Offshore Today

#Innovation: Is your #offshore #outsourcing partner delivering on the promise?

Innovation; "...a new way of doing something. It may refer to incremental, radical, and revolutionary changes in thinking, products, processes, or organizations." (Wikipedia definition) 

We are very passionate about Innovation and Innovative thinking.  We like to think that all entrepreneurs are innovative by nature - or are they? From our direct experience, we have found that entrepreneurs establish new concepts and ideas, yet they often need others to help fill in the gaps or to see around corners. Does your outsource / offshore partner help or hinder critical innovation support?

When it comes to offshore service providers, we have seen some of the very best - and worst when it comes to providing innovative thinking. In order to help an entrepreneur (or business owner) innovate, the partner needs to feel empowered to do so. They must be made to feel they are an important element to the team. Some service providers never seek this -- and therefore fail. Others make it a strong part of their process - to always probe and ask questions and offer alternative suggestions and ideas. When you find this partner - you are more likely to succeed.

Tip: When vetting partners for your project, see how they react to your business objectives in the initial conversations. Do they nod their collective heads and agree with everything you are saying or do they interject their ideas at key points - asking and probing? And do they offer ideas....  even before a contract is in place. If so - this is a strong indication of a successful innovative partnership.

A partner that helps you innovate is passionate about your success... 

If you are seeking a innovative development partner - contact Cross Sea Strategy. We help manage the outsource relationship - at no cost to you.

#Offshore #Outsourcing Success: Starts with Understanding the Need

We have all seen this humorous depiction of client/developer communications. Perhaps not very funny when you consider this to be true - especially when communicating with offshore developers. 

This happens often, enough so to give offshore a bad name. And yet, whose fault is it when what is delivered is not what was requested? Perhaps without stating blame, we suggest that that offshore outsourcing partner always make it part of their process to ensure complete understanding of the clients request. In other words, the developer should stand up and take charge - using their tried-and-tested methodology (we hope they have one). The client may be a business person without project management or developer skills - another reason for the development partner to take charge.

What happens however in most cases can best be summarized by a recent entry in the Goyello Blog - (Successful Outsourcing Needs Clients Attention):

"They (Indian Development Forms) all agreed that the specifications they receive for most of the projects (from Western companies) are not clear enough. What is more, they confirmed that in many instances their developers start working on these projects without properly understanding the request. ... makes such a project doomed to failure."

Advice for the client; if your offshore vendor is not asking you in-depth questions, or is simply agreeing with everything you request...  find another vendor. In reality, you want and need a true outsourcing "partner" - that has your success at their core!

Contact me today to learn how we can help you connect with a true development partner.

Outsourcing IT Development: Keys to Success

In a past life, we represented an offshore IT Product Development company - and our differentiation was in our processes and methodology. We lost deals due to cost - because for many, cost IS the differentiator. We say this is wrong;  as they say, you get what you pay for. We recall attending a trade show where a competing vendor proudly displayed their cost ($12/hour) right on their booth banner.Would you trust them with your investment capital?

Copying is said to be a form of flattery, ok maybe it's plagiarism. Therefore, please take a look at the Six Ninja's blog article entitled: "Outsourcing software development, managing the risk" for an excellent list of suggestions when considering an outsourcing partner. A few of their points:

"If the price seems ridiculously cheap then somewhere in the chain, compromises will have been made, either in the quality, the testing or the support."

Ensure that your contract provides for schedule payments, and that you have tested and verifying your application to that point before payments are made. In addition, make sure your contract covers each point in this chain - the more detail in writing the better. Lastly, sometimes it is better to pay a premium price for a credible vendor than to save money with an unknown offshore company.

Points 5-7 are all very similar regarding release management, version control, and bug tracking.

It is critical that the offshore partner has the right logistical tools and procedures to manage the development cycle in coordination with your team. This means formal and scheduled code releases (often aligned to a payment schedule), online bug tracking and other non-email means of communication (of specs, changes, material...). A credible partner has the communications and process methodology ready to go - and well documented.

"Find out whether your outsource provider provides local project management, this is especially important if the team is located offshore.  If it is not provided as standard, ensure you have the necessary skills in-house."

The very best offshore partners can offer a local presence that can be available within the same or near timezone. We coined the phrase "Best Shoring", which provides the client with optional local services. However, even without local representation, a partner that has strong communication skills and technologies can help alleviate this offshore concern. And do note their suggestion on having the right skills in-house or the willingness to pay for a maintenance contract (their 4th point).

Cross Sea Strategy Advisors represents offshore company's that have a highly motivated and disciplined team, strong methodology and process and excellent skills - at a fair and reasonable price. For Cross Sea, presenting a partner as highly credible makes the best business sense for all parties involved.

Communications Tips with Your Offshore Team

We read an article today entitled: "7 best tips for communicating with your offshore team in india", and was distressed at some of the suggestions presented. The point of view was from the India side of the equation, yet we felt that the tips gave doubt that cross-cultural communications can be effective. Maybe we misread, what do you think?

The writer makes the following assumption, and thus his seven suggestions are rooted:

Mostly you are born & brought up in western country, having some cultural inclination and English language knowledge. Receiver is mostly the person in India, who knows English, but finds it hard to understand American English accent as well as having different cultural & geographical understanding.

The fallacy, from our personal experience, is that professional Indian's communicate quite well with their western counterparts. Naturally, at some levels the command of English is more colloquial (ya ya instead of yes for instance). However, to make the assumption that there are breakdowns in communication and cultural differences, we believe, brings great disservice to the Indian/North American offshore relationship.

In fact, we believe it is a critical step in the initial evaluation period for the US based client to speak with the offshore team. To guage not only technical know-how and innovative motivation, but also the ability to clearly understand and speak with each other. We have seen this communication go very well - enough to ensure a deal will be at hand.

We do agree with the comments in this article that for more technical discussions, the use of Skype chat and other digital means makes sense to ensure that there is clear documentation. This ensures there is a digital paper trail for technical points and agreements/understandings.

Just don't sell the verbal communication short - or perhaps find a more professional service provider.

 

Improving Outsourced Sales Force Effectiveness; A Webinar

A brief webinar from a India based outsource call center company - VCare Call Center, with tips and suggestions for establishing an effective outsourced relationship. The information is relevant to other offshore outsource services - not just the call center trade. Some of the key points presented:

Cost Focused Outsourcing - this is a major pitfall. Cost is only one reason for considering an outsourced solution. However, if this is the primary reason, there could be major pitfalls to the programs success.

Garner Group continues to show growth in outsourcing - with Indian BPO revenues doubling by 2010

Companies that focus on their core-competency, and leverage outsourcing for competitiveness will prevail.

Success with your offshore partner through effective communications, setting clear goals, monitoring and reporting on these goals - keeping in mind that the  outsource partner is an extension of your team. The better the relationship - the better the outsource outcome for your business.

View the webinar.