What is offshore development?

Offshore development refers to outsourcing system development to overseas countries with low labor costs, such as India, China, and Southeast Asian countries like Vietnam.

Since programming languages are common throughout the world, development can be done in any country as long as the program specifications are communicated correctly.

Offshore development is actively used in Japan, but it is said that offshore development accounts for about 1% of the 10 trillion yen system development market in Japan, and its share is expected to grow in the future.

(IT offshore development with large room for expansion https://www.bridge-salon.jp/report_bridge/archives/2019/07/190731_6191.html)

Offshore Development Situation by Country

In India, programmers speak English and are highly skilled, and labor costs are rising due to the large number of requests from Europe and the United States, as the country has been used as an offshore development center since early on.

Similarly, in China, costs are becoming higher due to economic development.

Southeast Asia has lower costs than the aforementioned countries, and many of these countries are attractive for offshore development.

Vietnam is a country that has achieved a good balance between technological capabilities and cost performance, and has recently become the top offshore development destination for outsourcing.

(Ratio of offshore development projects by country: https://www.offshore-kaihatsu.com/faq/doukou.php)

Characteristics of Offshore Development in Vietnam

The government is promoting infrastructure

Vietnam is strongly promoting IT as a national policy.

The infrastructure is good, the Internet is widespread, and WiFi spots are becoming commonly connected.

(Internet penetration in major Asian countries: http://www.garbagenews.net/archives/1859537.html)

Underpinning Education

In Vietnam, highly skilled engineers are being trained to become candidates for offshore development.

Japanese language education is also being offered as a first foreign language from elementary school.

(About foreign language education http://www.garbagenews.net/archives/1859537.html)

Excellent and Serious Human Resources in Vietnam

In Vietnam, there is a culture that values family above all else. For this reason, many people are willing to work for a high income to help their families.

In addition, Vietnam is a developing country with a large population of young people, who are active in completing their studies and acquiring skills in a highly competitive environment.

The average age of engineers is young, making it easy for them to absorb technology, and they are serious about their studies in order to get work.

They are easy to work together as a team on a project and are willing to contribute to the project.

Time difference between Vietnam and Japan is 2 hours

The time difference between Japan and Vietnam is 2 hours.

If a problem occurs during the daytime and you need to request an urgent fix, you can communicate almost in real time.

If it is 10:00 a.m. in Japan time, it is 8:00 a.m. in Vietnam time, so we can have our staff come to work in the office and rarely have any problems due to the time difference.

Close distance from Japan

There are direct flights from Japan to major cities, and the travel time is 6 hours.

Since one-day business trips are possible, there is a lot of interaction with Japan in Vegines, and many Japanese restaurants can be found in the area.

In fact, many Japanese people live here.

Japanese-style “spinach” has taken root.

Vietnam is friendly and accepting, with Japan being ranked as one of the top favorite countries.

(High sensitivity by country https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000039.000004729.html)

Vietnamese offshore development companies are often accustomed to working with Japanese companies, as many Japanese companies have already established operations in Vietnam.

The word “horenso,” which is considered awareness in Japanese companies, has been handed down and they understand the importance of progress reports in Japanese development.

Challenges in Offshore Development

Communication problems

In most cases, the client gives instructions through a bridge engineer (BrSE), an engineer who can speak Japanese.

The bridge engineer is usually a foreigner who understands Japanese, and problems are often heard that the language is difficult to communicate or that they do not understand the business.

In addition, programmers sometimes cannot find typos in the system notation because they are developing without understanding Japanese.

It is important to check if the offshore development company has a Japanese staff to follow up with the client.

Problem of business understanding

In order for a bridge engineer to communicate requirements and specifications to the development team, he or she must have a good understanding of the business.

It is good to see, for example, that the bridge engineer who will be the point of contact has lived in Japan for many years.

There is a risk that the engineer will not understand the explanation of the business, resulting in high communication costs and incorrect specifications.

However, with the increasing number of people who can speak Japanese and the increasing number of projects in Japan these days, understanding of the business is gradually becoming more common.

Weakness in Japanese UIUX

When design and UX design is left to designers, the content may be torn apart from the point of not understanding the language.

Differences in thinking and culture

There are differences in the way of thinking between Japanese and Vietnamese, so there are things that cannot be passed off in the Japanese way, such as service overtime.

(Vietnamese way of thinking https://global-saponet.mgl.mynavi.jp/culture/3025#chapter-5)

It is important to understand the differences in ways of thinking, respect others, and build a relationship of trust.