One of the things we have realised during the Covid-19 pandemic, is that we can work from home and do it effectively. A survey conducted by Mercer, an HR and workplace benefits consulting firm, found that 94% of employers said productivity was the same as or higher than before the pandemic, even with their employees working remotely. While most companies still figure out how to adjust to new realities of workspace, Voypost has been operating 100% remotely since the very beginning. Here, we believe that the future of work is remote.

It is actually not an entirely new concept to begin with. According to Upwork’s research in 2019, 63% of US companies had remote employees and 35% rely on freelance work. It means that the GDP of freelancing ‘industry’ is higher than the GDP of such major industries as construction or transportation.

Of course, some professions will most likely never be able to convert to remote work fully because of the need for direct contact with the consumer or to use specific equipment. Others will have to go to the office for data security reasons. There are many reasons, and each profession and business has its own. More often than not, they are associated not with the internal limitations of managers who do not understand how to do work remotely, but with the absence of some kind of physical solution that allows transferring work into a distributed format.

The general hesitation to convert to remote work needs to be addressed, though. Is it just generational differences? Fear of the unknown or simply a lack of understanding? While giants such as Twitter and Facebook make remote work permanent, allowing their workers to choose whether they wish to work in or out of the office, many revert back to working traditionally. There’s a widespread lack of trust towards employees’ work ethic. Actual research, on the other hand, clearly states that remote employees are often more dedicated and productive.

However, the major shift of the global workspace from office to remote is unavoidable. Now, management increasingly focuses on work done rather than hours worked.  Companies don’t run things strictly for business continuity, but instead shift their focus towards growth and innovation.

That leads to the main advantage of remote work. No longer must companies limit themselves to the local talent pools or persuade potential talent to relocate. Hiring remotely enables organisations to access the best person for the job anywhere across the world with a working WiFi. This also contributes to a fundamental transition in the nature of work: jobs become separated from companies, while companies become platforms. Specialists become ‘self-sufficient artisans’ (Gigster, 2018). Moreover, such an approach allows to speedily scale teams and hire on demand, consequently becoming a much more cost-effective option than sustaining a physical office.

Another reason besides worldwide hiring for going 100%-remote for us at Voypost was a desire to optimise business processes. We are developers, after all, we want to optimise everything. Those who work at the office spend on average two hours a day travelling to and from there. Without this need to travel, in a year, one can save an amount of time equal to a working month. That is, in a span of a year someone spends as much time on the road as they spend on their work in the course of a month. There are many things all of us would rather be doing than be crowded in public transport during rush hours.

Communication is essential within the digital workspace. Some say that it’s easier when all the workers are located in one place, as you can just ask someone a question. However, communication tools are now more available than ever. It may even be more advantageous to communicate through a messenger, because in person you may distract your coworker, but online they can work on your issue when they’re ready to give it their undivided attention.

Transformations in the workspace can also include creation of new job positions, for instance, Director of Remote Work, who will oversee production and ensure operational efficiencies in the digital office. In addition, companies will need to focus more on their cybersecurity, concerning themselves with how data is accessed and how to effectively secure it. Cisco’s Future of Secure Remote Work Report (https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/security/future-secure-remote-work-report.html) outlines that 85% of all participants claim cybersecurity to be extremely important or even more important than before the pandemic.

The world is reshaped constantly and business has to adapt accordingly. For example, how offices switched from on-premise storage to cloud computing. Similarly, now we globalise business and eliminate geographical limitations, tapping into unaccustomed talent pools, making processes more effective and cost-efficient.

We’re not returning to offices. Turns out, it’s good for business.

The Future of Remote Work

Insights

WordPress is dying. While it is still the most popular CMS in the world today, as more than 35% of all websites on the Internet are using it, it is a sustainable platform no more. PHP, the programming language WordPress is operating on, loses its popularity every day. Many developers, notably including WordPress creator Matt Mullenweg, are sure that headless is the future of web development.

CMS means a content management system. It is a web application that allows site owners, editors and authors to manage their websites and publish content without any coding knowledge. Let’s take a closer look at what Headless CMS is, how to use it and why you would want one.

As technology evolves, more and more options appear to make creating websites simple, as well as improving the website’s performance and having more control and security over the applications.

Nowadays, the majority of developers use JavaScript and ReactJS. Hence it is so much easier to find a person to maintain and support the website after its launch. What’s more, as both the front-end and back-end are written in JavaScript, you do not have to find two separate developers.

WordPress architecture is monolithic, which means the user interface and data access are joined on the same platform. REST API on WordPress has been introduced to enable using it in a headless way. This allowed developers to utilise it as a back-end and having the front-end in a different project.

Separated, models and controllers are packed on the WordPress side, in charge of data manipulation and database interaction, while the front-end only connects with REST API via an HTTP client.

There are some disadvantages, though, as you will still need to configure and update WordPress, ensuring it is secure. Moreover, you will remain dependent on their technology for the development of new functionalities. To use an analogy, it is like trying to upgrade an old bike, making it heavy and in need of constant observation, instead of just going for something new.

Not only a Headless CMS offers the same services that WordPress offers, but also resizing or reformatting of image CDNs on the fly, and additional security through S3 backups. This setup assures your freedom, security and comfort, and greatly improves the performance of your application without any third-party services.

So why would I want to migrate to a headless CMS?

A Headless CMS will give you the freedom to concentrate solely on your front-end project, as it sorts out the content management and the content delivery, while you can take care of the execution.

Such a setup will be beyond useful for companies that have multiple websites and a desire to make their processes easier and cost-effective. A headless architecture basically lets centralise content management in a single administration interface, as the APIs will be consumed by the company’s different web pages.

In addition, a headless CMS allows to deliver a front-end project that represents the organisation brand by making all the products launched by the organisation look and feel in the same way, because it’s managed in the same administration panel.

To sum up, you have an administration panel already configured and maintained — sometimes even hosted — for you. The only thing you need to start creating content is to create an account. It’s especially useful in a case when you are not the only one who will edit the content. A headless architecture can make it easier for content creators or marketers to understand the workflow.

Well, should I consider migrating to the headless CMS?

The Headless CMS makes sense when it comes to optimising performance. If you have a personal website, controlled by you and you alone, then a headless setup might be unnecessary. On the other hand, if more people are involved in the project, then adopting a headless architecture might be a great option to improve performance of your website and the quality of your front-end project.

There are other benefits too. For example, because the front-end is fully independent, you can upgrade your project to the latest framework without any regard to the back-end.

Moreover, the Headless CMS simplifies the process of creating and scaling a website. You don’t depend on different administration panels, so you are able to create multi-platform projects and change how the whole application looks without modifying the structure of its content.

All in all, going ‘headless’ saves you time compared to a traditional CMS. Your Headless CMS will maintain the platform's security and updates for you. If there’s a bug or a new feature required, the Headless CMS team will develop it and you just need to start using it. Not only does it improve the user experience and design for you, it also helps with improving the performance of the database, so you can get your content instantly.

Headless CMS - what they are, how they work and differ from traditional CMSes - explained.

Headless CMS vs Wordpress. Should I migrate my website?

Tech

To turn a great idea into a working digital product, you need the right people on your team. Qualified candidates in IT are not very easy to find and, if found, to keep on your team. Instead of building an expensive in-house team, many companies opt to outsource or outstaff.

According to Grand View Research, Inc, the global expenditures for outsourcing and outstaffing will reach $936.6 billion by 2027, then growing by 7.7% yearly. Resorting to external vendors is a real world-wide trend that has become the new norm in the IT industry.

Why do companies look for talent outside their own organisations? Main reasons are expense of hiring and maintaining permanent staff, conjugated with a shortage of qualified workers. Turning to outsourcing and outstaffing allows employers to tap into whole new talent pools. Firstly, eliminating geographical borders means you can hire the best talent for your specific task from any country. Moreover, this working model is also more cost-effective, as companies determine salaries by baselines local to workers. As a result, paying for a talent from a lower cost country such as Ukraine can be as much as 50% less than for a similar talent from the United States

So, we have established that turning to the external vendor may be very beneficial to your company. The next question is, outstaffing or outsourcing? What is the difference? How to determine which suits your needs better?

While the two models seem similar on the surface, let’s define what sets them apart.

Situation: someone wants to build a house, but does not even know where to start. This person has no building experience whatsoever. They hire a construction team, describe what they want and show the blueprints — and leave them to it. This person becomes their client, and while they can visit a construction site every day, all the work is done by the professional builders. When the house is finished, the house belongs to the client, while the team moves on to build another house for someone else.

The same works for software development. When a company lacks technical knowledge, sometimes it is a more rational decision to hire professionals for a specific project that lasts a couple of months, rather than to recruit in-house developers. It just takes too many resources to invest in hiring, inducting and training an in-house team.

Outsourcing means a company gives their idea to a remote development team — and they deliver a final digital product. While an outsource vendor provides their technical and management expertise, the company can focus on its business. The concept behind is to reduce costs and a way to use someone else’s highly-specialised expertise and experience.

Situation: someone wants to build a house, has plenty of experience and has a team of relatives and friends on hand. However, they do not know which wood to use. This person calls a professional carpenter, the former becoming a client and the latter becoming a full-fledged part of the building team.

On a company scale, outstaffing means a remote specialist acts as a temporary member of your in-house team. This allows a company to ‘rent’ basically any super-specialised software developer, depending on what this specific project needs.

In addition to cost-reduction, outstaffing helps to simplify personnel management: no need to sort out vacations, sick leaves, payments, compliance with social guarantees. All of these bureaucratic questions are the responsibility of the outstaffer company. What is more, a hiring company does not have to spend time searching for and recruiting a candidate, as the outstaffer will provide a suitable expert for them.

An outsourcing company will be fully accountable for work results and quality. They decide on the framework and team composition, controlling the development process from A to Z. On the other hand, an outstaffing provider does not intrude into the company’s software engineer work and an in-house project manager will always oversee what they do and communicate with them.

Which one you need therefore depends on whether you have an in-house team and what kind of expertise you require. If you are not 100% sure about your ability to outsource or outstaff, Voypost can help you choose and build a dream team for your business needs specifically. We provide both outsourcing and outstaffing services and have extensive commutative experience in a wide variety of specialties in all areas of digital product development.

We would love to hear about your needs and put together the most suitable solutions for you.

And what could this choice mean for your business?

Outstaffing vs Outsourcing: which to choose?

To explain it simply, UAT is performed to answer the question: “Have we produced the result our customer wants?”

Actual users test the software to find out if it works as expected in real-world situations and is able to carry out day-to-day business scenarios in accordance with specifications. The UAT is most often carried out at the final stage of the software development cycle.

The steps in conducting User Acceptance Testing include:

Planning – an outline of all details of the UAT is produced.

Designing Test Cases – these test cases are designed and defined so that they will cover all the functional scenarios of the software in real-world usage. 

Selection of the Testing Team – a group of end-users is created.

Executing Test Cases and Documenting – the testing team executes the test cases, logging bugs and comments. 

Bug Fixing – the development team resolves the bugs reported by the Testing Team

Signing Off – when all of the bugs have been fixed, the Testing Team indicates acceptance that the software meets user requirements and is ready to be released.

Usually such testing happens in a war room of sorts, with the team including the users, PM and QA working through all the acceptance test cases. How do we do it at Voypost? We are a remote company that provides outsourcing and outstaffing services for clients all over the world, so after an inner session with the QA, we give out the feature to the client. They conduct the UAT autonomously.

Without proper UAT, some problems can only be noticed by users after the platform launch. Going back to debug and improve the platform will not only cost more, but can also result in a loss of reputation. The process risks being dragged out, as the little problems on each stage can pile up and in the end it may be difficult to untangle it all to address the problematic part specifically.

In addition, UAT is a good safeguard against issues that arise when change requirements are not effectively communicated to developers. Sometimes, while developers have an impression that they are following requirements to the letter, they might find errors only after the platform release. Such situations happen often when requirements change in the middle of the project.

Voypost uses Agile methodologies. In an agile setup, a Product Backlog consists of user stories. They follow a formula:

So I can (reason of need/business benefit)

This is a great guideline for UAT. The feature is clearly defined: who needs it and why. During Backlog Refinement, the client and the development team collaborate on the details of these user stories, outlining acceptance criteria.

Such an increment is only considered to be done when it is a working (meaning fully tested) software that fulfills the customer needs and meets all the acceptance criteria.

So, you might ask, how is UAT different from Functional Testing? The latter one tests specific requirements and specifications of the piece of software, however, it does not involve the user factor. It means that a functional test might conclude that software behaves as it needs to — but it cannot state whether it will actually work for the user. UAT, on the other hand, concentrates on how specific requirements are working for the end user. The focus is precisely on how well the client can use the product to complete the required tasks.

The main purpose of this testing is to validate the digital product against the business requirements. This is why this validation is carried out by the end-users — as they are familiar with the business requirements.

At Voypost, we have devised a system, where we let the client conduct UAT after each stage of the development. After they test it out and the client rules a milestone as achieved — only then they receive an invoice and pay for it, and we can move forward to the next phase of development. This way we can deliver a perfect product rapidly and ensure customer satisfaction.

Let’s unscramble why UAT is so important in the process of developing digital products.

What is UAT (User Acceptance Testing)?

Outsourcing quickly rises to prominence as one of the most efficient means of employment. It’s easy to understand why this option has become so popular: now companies can search within the much larger talent pool. No longer do they need to persuade specialists to relocate — they can find IT-specialists anywhere in the world.

For those who hope that the trend for remote working will recede — outsourcing is not going anywhere. Quite contrary, studies show that the size of the global IT-outsourcing market can increase by 98 billion USD by 2024. No surprise here, as literally every single company nowadays needs IT-support. What is a business without at least a landing page? Others need a custom management system to operate a vast database.

Let’s digest why companies turn to outsourcing.

First of all, outsourcing is cost-effective. For medium and small businesses, hiring a full-time team of engineers may be far too expensive. If you require a talent for just one project, it is wiser to hire a specialist for specific tasks. Moreover, you can find a specialist with a lower hourly rate.

Secondly, outsourcing saves time. Let’s say, the estimated development time is 400 hours. Instead of one developer, who will need 10 weeks to build your app, you can outsource a whole team that will be able to finish the project in 2,5 weeks.

It is also very important to note that you can afford to be flexible. Even if you hire a whole team of developers, it does not necessarily mean that they will be able to take on any request and task. With outsourcing, you can find an expert, whose expertise is tailored specifically to your needs.

In addition, outsourcing talent is associated with lower risks. Imagine: you hire someone, believing in their potential. After induction and training, however, you realise that this is not what you need. That means you’ve lost your time and money, and you have to start all over. On the other hand, with an outsource developer you’re paying only for the time they work on your project. You know what they are worth from the get go.

Another advantage of outsourcing for small businesses and large enterprises alike is that it may help to reduce tax rates.

Why should you consider Ukraine as a destination for outsourcing?

It just comes to the fact that you are not likely to find a better price-to-quality ratio anywhere else in the world.

The Ukraine Invest predicts that the number of IT-specialists in Ukraine will reach 250,000 by 2025. It means that the talent pool grows by about 4-5% yearly. It is the second country in Europe by the number of freelancers or self-employed developers.

It is well-known for its vast IT-community, which consists of 14 clusters and 80 companies. These clusters are located in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro and, last but not least, Lviv. Kyiv particularly has made it into the top 20 Europeans IT hubs.

Ukraine also situates more than 110 R&D centres for global tech giants, such as Microsoft, Wargaming, Apple, Samsung Electronics, IBM, Boeing, Skype, Ericsson, Siemens, Oracle, and Magento.

This may be due to the Ukrainian high work ethics standards and ensured security. Working with Ukrainian developers, you can be confident in the commitment to excellence. It is not about finishing the project as fast as possible with as little effort as possible — Ukrainian developers get invested in projects they work on and strive to cooperate as full-fledged partners. Ukrainian IT-outsourcing companies comply rigidly with NDAs, protecting your ideas and data from being stolen or copied.

It is also convenient. Ukraine is only one hour ahead of most European countries. Its 7 hour time difference with the American East Coast also helps to maintain much smoother communication between geographically dispersed teams, compared to India, Vietnam or the Philippines.

It also helps that approximately 4 out of 5 Ukrainian developers speak English at least at intermediate level. Most software development and IT outsourcing companies in Ukraine offer free English classes to their employees.

What it means essentially, is that hiring a dedicated specialist with the same level of expertise in, for example, Belarus, Poland or the Czech Republic, will cost you more than in Ukraine. The average USA or UK rates are three or four times bigger than the maximum rate within Ukraine.

All in all, Ukraine is one of the best destinations for outsourcing, the various advantages being a huge talent pool, affordable rates and easy communication.

If you decide to outsource in Ukraine, we will be happy to help you with the development of your project! With Voypost, you will get all of the pros mentioned above: a dedicated team with great English and a deep expertise in development of digital products. Drop a message to us any time if you need to boost your IT-project — or start a new one. We provide both outsourcing and outstaffing services, as well as consulting, with different payment plans. Focus on what is really important — your business, while we take care of the development.

'Outsourcing remains an essential tool for client organizations to support their strategic goals. Requirements constantly evolve (even more so due to the COVID-19 pandemic), and the industry continues to support both established and new solutions,' — Deloitte in 2020.

Benefits of outsourcing in Ukraine

Here, at Voypost, we have decided to ease the process for you with our outstaffing services. Instead of wasting your precious time searching, hiring and training, you can spend it doing business. We will help you to form a dream dedicated team for your project.

Wait, but what is a ‘dedicated team’? Let us answer some common questions concerning dedicated development teams, so you can better understand how it may help your business.

Put plainly, this is a business model that refers to your own team of specialists that work solely on a single company’s digital project on a long term basis. Its goal is for the team to compensate for the lack of necessary experience and work seamlessly as an extension of your in-house team. It may also be called ‘outstaffing’ or ‘staff augmentation’.

The specialists, of which a dedicated team consists, are hand-picked depending on your demands as a client for their skill sets and expertise. You may decide to manage the team from your side, or to assign the outstaffing vendor’s PM to coordinate the communication process.

This model has a transparent pricing system, devoid of any complexities. You pay only after you deem each milestone complete to your satisfaction. This is especially useful when the scope of the project cannot be strictly defined and your requirements change during the development process.

To sum up, members of your dedicated team are technically your employees, but you do not have to worry about administrative, HR, tax and social benefits’ issues. On the contrary, you can dedicate yourself to high-level business issues, while your dedicated team takes care of the development.

The primary difference is that within a typical outsourcing model you hire a third party that does its thing separately. They take full responsibility for a project and present to you the final product. They may work on several different projects at the same time. On the other hand, outstaffing is about becoming a part of your team and working together.

You have complete control over the team processes. While your dedicated team may not be present physically in your office, they are a full-fledged part of your organisation for the time being and are working on your project exclusively.

What does a typical dedicated team look like?

A typical dedicated team is customised according to your business requirements. It can look however you want. It can be 5 data operators or a single front-end developer — you set the rules.

Usually, though, the team looks somewhat like this

Front-end and back-end, full-stack engineers, mobile developers;

The dedicated team is useful for complex long term projects, especially if there is potential for its expansion in the future. For instance, if you are an early-stage startup, you will benefit immensely from a dedicated team. Startups are expected to grow, and this model will let you build a specialised team quickly and consequently, develop the product faster.

Another instance is when your project has vague requirements. If your idea does not have the product-market fit, the dedicated team can help you greatly by providing time and resources for you to focus on the discovery stage without the fear of spending all your or your investors’ money.

Companies that use the dedicated teams include even tech powerhouses by the likes of WhatsApp, Apple, American Express, IBM and Amazon.

I have decided to hire a dedicated team. What’s next?

Voypost has an extensive experience of outstaffing collaboration. Below is the description of our usual working process:

Scope estimation.
Firstly, we determine the amount of work and how many people are required for it. You may have a predefined scope already. Brilliant, then we can discuss the budget and outline priorities and timelines. In case you don’t have one, no worries, as we can carry out a discovery stage for you.

Talent selection.
At this phase, we select a team of skilled and motivated specialists whose expertise will suit your objectives the best.

Proposition.
During this stage, we discuss the milestones and priorities for the first sprint. Then we present a solution, expected team composition, time estimates and budget.

Kick-off.
You meet your dedicated team. They receive access to the development tools. We get the green light from you and set out to work.

Hiring a dedicated team is a big step. Your desire for awareness of all the nicks and crooks of this business model is natural. We can help you decide whether outstaffing is the right choice for you. If it’s a large, long-term project with a variety of tasks and an unchanging need for high-quality deliverables, then most probably you will need a dedicated team. However, if you have a small, time-limited project with a known deadline and predetermined resources, we may be able to suggest you our other outsourcing services.

We would love to hear about your project and help you choose the best cooperation model.

Behind every successful project, there is a great team. To find such a team is no easy feat. Even if you find great developers that specialise exactly in your area of interest (which is already a miracle in itself), what if they suck at teamwork?

Dedicated Development Teams, Ins and Outs

Ready When You Are

Ready to start development in less than a week

The hub of the latest trends, our insights and stories. Here you can read all about our latest exploits.

The Voice Of Voypost

Product

Resources

Company

We build and launch digital products for start-ups.

Voypost's work successfully helped cut down the development time of the project. They went above and beyond, putting in extra hours to finish urgent and time-bound tasks. An organized and communicative partner, they established clear expectations and demonstrated dedication in meeting them.

Voypost has successfully developed the MVP and is now developing a retailer interface for the client. The team's excellent project management skills allow them to submit deliverables on time.

The impact of Voypost was huge for us. With their services, we were able to make them a natural extension of our own team, which made it a super smooth experience. It helped us pursue a new opportunity and ship a product in weeks, that we were previously not able to do.

Good-quality, quick code allowed Voypost to iterate quickly on the solution based on customer feedback. They took scope changes in stride, adapting their task outlines to meet changing needs. Before accepting the job, Nikita had made a very clear breakdown of stories and tasks, with an estimate for each. It ensured alignment and transparency, and was a great way to start the project. Good communication was vital, and Nikita et al were super responsive and very specific. Changes needed on our end were clearly specified to our engineer. Issues were dealt with rapidly.

While the project is still in development, the Voypost team is able to surpass the quality of the client's current platform, much to the delight of the external stakeholders. They're particularly impressed with the team's efficiency in managing the project and deliverables. Voypost is quite efficient in terms of project management. They do daily standups and they like to work knowing that they have the next two weeks planned out. One of their strengths is estimating the amount of work and being efficient in delivering them.

With Voypost's help, we were able to cut the development time of new features. The team was composed of different levels of software engineers who were able to delegate tasks effectively. They managed to easily integrate themselves with the internal team, ensuring a smooth workflow.

The fact that they had a structure with senior developers joining the architecture discussion together with senior/medior developers for the hands-on work was a great advantage for us as a starting company.

Voypost's work successfully helped cut down the development time of the project. They went above and beyond, putting in extra hours to finish urgent and time-bound tasks. An organized and communicative partner, they established clear expectations and demonstrated dedication in meeting them.

We met all deadlines for the timeline of the project. Voypost delivered great work and took on a lot of tasks. They never failed to deliver and when there was something that had to be done for a certain time (demo or deadline) they would put in the extra hours to ensure completeness.

It was an excellent experience working with Nikita for Keytrack. Nikita and his team clearly communicated the roadmap and delivered high quality results on time. Would enjoy working together with him any time.

Flexibility and openness to adjustments were the strengths of Voypost. With those traits, they were able to deliver exceptional MVP and were able to address all challenges in the development stage despite ambiguous requirements and different timezones. They were open, agile, transparent, driven by the commitment to provide a high-quality end product. Super patient when it comes to deal with incomplete or ambiguous requirements & different timezones.