Web Application Development Gets a Lot of Attention
The latest web application development has caught the attention of the entire business world. An enterprise prefers outsource development to boost the bottom line, save time and manage the cost effectively. There are various reasons cited for the outsourcing the product, but one should know that when does it really make sense?
When does outsourcing make sense?
Outsourcing product development is needed when the company needs expertise and it does not have full time involvement. When the company does not seem to have enough resource to complete the work. When it is difficult to manage the internal teams to do few or all projects. When there is a desire of incorporating new approach in the product. When the product development company want to find and evaluate the capability of the outsourcing firm. When the company wants to know the methods and protocols of the outsourcing firm.
Reasons for outsourcing product development
To acquire expertise
The most likely reason for outsourcing to the product development services is to acquire expertise which is currently not available with the company. Expertise lacks because of any core activity or due to rapid rise in the demand which a company cannot fulfill. In both of the situation outsourcing is a wonderful way to plug the demand for expertise.
To build the additional resource
One of the clear reasons for outsourcing is to add the number of resource to the development team to end the project. When the internal team get pressurized and burdened they lead ineffectual product development thus additional resource are needed to support the project and the team.
To minimize the development costs
One of relevant reason for outsourcing is to minimize the overall development cost of the products. Outsourcing is a cost-effective measure and it cuts overall cost of employees such as taxes, benefits and salary, overall expenditure of desks, computers, hardware and software tools, supporting costs, risk costs etc.
Off-shore business is grabbing grounds gradually and companies are in fact saving on the bottom line by cutting costs. However there are few issues that are most often faced while getting services accomplished from a service provider or agency which is across shores. Here are some handy tips the areas which can be improved upon to overcome such difficulties.
Communication Barriers
Lack of communication can be said to be the major factor in bringing failure to some outsourcing projects. No doubt communication has become easy and can cost nearly nothing to interact seamlessly. However at the end of the day one is still dependent on the individuals on the other end their communication capabilities.
While dealing with the service provider, the clients should make sure that the requirements provided to them are detailed and well understood. If not, the work might not go as planned and at the time of the website, you might have a long list of things to do even beyond the timeline which was planned.
A good way to overcome this difficulty is to have as many voice interactions with the account manager who is servicing your account. Communicating only over email can bring out communication gaps.
Moreover, the language might also be an issue while communicating. Let us consider that you are sitting in the United States and your web solutions company is situated in India; there might be problem with understanding due to the difference in accent. In that case, it is advisable to go on a Live Chat which is always helpful. Even then if there is difficulties in making them understand, do a little research and send them samples of how you want your website to be. Make little efforts today and you can get great results tomorrow!
Ill defined acceptance criteria
Although there are various expectations that you might have from the Web Solutions Company you are hiring , but you might still be have doubts about the conditions in the contract provided. Thus there are some factors that you might ignore at the first place but create problems when questioned. Certain things need to be clearly mentioned in the contract before you signup.
The objective for the payments and the acceptance norms of the payments should be plainly displayed so that you do not have any problems while filling up the payment amount in the cheques. The process for managing work regarding defects or Change Requests should be clarified. This should be done so that the service providers do not throw tantrums if there arises some issues with the execution of the project. In case any target is missed by the service providers, the party that will decide on the payment withholding needs to be defined frankly. This will assure that the service providers will never make frequent errors and will be extra careful. Involvement of the customers is important
It is often seen that once the client explains the requirements to the service provider, they develop the misconception that the work will be done. Ideally one should not really pull out of the progress tracking of the project and be updated with what is happening atleast on a weekly basis. This way, there will be less errors and would have less hassles at the time of project delivery. So it is prudent enough if you involve yourself in the project and keep yourself abreast with the ongoing development.
You might want to also list periodic updates in your service agreement at the outset with the service provider.
Issues with cultural differences
Cultural differences are sure to arise in case of off-shore business. Thus it needs to be made certain that the contact points between you and the service provider is cleared out for smooth execution of any project. It is preferable that you interact with the agency representatives well at the outset over the phone and emails to satisfy yourself that the difference is not too wide. For e.g. handing over a Search Engine Optimization project to a Chinese company may not be a good idea. There is such a big language gap that the only way that might help interacting is through Sign Language! That unfortunately is not an option if you are sitting a few thousand miles away..
Time differences and work ethics
Time differences between countries can be another factor in creating problems at work. For instance, if you are in Europe and your service provider is in India, there is a time difference of 3-5 hours. To tackle such problems, one has to adjust the timings accordingly and turn the problem into a void one. For this, you need to tell them your availability time during which they would easily be able to get in touch with you for sorting out problems or answering queries. If the time difference is more than 10 hours then ensure you have some kind of an overlap of atleast a few hours during the day so that you can atleast interact.
Also, try and get a grasp of the work ethics of the company you intend working with beforehand. It is important to see if they are forthcoming and pro-active. Companies or groups which are not are a big NO.
Working with an Organization or an individual?
Since outsourcing has become a lucrative opportunity in the developing countries, a lot of freelancers and fly-by-night operators have mushroomed. A lot of untrained and under qualified people could actually pose to be an organization. While you are outsourcing, it most recommended to go ahead with a company which has some proven credentials and verified references. If you are not sure about the credentials of an individual or a group of individuals, do not associate with them. You might end up throwing your money away and trying to press charges against the person but all in vain. Working with an organization on the other hand will be safer bet as a lot of your due-diligence is automatically done. You are already going to save money by working with an offshore provider, why get more greedy! Ask for some globally authenticated quality certifications – An ISO 9001 -2000 is an example.
If you think you have tackled all these points diligently, some of the Advantages of Outsourcing your project can be seen by clicking the link.
When does outsource product development make sense?
Outsource product development has caught the imagination of the entire business world. Sometimes, an enterprise opts for outsourced product development to manage costs, boost bottom line and save time for core activities. Other times, some strategic purposes such as dispense with some centers located at critical geographical regions have bearing on the option for outsource product development. There are several reasons can be cited for outsourcing option. But the moot question is -When does outsourcing make sense?
Outsourcing product development makes the most sense when:
There is a need for expertise the company doesn’t have or need full time involvement. There is a need for resources the company currently does not have to complete all of the required work. It incurs heavily to keep up internal teams to do some or all of the development projects. There is a desire to incorporate standard practices or fresh approach in the product development processes. The capabilities to find, evaluate, and hire the outsourcing firm. Methods, protocols, and resources for communicating and managing the outsourcing firm. Tools, resources, and plans for gaining, storing, and using knowledge transfer. What are the reasons to outsource product development?
Acquiring Expertise
One of the most plausible and successful reasons to outsource product development is to acquire expertise not currently available within the company. This lack of expertise could be because of a specific, non-core activity within the company, or it could be due to sudden rise in demand that exceeds the company’s existing capability.
In both situations, outsourcing product development is an excellent way to plug the need for expertise. However, a critical factor for successful implementation of outsourced product development is to ensure protection of all proprietary information, which should be arranged at the earliest or just before the onset of the project with some sort of contract.
Building Additional Resources
One very obvious reason to outsource is to supplement the number of development teams available to complete projects. Actually, in most of the cases firms prefer to staff below their total development capabilities in order to lower costs and risk, and with outsourcing they escape the possible burden of repetitive layoffs and hiring sprees.
This approach to outsourcing, or resource expansion, works well when the company outsourcing the project understands the capabilities required to effectively outsource a development project. These capabilities include:
Identifying the best projects to outsource Managing the outsourcing relationship Identifying the project deliverables Auditing and smoothly integrating the project deliverables into existing systems
Although expansion or augmentation of resources is a common reason for outsourcing, it sometimes acts as a compelling reason for firms to miss out this opportunity. Ineffective cost benefit analysis and an inability to measure internal development costs often leads to conclude that the project can be done internally for less. Inevitably, the internal teams get pressurized and over burdened that lead to delayed and ineffectual product development. Development teams focusing on a single project produce the best results because they avoid the overhead and mistakes that result from multi-tasking across several projects.
Minimizing Development Costs
One very pertinent reason to outsourcing is to minimize costs involved in the development of products. Outsourcing seems to be a better and cost-effective measure, if you take into consideration all costs involved in maintaining the necessary capabilities within your company, which include:
Employee costs such as salary, taxes, benefits, etc. Overhead expenditure on office space, desks, computer, training, software and hardware tools, etc. Supporting costs on information systems, management, human resources, payroll, etc. Risk costs such as downsizing costs including severance pay, legal support, etc.
In addition, certain irritating questions keep recurring such as:
How do we build and maintain a high quality development team within our corporate culture? What traits and skills are important? Are those traits and skills available in our area of geography and expertise? How long will it take? What will it cost? How many teams will we need today and should we try to staff every project internally?
After having done cost benefit analysis on all these posed questions, most firms come to the conclusion that outsourced product development teams cost less than maintaining comparable internal product development teams.
In addition, organizations having internal product development resources that choose to outsource product development projects can have the following benefits of outsourcing:
Gaining new perspective & process Acquiring quality system reviews, and Gaining industry standard practices
Most would agree that firms that don’t usually outsource product development should periodically do so to know how they could improve the results of their internal development teams. To glean the maximum benefit, the firm outsourcing the development should have systems in place to imbibe within the lessons-learned and to integrate them into its systems where appropriate.
Bottom Line
Thus, it certainly makes business sense to outsource either complete or a part of product development process, which helps organizations build near-term capability, meet increased resource needs, reduce costs, and bring a new development project perspective.
