Over the last decade that SSI has been in business there has been a lot of talk, and even more written of the benefits of outsourcing such as cost savings and ability to grow, without growing your team size or fixed costs in the home office.
However, very LITTLE has been written about why it fails and let´s not be shy about it or beat around the bush because IT DOES! And when it does it unfortunately gives the whole industry a "bad rap!"
We have noticed that there are many reasons why OFFSHORING fails and thought to document it for the benefit of our prospective new clients:
- Poor communication - not everything that needs to be said can be said on skype via e-chat. Sometimes, you just need to pick up the phone and speak to the developer who´s working on the project. Hence, it pays to have a developer w/good communication.
- Big time lag in working hours - we work YOUR hours so it feels like we´re working in the next Suite on the same office floor and not in an alien land.
- Poor Project Management - someone needs to be appointed as the POINT person for the project on both ends. "Too many chefs spoil the broth" as the saying goes for good food, it does too for developing good code too. There should only be one person dedicated on both ends for the project.
- Well thought out and documented development brief - from the client is essential for the developer to reference when he/she is in doubt and the client is Un-reachable. I have seen one-too-many skype briefsso many
- Want to Outsource a project to a new IT firm with a project which has a very tight deadline- Don't do it! You will lose the client & the new firm together. For projects with really tight deadlines only outsource to trusted partners otherwise more likely than not your decision will fray your nerves because the new firm doesn't exactly understand what you need.
- Find a firm whom you feel comfortable talking to and if you both are able to GET each other. - An old IT professor used to say "worry about really Understanding what you need to build, not how you will build the code/app/program! building IT is hardly the challenge...... It's communicating what you want BUILT that feels like climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.
- Unrealistic Goals - even the best IT outsourcing firms cannot deliver their top quality in the first shot. It takes some oiling so to speak on the first two projects for the process to ´mature´ so that both companies teams understand how the other party works. This is why small Wordpress "test- bed" projects are imperative to check if the IT firm has potential. Once that is established fine-tuning of results always follows with good communication and over time.
In closing, I would like to say that just like all your fingers aren´t the same shape or size, similarly neither are all pHp-IT outsourcing firms. We have learned over the decades how to avoid the pitfalls mentioned above and have learned from our mistakes. Moreover, one of the co-founders is an Alumnus from Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh and has worked in the Americas for over a decade so he understands the 'mission-critical' culture of design firms in the West. He has relocated to Asia primarily to build our data centres and ensure quality coding.
Try us out RISK-free on your 1st project! We will build the site according to your SPEC for you to check on our servers. You don't pay until you are satisfied with the result and until we transfer the code onto your server.
That's 'SSI' Iron-clad guarantee!
