Telecommunications: outsourcing or in-house?

Equipment manufacturers often prefer to rely solely on their own resources to create software for mobile communication networks. As a rule, such decision is caused by the desire to develop the company’s internal competences or a lack of experience in cooperating with third-party teams, or with concerns regarding communication and quality of work performed.

However there are a number of cases when software development for telecommunication systems involving third-party teams or specialists does not impede the development of the company’s competences and helps focus resources on the main directions:

Implementation of single projects requiring specific competencies that won’t be in demand in the foreseeable future. For example, service migration or integrations of different generations of platforms.
Work which is atypical for the core business of the company.
Work that requires large amounts of resources and doesn’t stimulate the development of new competences. For example, support and modernization of obsolete services and platforms.
Development of related services which do not increase the value of the company’s offerings, but are obligatory due to the requirements of state authorities. For example, tools for blocking stolen mobile devices.
Development of auxiliary systems that simplify the operation of equipment.

In such cases, the development of software for telecommunications systems with the involvement of outsourcing partners allows:

to achieve the required result without the cost of competence development and management of new business processes;
to focus resources on priority activities;
to optimize costs and pay for the outsourcing partner’s work, not for the time spent by regular employees.

We have mentioned in previous articles how to prepare and organize a successful interaction with your outsourcing partner.

For over 15 years Epol Soft has been an R&D partner of cellular equipment manufacturers. You can find the description of services and solutions for cellular communications here.

How does software development for telecommunications systems start? With the description of the goals, tasks of software creation and project evaluation. An optimal checklist is available here.