Virtual Offshore Entity Model

GlobalSoft’s Virtual Offshore Entity (VOE) is an engineering service established to operate like an offshore operation for an ISV. It exists within the operations of an established software engineering business, a discrete legal entity, which provides physical facilities, legal operating status, staffing, HR management, and administration.

Legally, the VOE is part of the operations of GlobalSoft’s engineering business. In practice, the operations are managed by the ISV just like an offshore entity or regionally located engineering team. The activities of the staff, the roles and functions that are performed, the processes followed, etc., are all determined and managed by the ISV.

A useful analogy may be a co-location facility, where the facility provider is responsible for providing the physical building, security, power, connectivity, and other infrastructure level essentials. The collocation clients are responsible for installing, configuring, and managing their own servers. Similarly, the Virtual Offshore Entity model gives ISV’s the flexibility of using their own processes and operating systems in a low cost region, without the responsibility for payroll, rent, tax filings, and other legal and administrative responsibilities.

Similarly, the Virtual Entity model gives ISV’s the flexibility of using their own processes and operating systems in a low cost region, without the responsibility for payroll, rent, tax filings, and other legal and administrative responsibilities.

There are a broad range of engineering services that can be provided under the Virtual Entity model, but the most obvious are technical support, QA, and product engineering.

Why

When a Software Vendor is looking to access low-cost engineering resources they are typically presented with 2 options — outsourcing the function to a 3rd Party, or establishing their own operation in a low-cost location. In many cases the outsource option is not attractive and establishing an off shore entity is costly and time consuming. This is when a Virtual Offshore Entity becomes the best solution — all the advantages of your own offshore location without the time, cost, compliance, and general headaches involved to set up your own operation.

How it Works

The VOE works the same as your onshore operation, with no additional compliance requirements. GlobalSoft takes care of setup and administrative operations. The ISVcarries out functional management, using the same methods used at home. Visit How It Works to learn what is involved in setting up and running a Virtual Offshore Entity. Visit the Resource Cost Calculator to compare the cost of a US-based team and a VOE team.

Applications of the Virtual Offshore Entity Model

The Virtual Offshore Entity Model can be applied towards any type of software engineering services, but it is especially well suited for staffing of the following teams: