube’s model of offshoring, each Big Data professional will work on your project full-time, 40 hours per week. On top of that, you’ll communicate with each employee directly and be able to instill your company’s practices, processes and communication style into your Big Data offshore unit. At the same time, the team will be an autonomous unit (still, being a part of your organization), working out from our office in Kyiv, Ukraine. We will take care of facilitating your distributed collaboration, employee administration and other operational concerns. If you’re interested to hear more about establishing a Big Data offshore unit in Ukraine, let’s connect.

MARYNA DEMCHENKO