Offshore Outsourcing - Best Practices For Digital Agencies

Outsourcing Best Practices for Digital Agencies Mukul Gupta Head of Operations Indus Net Technologies

Outsourcing Defined..
Outsourcing:
Farming out of services to a third party.
With regards to Digital Agencies, outsourcing can include anything from outsourcing an entire department or function, for example Link Building to another organization or outsourcing a very small and well defined project, and everything in between.
Often used interchangeably—and incorrectly—with offshoring – it’s a subset
Classic Make vs. Buy Decision

How Do You Know If You are Failing?
Outright failure. The work is never completed, and little or nothing is salvaged from the project.
Abandoned. The work is completed, including some or all of the originally specified features, but either it is never used or usage stops after a short period.
Scaled down. The work is completed and used, but lacks much of the functionality of the original specifications.
Runaway. The work requires much more money and time than planned, regardless of whether it is ever completed or used.
The following definitions indicate the range of possibilities for the various types failures:

Four Main Causes of Failure
Working with the wrong Vendor.
Choosing an inappropriate outsourcing model
Communication Failure
Staff Attrition

Vendor Selection Tips
Check the company + key people’s names via Google. You will be amazed what comes up. Cheap & simple. Positive or Negative
Get a copy of their standard contract wording. Get this checked by a lawyer and somebody with business experience in outsourcing. Check for “NO GO” contract clauses. Best to do this early on.
Ask for 3 Client Reference – Call them and try to understand what exactly the vendor did for them.

Issue: Lack of Control
You do not know what is happening. You have no visibility into the day-to-day operations of the team and no interaction with the offshore team other than through its managers.
You are not involved in critical management decisions including who works for you and how does he goes about doing the work.
The work process in the vendor organization is different than yours.

How to Solve It?
Adopt a “White Box” Model – The UK team interacts directly with the offshore team.
The Account manager and technical lead assign and manage the tasks the offshore team works on.
Weekly status meetings are held with both the UK and offshore teams to review progress of the assigned tasks, make changes in assignments, and communicate other project information. In addition to meetings, email and Instant Messenger are used to communicate with team members daily.

Issue: Communication
When a technical person speaks to a business person, some information is often lost or misinterpreted.
When two specialists from different countries speak over the ocean, some information is often lost or misinterpreted.
So, imagine what happens when a technical person speaks to a business person over the ocean…

How to Solve It?
Regular interaction and the right level of communication between team leads on both sides is a key ingredient in making projects with offshore resources successful.
Use a Liaison Person in the UK office to interact with Offshore teams. Ensure the person you nominate knows about the technicalities of the project and can answer questions and provide clarification.
Nominate senior people in the offshore team to act as the single point of contact. Together they should act as a glue on projects.

Issue : Staff Retention
For most companies in growing economy , Attrition is a problem.
Attrition rates can be from anywhere between 15% and 30% and in some cases even higher.
You can’t rely on your entire team to stick together forever.

How to Solve It?
Invest in Individuals. Try to see if you can reward the best talent in your team in some way.
If the team has worked hours beyond the normal overtime expected, give them some time off. If you finish a major project and plan on taking the UK project team out for lunch be sure you do something similar for the offshore team. If you have company t-shirts, be sure to send one to each member of the offshore team.
Promote your company to the Offshore team.

Summary
It’s not painless, but it’s worth it, if you execute it well.
Good Luck and Thank You!

Contact Details
Web: http://www.indusnet.co.uk
Email: [email_address]
Phone: +44 (020) 7558 8684

Offshore Outsourcing - Best Practices For Digital Agencies

by Indus Net Technologies on Nov 04, 2009

Accessibility

Categories

Tags

Upload Details

Usage Rights

1 Embed 13

Statistics

Offshore Outsourcing - Best Practices For Digital Agencies — Presentation Transcript