From 24/7 customer support potential to engineering whizzes who can tag-team across time zones, there are many compelling reasons to build teams in countries outside of your organization’s home base.
That’s exactly why 66% of U.S. companies outsource at least one department, a trend that translates to approximately 300,000 American jobs being transitioned offshore each year.
On paper, creating offshore teams is often extremely appealing. In practice, executing those plans can be a major headache, with a heavy impact on IT teams.
India is a particularly hot spot for offshore talent, but one that comes with unique device procurement challenges due to complex compliance and tax regulations that vary by region.
At Firstbase, taming global IT logistics is the core of our business. Here, we’ll guide you through potential payoffs and pitfalls so that you can equip your offshore teams for success.
Western companies typically invest in building teams in India, Southeast Asia, and elsewhere for several persuasive reasons.
When companies build teams offshore, it can impact the bottom line in meaningful ways.
A recent Deloitte survey drove home the critical nature of cost savings, with 83% of global business services organizations stating cost reduction as a top priority.
“Ultimately, cost is the biggest driver. Due to differences in the standard of living and currency exchange rates, hiring offshore is far more affordable for U.S. companies,” says Ahmad Zakaria, Chief Operating Officer at Firstbase.
Where a team member in the Western world might require a six-figure salary due to a higher cost of living, offshore talent of the same caliber can cost 20-30% less annually due to lower regional expenses.
Many Western-based companies look to offshore countries as a source of talent to propel business growth. Specifically, technical experts like engineers are easier to secure abroad—especially if you are on a tight timeline.
“India has a strong engineering talent base that can handle tasks that are hard to source locally in the U.S. or U.K. This is a big reason companies choose to go offshore," says Zakaria.
A bigger talent pool means you can identify and hire the right candidate faster. There’s even an entire host of business process outsourcing companies (BPOs) that you can employ to recruit, vet, match, and onboard offshore talent on your behalf.
Thanks to varying time zones, offshore teams can help you scale projects and increase operational efficiency. Projects never have to press pause when your India team can pick up right where your U.S. team left off.
“For engineering teams, the time zone difference can be an advantage. When the U.S. team finishes their day, teams in India can pick up the work and continue during their day. By the time the U.S. team logs back on, progress has been made,” explains Zakaria.
This handoff system enables faster workflows compared to team members working on tasks sequentially in one time zone.
The same logic applies to other operational areas. For example, customer support teams can function 24/7 thanks to time zone differences coupled with a strong cultural work ethic.
"Flexible offshore working hours are a big draw for Western companies,” Zakaria says. “Professionals in regions like India are often willing to work U.S. hours, making them available around the clock.”
The benefits are often enough to convince executives and board members to invest in offshore teams. However, building these teams comes with logistical challenges that you must carefully prepare for.
The work culture in India is always on, which is impressive. However, be aware that overall productivity in offshore regions can vary compared to Western standards.
“There are differences in communication styles and cultural expectations between regions like India and the Western world, so adaptation is essential,” Zakaria explains. “The working culture is sometimes slower paced. These challenges are part of the trade-offs that come with the benefits of offshoring."
Companies also need to plan for setting up offshore teams and keeping them running. If you expect to secure office space or conduct physical training and onboarding, you need to budget accordingly. Or, you may need to hire an offshore office manager who can put their local knowledge to use to procure IT equipment or assist with other on-the-ground duties.
Setting up offshore team members to be properly paid and provisioned can take a herculean effort. There are two primary ways to operate your business offshore: with an entity, or without one. Each approach poses challenges if you don’t have the right support.
Setting up your own local business entity in India or the offshore region in question will make it easier to procure and distribute goods within the country.
Just be aware that this can take months to accomplish, requiring countless hours of paperwork and hefty legal bills.
After you establish an entity, you will still have to navigate India’s complicated tax laws and logistics. One example is the E-Way Bill system which regulates the domestic flow of goods.
“The E-Way Bill requires you to declare the value of goods every time you ship, such as from an office to an employee’s home,” says Neil Fennerty, Senior Strategy Operations Manager at Firstbase. “Similarly, collecting equipment from employees’ homes requires a declaration letter explaining the purpose of the movement.”
There’s no question that this path requires a significant investment of time and money.
If you don’t have an established entity abroad, things get even more complex from an import and logistics perspective.
In this scenario, you’re faced with two difficult options: You can import equipment from the U.S. or buy it locally.
“Both options are difficult,” says Fennerty. “Importing involves high tariffs, long shipping times, and complex regulations. Meanwhile, buying locally means finding vendors willing to accept international wire transfers (often with high fees) and managing transactions across time zones.”
India is hands-down one of the most protectionist countries in the world, meaning equipment moves slowly over borders and at great expense.
“Without an entity, you’re limited to solutions like Amazon or Apple.com, but even then, paying with local credit cards is often not possible. If you don’t have an office, storing and retrieving devices becomes a problem,” says Zakaria.
The key to eliminating these challenges so that you can reap the benefits of offshore teams is to use a complete remote equipment lifecycle solution to make the process infinitely easier.
With the support of local vendors who understand unique logistical requirements, you can sidestep some of the red tape and begin to provision employees in India and beyond with ease.
The first step is to determine how you will hire your offshore team members. Until that’s sorted out, purchasing and managing equipment can’t happen.
“Start by defining your goal,” says Zakaria. “Do you want to set up a local office with employees on the ground, managed through local bank accounts and payroll? Or is the focus on remote hiring through platforms like Remote.com or Deel.com, with employees working remotely?”
These are two different choices that you should consider with care. Whether you set up an entity and open a local office or hire employees through a Professional Employer Organization (PEO) service, once you’ve hired your team, that’s where a solution like Firstbase can step in.
If you are wary of setting up an entity in India due to logistics, working with Firstbase can help you skip that process altogether. Our existing presence in India means you can lean on our network to procure and distribute equipment, helping you get up and running offshore faster.
Similarly, if your goal from day one is solely offshore labor, Firstbase can slot in with your employee record or PEO service to handle the rest. As new employees are ready to onboard, you can skip the stress and complexity of regional device management and have Firstbase provision each new offshore team member with the push of a button.
Once you’ve got hiring sorted out, it’s time to figure out how you will procure, ship, and store laptops and other equipment.
When you partner with Firstbase, we take the burden of procurement, customs, taxes, and cultural complexities off your IT team’s shoulders—and save you money while doing it.
With Firsbase, the streamlined equipment management process looks like this:
The benefits of a managed IT partnership extend throughout the entire employee lifecycle.
“When employees leave, Firstbase handles retrieving devices, even across different regions of a large country like India. Our team coordinates pickups, follows up diligently to ensure devices are returned, and brings them back to our warehouse,” says Zakaria.
“This process helps preserve the company’s investment, reduces cash flow strain, and allows devices to be redeployed to new hires, saving costs on acquiring new equipment."
Instead of navigating a complex offshore vendor network firsthand, companies who use Firstbase receive a one-stop solution—and one streamlined invoice—for all global services.
After your offshore team is up and running, it’s important to optimize your device management processes on an ongoing basis.
At Firstbase, our role goes beyond getting device X to employee Y.
We invest in helping you thrive by assisting you with consulting and forecasting that impact your offshore business model for the better.
“We help companies identify which devices have faster lead times and which may take longer to acquire, ensuring they can plan accordingly,” says Zakaria.
The ability to provision employees as you scale is critical, particularly when you might be hiring 10 people in India today and 100 next month.
“Once the devices are in employees' hands, we manage ongoing support, such as handling break-fix issues or replacing broken laptops. We communicate directly with employees, often using local tools like WhatsApp, to address issues efficiently.”
Building offshore teams comes with both great rewards and significant challenges.
Navigating the customs and cultures of India and other offshore countries can lead to extra costs and delays when you don’t have the right business setup or global logistics partner.
To avoid provisioning nightmares and to optimize your equipment lifecycle from day one, working with Firstbase removes major blockers from the process. When done right, both Western and offshore teams can forget about device headaches and focus on the work that truly matters.
Firstbase unlocks scalable IT logistics in India and beyond. Start your journey to offshore success today.