What Makes A Dedicated Ruby On Rails Developer From India A Better Alternative Than A Freelancer?

Outsourcing IT and software development to India has long been the norm with companies in the US, and now increasingly with companies in the UK, Australia and Canada. Indian software professionals are in high demand not just because Indian labour is cost-effective, but because when it comes to skills, talent and domain expertise, (besides having fluency in the English language), Indian IT engineers and developers are among the best in the world.

Ruby on Rails, the open source web development framework that has revolutionized the way web applications are created, is one of the most commonly outsourced software development work. However, a word of caution for the companies in the US and UK who wish to outsource Ruby on Rails to India. Outsourcing has different models – the freelancing model, the outright project outsourcing model and, finally, the virtual employee model. The model you choose would ultimately determine the success of your outsourcing experience.

Having said that, a dedicated Ruby on Rails developer easily scores above a mere freelancer on several counts.

A virtual employee, as the name suggests, is an employee who works exactly like a locally hired resource except for the fact that they are located somewhere halfway around the globe. In all other respects, this remote worker is similar to a physically present employee.

Unlike a freelancer, who works for more than one client at a time, dividing their time between several assignments and deadlines, the virtual employee Ruby on Rails developer, would be committed only to you and your company and work. 'Dedicated' and 'exclusive' are terms that are synonymous with the virtual employee.

Any software development work cannot be successful if the developer is made to work with obsolete hardware and software or limited technology. The outsourcing service provider, from whose well-maintained office the virtual employee works, obviously has to have the latest hardware, software and technology in place if it wishes its clients to be happy with their virtual employee and be satisfied enough to come back with more projects. For a freelancer, such investment in expensive hardware and technology for just one client is not a financially promising prospect. And, so the quality of work simply cannot be the same as the one that a virtual employee can produce.

Close collaboration and communication are a given when hiring a virtual employee Ruby on Rails developer. Thanks to superior communication technology such as Skype webcam, instant messengers, collaboration software, and video conferencing, a client can easily access their virtual employee as frequently as they wish to, irrespective of the time zone differences. Sadly, such convenience of contact is denied when working with a freelancer. The time zone difference means that a freelancer is not available during the hours that you are at work and vice versa. So, issues that need urgent attention may have to wait instead of having instant resolution which is the case with a virtual employee.

Freelancers do come with a notorious reputation of abandoning projects mid-way in favour of a higher-paying client, or failing to meet deadlines and submitting below standard work. This is because there is no supervising authority to monitor and keep tabs on the freelancer, who usually works from home, unsupervised. A virtual employee, on the other hand, works from the controlled office environment of the vendor, where the vendor's HR managers are always present to keep a watch over your employee.

In the final analysis, any outsourcing success has to depend largely on the choice of the outsourcing partner, and a virtual employee offers the best means of achieving that.