12 Questions Singapore Companies Should Ask an Offshore Development Partner

Question 1: Who owns the code, and from when?

Paying for software does not automatically make it yours. Under Singapore's Copyright Act 2021, the creator of a commissioned work is generally the first owner of copyright unless the contract says otherwise, as IPOS explains in its summary of the Act. Your vendor's developers write the code, so the vendor holds the rights until a written assignment moves them to you. If the vendor sits in another country, its home law governs its own staff as well, and the assignment has to work there too.

A good answer: copyright in everything written for you passes to your company on payment, the contract says so in plain words, and the repository lives in your organisation's GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket account from the first commit. A weak answer: "we hand over the code at the end."

Question 2: Whose name will the accounts be in?

Cloud hosting, domains, app store listings, payment gateway accounts, email sending services and analytics should all be registered to your company, with the vendor added as a user you can remove. If a vendor insists on hosting under its own account for convenience, you are renting your own product back.

Question 3: What happens if we stop working together?

Ask for the exit plan before the start plan. You want documentation good enough for another developer to pick up the work, a defined handover period, and no proprietary framework that only the vendor can maintain. Ask how long a new developer on their own staff takes to make a first useful change in an existing project. That answer tells you how readable their code tends to be.

Question 4: Will your developers handle our customers' personal data, and on what terms?

A vendor that processes personal data on your behalf under a written contract acts as a data intermediary under the PDPA. The PDPC's Guide to Managing Data Intermediaries sets out what a contract should cover, including the same obligations flowing down to any sub-contractor, no undue delay in reporting data incidents, and clear rules on overseas transfers. Your company stays responsible for the data even when someone else touches it, so this answer matters more than a polished portfolio.

A good answer names the data developers will see, explains that most development happens on masked or synthetic data, and offers to sign your data processing clauses without a fight.

Question 5: Where will the data sit, and where will it be accessed from?

Section 26 of the PDPA restricts transfers of personal data outside Singapore. The PDPC's advisory guidelines on the Transfer Limitation Obligation explain that an overseas recipient must be bound by legally enforceable obligations, such as a contract, to give the data a standard of protection comparable to the PDPA, and that such a contract should specify the countries the data may go to. In practice: production databases stay in a Singapore cloud region, offshore developers reach production only when needed and through logged access, and the contract lists where data may travel.

Question 6: What will we see every two weeks?

Status reports are easy to write. Working software is much harder to fake. Ask whether you get a staging environment you can click through at a fixed interval, with release notes that map back to the scope document. If the first demo is promised for month three, plan for month five.

Question 7: Who exactly will work on our project?

Ask for the names and roles of the people who will write and review your code, not just the sales engineer on the call. Ask what happens when one of them leaves: how much notice you get, how handover works, and whether a replacement's ramp-up time is billed to you.

Question 8: How do our working hours overlap?

Singapore runs on UTC+8 and India on UTC+5:30, so Singapore is two and a half hours ahead. A developer in India working 10:00–19:00 IST is online from 12:30 to 21:30 in Singapore. That gives you a full afternoon of overlap, but a 09:00 SGT stand-up would land at 06:30 IST. Agree a fixed daily window, usually early afternoon in Singapore, and a response-time rule for urgent production issues.

Question 9: How do you test, and can we see the results?

Look for automated tests that run on every change, review by a second developer before anything merges, and test results you can read without a guide. Ask to see a redacted pull request from a past project. A vendor that tests only by clicking through screens before a demo will ship regressions that your customers find first.

Question 10: How do you manage access and credentials?

You want multi-factor authentication on every account that touches your systems, access limited to the people who need it, secrets kept in a vault rather than in code or chat messages, and same-day removal of access when someone leaves the project. Ask what they would do in the first hour if a developer's laptop were stolen tomorrow.

Question 11: Is the price fixed, and what changes it?

A fixed quote is only as good as the scope behind it. Ask for a written scope that lists screens, user roles, integrations and reports, plus a change process where new requests are priced and approved before anyone builds them. Open-ended hourly billing moves all of the estimating risk onto you.

Question 12: Will this project qualify for a grant, and when must we apply?

Check this before you sign or pay a deposit. Enterprise Singapore's Enterprise Development Grant, Productivity Solutions Grant and Market Readiness Assistance ceased on 29 September 2026 and were replaced by the EDGE Grant from 30 September. The EDGE Grant FAQ states that an application counts as retrospective, and will not be supported, if work has started or any payment or deposit has been made before you apply. Some activities also require a pre-approved vendor. Ask your vendor whether it can meet the requirements of the specific activity you have in mind, and get the answer in writing.

• "You will get the source code when the project is complete."
• "We host everything on our own servers; it is simpler that way."
• "We do not sign data processing clauses."
• "Our developers rotate between projects as needed."
• "We will know the price once we start."
• A portfolio with no working links, no named products and no way to see real screens.
• Pressure to pay a large deposit before a written scope exists.

We are a software company in Greater Noida, India, with more than 10 years in business, 963+ projects delivered and 63+ developers. Here is how we work, so you can hold us to it:

• After a short discovery call, we send a written scope and a fixed quote.
• You get working software on a staging server every two weeks.
• Source code and accounts are set up in your company's name.
• We sign an NDA on request, and we work with you over video calls and shared project boards.

The products in our case studies were built for the Indian market, including ERPSetu, a multi-industry ERP live since September 2026. You can browse the rest of our case studies and read more about the company. If you are scoping custom software, these 12 questions are the same ones we expect you to ask us.

Can offshore developers work on systems that hold Singapore customers' personal data?

Yes, provided you meet the PDPA's transfer requirements, typically through a contract that binds the vendor to a comparable standard of protection and lists where the data may go. Keeping production data in Singapore and giving developers masked data reduces the exposure further. Take legal advice on your specific case.

Should we start with a small paid pilot?

Often, yes. A paid piece of work lasting two to four weeks, such as one module or a technical design, shows you how a vendor communicates, estimates and tests before you commit to a full build.

How many vendors should we interview?

Three is usually enough to compare answers properly. Beyond five, the process tends to become a price contest, which rewards whoever understated the scope.

Does the vendor need to be based in Singapore for EDGE?

That depends on the activity. Read the requirements on the specific EDGE activity page and the FAQ before you choose a vendor, and confirm eligibility before any work or payment starts.

If you would like to put these questions to us directly, book a scoping call. Bring your process notes or a rough feature list, and we will tell you plainly what we would build, how long it would take and what we would need from you.