Offshore development centre
An offshore development centre is a dedicated software team based in another country that works as a long-running extension of a company's own engineering function, under one accountable delivery owner, rather than a group of contractors assembled for a single project.
Submit a project Set up an offshore development centreReviewed by David Nguyen (CEO) · Updated 6 Oct 2026 · 3 min read
This term is one of the entries in the OutsourcingVN glossary of words buyers meet while comparing engagement models.
Why it matters
The distinction buyers usually miss is time horizon, not location: an offshore development centre is set up to run for years, with its own governance, continuity plan and named ownership, while a project team is scoped to deliver one outcome and then wind down. Confusing the two leads to either overbuilding governance for a short project or underbuilding it for a team meant to outlast several product cycles. OutsourcingVN is operated by Netbase JSC, and the first question worth answering before naming one is which of those two shapes the work actually needs.
An example in practice
A company's product has grown past what its in-house team can cover alone, and the gap is not one project but an ongoing stream of work across several product lines. Rather than re-running a hiring and project search each time new work appears, the company sets up a dedicated team that stays assigned to its codebase indefinitely, with its own reporting line, onboarding plan and exit terms agreed from the start.
Common misreadings
An offshore development centre is not a new office the buyer opens — it is a team the buyer directs inside a delivery partner's existing operation, not a legal entity or premises the buyer owns. It is also not simply staff augmentation under a longer name: the defining feature is standing governance and continuity, not just that the engagement happens to run a long time. And it is not the only way to get long-running capacity — a milestone-based project delivery model can also be renewed repeatedly, which is why the choice between the two is worth making deliberately rather than by default.
Plan the next step for your project
Common questions
No — a project is scoped to one outcome; a centre is a standing team meant to run for years.
Not necessarily — the team can be directed inside a delivery partner's existing operation without the buyer establishing its own entity there.
Related decisions
Deciding whether a dedicated, long-running team fits your situation, and how to set its governance, ownership and exit terms, is covered in the offshore development centre guide. When ongoing capacity is what you need, describe the scale and the time horizon, and Netbase will respond through Netbase's own outsourcing-services platform; submit a project when you are ready.