Outsourcing to Serbia: Why your vendor’s company culture is vital for long-term collaboration

If you’re here, you’ve probably googled “outsourcing to Serbia” to get a better sense of vendors in this part of the world. There are many articles online that emphasize Serbian hospitality, professionalism, knowledge of English, expertise, and affordable hourly pricing. 

These are all valid points, but they don’t answer the question that underlies all business collaborations in the world:

Is this a benefit or a threat to our company’s culture?

Regardless of conditions, your external teams are real people you have to work with every day. It’s good for the bottom line and it saves us both time and nerves if we’re compatible.

In Serbia, we foster a strong culture of experimentation.

Serbs are resourceful by nature. A turbulent history made us learn how to adapt. We know how to get around tough bottlenecks. Our culture is based on thousands of close-knit communities and mini-tribes that rely on the mantra “I know someone who knows someone”.

Need more developers? I know someone. 

Need a specific skill set? I know a guy.

There’s a bug we can’t solve? Let me contact a friend of mine…

We provide our coworkers with space to test their ideas. You’ll never get a team of 100% yay-sayers. It’s just not in our nature. Yes, we do follow procedures, of course. But constantly testing boundaries and processes allows us to think out of the box and create better software.

Vendors with defined vision and mission employ high-performance employees. Even if it’s a cliche.

Software development companies with defined business strategies attract highly valuable teams and have a lower turnover. They intend to exist in the market for a long time.

Of course, you’ll find many nameless, scraped up teams who just wish to get the job done, collect their paycheck and go on with their lives. If you’re outsourcing a smaller project where you just need an extra pair of hands, that’s probably fine. 

But if you’re looking for long-term vendors who care, try software development companies with a mission. 

Even if the missions sound like a cliche, it’s still a signal of strategic, long-term thinking. In Serbia, IT is the largest and strongest industry that grows by 85-100% every year. This fact speaks for itself about competitiveness around here.

Many Serbian vendors lived and worked abroad. You’ll get a combination of Western and Eastern working culture.

According to McKinsey, diversity increases the likelihood of financial overperformance by 35%.

Having a partner that understands your culture, but infuses the peculiarities of their own, might bring new perspectives to the table and solutions you previously haven’t thought about.

Our software engineers often study and work abroad. Foreign companies with subsidiaries in Serbia send our developers, project managers and other IT professionals to international conferences and HQs.

Combine international experience with a local Serbian resourcefulness and experimentation and you’ll get an X factor for your company.

People connect with people

After considering all the conditions that vendors offer you, from budgets to skill sets, we recommend checking if the cultural fit is right. If you’re on the same wavelength, turning your ideas into viable solutions becomes so much easier.

Your employees will experience a smoother process of managing tasks and projects. 

Your bottom line will increase.

And your Slack channels will become way more engaging, that’s for sure.