Offshoring? Let Joe Do It!
Your executive team and/or Board of Directors have made a strategic decision to offshore all additional software development. It is just too hard to hire good people locally anymore. And, although things are going well now, they don’t want the company to be forced into offshoring quickly if business slows down and emergency cost cuts are required later.
What’s the next step?
Once the strategic direction is set to go global, the next decision is how to do it. In a larger company it’s tempting to assign one of your best and brightest people to figure out what to do.
Let Joe do it!
Joe (or Josephine) is your best software engineering manager or director. Joe’s team is always innovating and bringing projects in on-time and on-budget. And Joe works well with the executives at your company.
Joe gets the word about the new assignment and is excited. It’s a chance to really contribute and help the company. Oh boy, but where to start?
Google.
Joe finds vendor websites, research reports and studies. There’s a lot of information online. Too much. It sure would be nice to get some help. In fact Joe notices several websites for both individuals and companies that provide offshoring consulting services.
But hiring a consultant doesn’t work out. Interest cools significantly when each consultant and consulting sales person finds out that Joe has no budget. All of them want to speak to Joe’s VP or CEO, which is not an option for Joe at this point. It feels like a sign of weakness to Joe to have to go to the boss so soon. It’s too early in the process.
The consultants want to help, but they also want to be paid. “After all”, they explain to Joe, “they can potentially save your company millions of dollars.”
It’s true. And Joe feels the weight of making a good recommendation to his/her company. Better get to work! But then a programmer in Joe’s group knocks on the door with a problem in the upcoming software release. Hmm, this offshore research will have to wait.
Later that night, Joe continues looking. So far there is a referral from a friend, contacts with a few vendors that were met in the past and a couple of vendors found online. Somehow this seems like too many, and not enough at the same time!
Will Joe find the best choice in this semi-random list of vendors? Maybe, maybe not.
Although the executive team has faith in Joe, the root of the problem is that Joe is primarily an expert at software development. He/she is a smart, confident can-do person but lacks direct experience with offshoring.
The only thing Joe needs now is TIME - a couple of months or so, at least.
What can be done to speed-up Joe’s investigation? What can be done to reduce his/her risk?
The Accelerance recommendation to Joe is to use a three-step process of Sourcing, Screening and Selecting and to leverage the Accelerance Global Partner Network. This approach is covered in a previous issue of Runtime here: http://www.accelerance.com/articles/runtime-2005-08-23.htm
However, focusing on Accelerance global partners, even if they are all excellent choices, may not be enough variety for Joe.
Suppose Joe has a requirement of locating an offshore vendor in a specific country, or even in a specific city? There may not be enough vendors in the Accelerance network for Joe’s specific location to give Joe enough choices for a recommendation to the executive team.
So Joe will need to spend time to investigate further. Even using an organized process like the Accelerance three S’s will take Joe an estimated 7 to 9 weeks to come up with a specific recommendation on his/her own.
Until now.
Accelerance is launching a new custom vendor selection service that reduces the process to just 3 weeks.
This new service is for small software companies or IT departments that are looking for an offshore software development partner that matches very specific criteria in one or more technical or geographical areas that are not immediately met by the range of vendor choices in the Accelerance Global Partner Network.
For example, this service can help you find a .NET vendor in Argentina, or find the best vendor in a specific Indian city like Pune. Still another example is to find an exceptional technical skill like embedded software development for a particular processor chip and operating system.
And most importantly, this new Accelerance service will be very affordable so people like Joe won’t have to blow the budget or get an Act of Congress passed with the boss to get funding.
Are you Joe?
I am working with several initial clients to define and try out this new service. There will be two levels of the service depending on the amount of help needed.
If my description of Joe sounds like you, or someone you know, then get drop me a line. I would love to get your help laying out the details in exchange for a significant early-bird discount if you choose to use the service within the next 30 days.
***
The Runtime Bottom Line: It’s nice when your executive team has the faith to give you a challenging assignment like finding an offshore software development vendor. It’s even better when you can get the help you need and exceed their wildest expectations. Contact Accelerance ASAP if you want to help take the wraps off this revolutionary new global vendor selection service and find your best global partner quickly.
Until next time,
Steve Mezak, CEO
Accelerance, Inc.
Risk-Free Outsourcing
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