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It is important to remember certain factors while outsourcing to offshore locations. There is a tendency to outsource and forget till it is time to receive the results. This often leads to the failure of the outsourcing contract, as the success of an offshore contract often depend on fine-tuning things on the domestic front - getting the onshore right.
It is important to remember that a successful outcome to an offshore project may very well depend upon managing the expectations of your internal customers, as much as communicating correctly with your offshore partner.
Here are a few hot 'onshore' tips from companies who've done it.
- Manage expectations
Putting any part of the IT operation in a remote location will have an impact on your business colleagues, including colleagues outside of the IT department. Whether it is application development or IT support, a greater user engagement is necessary.
When London Scottish Bank moved its application development to Vietnam, it warned the business upfront and worked with them to ensure both IT and business customers understood the implications and communications needs. Just as importantly, the programme managers visited Hanoi to build relationships with the development team.
- Engage your business
Requirement specification becomes crucial when communication is at arms length and if your business wants to get an application spot-on, then they may need to become more hands-on themselves.
Bringing developers into the business onshore during requirements gathering or shipping a business representative offshore can really make a difference to ensuring needs are met.
- Get a rep onsite
Non verbal communications are important cues and can say sometimes say more than the actual words being expressed; however it often takes mutual cultural knowledge to interpret these cues.
There are many ways of addressing this issue. Harvey Nash offers a number of solutions.
"We have a large number of Vietnamese ex-pats working with us; this is useful in managing any gaps that may arise between UK clients and the offshore team in Vietnam" Paul Smith, Managing Director, Harvey Nash Offshore Software Services.
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