<10 tips to make offshoring successful> kieon.com
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Know who you are working with The internet makes it easy to business with companies no matter where they are. The downside is that without some degree of due diligence it’s very difficult to know exactly who you are dealing with as anyone with a phone line and a well crafted website can present themselves as the world’s greatest partner.
Some key questions to ask are:
•D o they have their own directly employed staff or do they act as agents/work with sub-contractors?
• Where are they actually located?
• What do their most recent accounts look like?
Taking time to carry out some initial checks will quickly establish whether they are an appropriate partner for you to even begin to consider working with.
Make sure contracts are enforceable Enforcing contracts across countries should things go wrong can be difficult at the best of times and impossible at worst When entering into service agreements it is important to be very clear about how your contracts with your partners can be relied upon in the unfortunate event should things go wrong.
Some key questions to ask are:
• Are you dealing with a local company or directly with an offshore one?
• If they are acting as agents/using sub-contractors are you protected if they fail to deliver?
• Do items such as their Professional Indemnity insurance provide you with sufficient cover when working offshore?
Most of the time none of this is going to matter to you as contracts are only really important when things go wrong but it is important to ensure that if the worst does happen you are actually covered.
Ask for samples of work There are many immensely talented offshore companies that produce work of the highest quality day in day out. The problem is that once something’s online it can be very difficult to be completely certain which company built what. As such it’s worth asking for more than a portfolio of a partners work.
Some key questions to ask are:
• Can you send me samples of code across different disciplines rather than pointing me to work that you have done?
• Do you have defined internal coding standards and may I see them?
• Another question?
Most of the time none of this is going to matter to you as contracts are only really important when things go wrong but it is important to ensure that if the worst does happen you are actually covered.
Speak to other clients References are always one of the best ways to see if a company is an appropriate for you to partner with. Take the time to pick up the phone and speak to some of their existing clients and see what they have to say about them.
Some key questions to ask are:
â&#x20AC;˘ What type of projects have you done with them; both scale and complexity?
â&#x20AC;˘ How do they respond when things go wrong?
What one thing could they do to improve their service to you? The most important thing to ensure when speaking to their existing clients is that they have worked with them on similar work to that which you are considering or their reference could be meaningless. to ensure that if the worst does happen you are actually covered.
Understand their processes Clearly defined processes are one of the foundations of a successful offshoring relationship The problem is that once something’s online it can be very difficult All companies will have their own way of working and differing degrees of flexibility when it comes to adapting them to the way you work. It’s important to understand these from the outset so that you can be sure they’ll work for your circumstances.
Some key questions to ask are:
• Can we see how your processes are documented and implemented?
• Do we have access to your version control and issue tracking software or will you work with ours?
• How flexible can you be in fitting in with the way we do things?
Clarifying how things will work from the outset will ensure that things run much more smoothly as the amount of work undertaken between you increases.
Culture is one of the biggest stumbling blocks in any offshoring venture. When entering into service agreements it is iPeople’s ways of working both as companies and culturally can differ greatly and if this is not addressed and understood from the beginning it can cause massive problems further down the line. It’s important to take time to be sure that you are comfortable with the firm you are intending to deal with.
Some key questions to ask are:
• What are your working practices and employee conditions like?
• Am I currently dealing with the people that will be my day to day contacts?
• How well are we communicating both in terms of language and understanding?
There will always be cultural differences when working with any company. The key is to be aware of them from the start and address them accordingly right from the outset.
Make sure there’s a cultural fit
What happens when the lights go out? Emerging economies often have emerging infrastructure. It is a hard reality that even in the most developed places power and internet connections can fail and cause problems and this can be a much more regular occurrence offshore. It is important to ensure that potential partners have well thought out business continuity plans in place.
Some key questions to ask are:
â&#x20AC;˘ What do you do in the event of a power failure?
â&#x20AC;˘ H ow many internet providers and connections do you have?
â&#x20AC;˘ How is your data backed up and how quickly can it be recovered?
With proper planning less reliable infrastructure need present no problems at all and in fact can often mean that offshore partners have far more resilient systems then their clients.
Go and visit them Firsthand experience and personal contact is extremely valuable. There’s nothing that can replace the long lasting benefit of actually visiting potential partners both in terms of the depth of relationship it can build and the ensure that all that you have been told and shown of the partner is actually the case.
Some key questions to ask are:
• Can I meet the project managers and teams that I’ll be working with?
• Can you show me around your facilities and back-up infrastructure?
• What else?
There is nothing that can replace the peace of mind that comes from having visited a potential partner’s offices and met the people you’ll be working with face to face.
Do a trial job The proof of the pudding is in the eating. OK so this is a cliché but it holds true more often than not. Once you are happy that you have found a company that you can work with arrange an initial trial job to see how things work between you in a way that’s risk free.
Typical ways to run a trial include:
• Creating a small test project specifically for the purpose of a trial
• Redoing a small project that has already been completed
• Working in parallel on a small live project as a trial
Whichever way you choose to run a trail the most important thing to remember is that its purpose should be to start to understand how each of you work and learn from it and not that it is an effort to ‘catch out’ your potential offshore partner.
Plan for the long-term All successful relationships are based on trust and time. It is really important to look to the long term when selecting an offshore partner to work with. The most successful partnerships generally require a desire to work together as equals, to learn from mistakes and to continually work on improving how the partners work together.
Some key points to consider include:
• Ensuring that your offshore partner has the scale to be able to work with you as you grow
• Having frequent project and overall working relationship reviews and building from the learning’s from them
• Genuinely working as partners to extract the maximum benefit that such a relationship can bring
When planned and approached properly offshoring brings significant benefits that will enable your company to grow and succeed in an extremely cost effective way.
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Sample vendor questionnaire
Sample vendor questionnaire â&#x20AC;˘ Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. * Sed suscipit rhoncus leo, eu faucibus purus laoreet ut. * Aenean viverra ornare magna, vel vestibulum dolor tempus sed. * Etiam venenatis lectus et dolor auctor vitae feugiat diam auctor. * Ut in justo sapien, non vulputate odio. * Sed a lorem accumsan arcu accumsan tincidunt. * Curabitur ullamcorper tellus sed elit scelerisque facilisis. * Proin sed diam a lorem feugiat luctus. * Aliquam quis purus at urna sollicitudin mattis sit amet eget diam. * Nullam at nibh diam, et euismod est. * Morbi convallis nulla id nisl tempor fermentum. * Nullam ac massa mauris, vitae consequat metus. * Donec et felis erat, vel ullamcorper risus. * Aliquam sit amet magna ut leo tincidunt faucibus vel id erat. * Proin cursus quam id tortor elementum eu dictum sapien consect * Vivamus id justo id enim dignissim eleifend non non diam. * Aenean sed elit nisi, sed hendrerit elit. * Vivamus tincidunt adipiscing erat, id sodales lacus molestie eget. * Proin ornare lorem in quam feugiat vehicula. * Phasellus et justo non augue egestas placerat vel sit amet sapien. * Sed quis nibh lorem, quis fermentum tellus. * Praesent facilisis diam in leo fermentum varius. * Nulla tempus felis ac diam fringilla sodales. * Duis rhoncus interdum nisi, venenatis semper tellus interdum vel. * Integer ultricies malesuada dui, eget pellentesque lacus dictum
Choosing a partner flowchart