Outsourcing is the best idea ???

Question

Outsourcing is the best idea ???

Viewing 9 posts - 16 through 23 (of 23 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply

Anye Mercy SSCrazy Points: 2134 More actions · Answer 1

Offshore outsourcing is always a bad idea. Local outsourcing will vary depending on how good/reliable/ethical folks you hire. My clients were always happy with me and the work I did when I was a consultant, my projects were done as close to on-time and on-budget as you can get (and if they wouldn't be, the flag was raised early enough that they could re-evaluate and prioritize). I think if you went back and asked them, outsourcing was a good idea.

Now, unfortunately I think there are far more bad outsourcing scenarios than good. I've had to clean up the mess from several where the people involved should have their computer privileges taken away permanently.

But one of the problems I have seen a lot in NOT outsourcing is if the development team is also the production support team - they get pulled onto support issues so much that the dev never gets done. By outsourcing the development, it can stay on schedule because it is insulated from production support issues. Now, if the company can afford to have two different teams in place then this isn't as much of an issue but many companies just have one IT team that has to wear all hats and in that case, 99 times out of 100 the new development will fail because there aren't enough hours in the day.

To have GOOD outsourcing though, the people you hire have to care. They have to be the type of people who, even though they aren't direct employees of the company, get satisfaction out of helping people and helping them be successful. If they're just in it for the paycheck and don't take on a personal emotional investment in the project, they are not likely to be as good. They have to be willing to make recommendations that are for the benefit of the client even if it shortens the duration of the project and/or lessens the total bill. I think a lot of people don't realize that even though doing that might decrease their earnings in the short term, for the long term they are much more likely to be called back for the next project if the client feels they "did right by them."

--
Anye Mercy
"Service Unavailable is not an Error" -- John, ENOM support
"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." -- Inigo Montoya in "Princess Bride"
"Civilization exists by geologic consent, subject to change without notice." -- Will Durant

GeorgeCopeland SSCertifiable Points: 6997 More actions · Answer 2

As a general rule of thumb, focus all of your resources narrowly and intensely on the internal functions that directly serve your customers, and outsource everything else. For example, most companies outsource their own payroll for this very reason. Obviously, you have to analyze your business processes very intensely to figure out which processes are which.

Stephanie J Brown Hall of Fame Points: 3896 More actions · Answer 3

I have to agree with Anye Mercy about the "Production Support" issue, since that's the scenario where I work. Taking care of production issues eats up 50% of my time, yet management seems to expect that I'm working 8 hours a day on "project work". Makes for long days and weekends. We've outsourced some of our website work and are struggling with writing specs that are specific enough to keep developer confusion to a minimum. Clear communication is definitely key.

We haven't lost any internal staff to the outsources; we're more along the lines of using outside expertise to round out the skill set. It's been less than one year, but no major disasters so far, and the websites are working pretty well. We've determined that you really do need to allocate extra time to QA testing, though - the outsource company just doesn't have the business rules knowledge to set up inclusive test plans. But we've worked out the main communication issues, and determined who's responsible for which piece of the project plan(s).

I think the keys to successful outsources are the same as for any other project:

1) Do your proper planning

2) Commnicate effectively

3) Be flexible wherever possible

4) Test like there's no tomorrow

5) Document, document, document

Here there be dragons...,

Steph Brown

GabyYYZ SSCertifiable Points: 7913 More actions · Answer 4

Because our company has two seperate QA and Dev departments staffed by competent people, any outside contractors, either hired for a week or two or for months on end, have a lot of their work vetted by the staff in those two departments. Rarely does sloppy work get through and our QA guys especially can keep the contractors on their toes (not to mention us full-time employees). Basically, if you hire contractors assuming they will develop the best solution for you with little to no input, be very careful of that approach. Never accept only the final product without seeing it at certain agreed upon checkpoints beforehand.

Gaby________________________________________________________________"In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not." - Albert Einstein

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 736479 More actions · Answer 5

You mean we outsource, hire contractors who should be experts and we have to manage them!?!?!!?!

I thought we could turn them loose and we'd get great results 😀

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004409 More actions · Answer 6

OH! THE IRONY! 🙂

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

Jonathan Kehayias One Orange Chip Points: 26778 More actions · Answer 7

We tend to do a lot of outsourcing that become "strategic partnerships" and are more headache than they are worth in my opinion. I don't have a problem hiring a consultant firm that would provide a solution that is internally usable, but a lot of times I see outsourced solutions not actually being owned by the companies that are paying for the work. I know one place that has done 3 outsourced projects with the same data and has nothing 3 yrs later to show for hundreds of thousands of dollars invested. Each year, the vendors get tired of all their requirements and refuse to sign a new contract, and they start all over from scratch with a new vendor. They won't listen when I tell them that for X dollars they could hire someone to come in and do the work once to get their data in order like they want it to be.

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 736479 More actions · Answer 8

Jonathan Kehayias (12/23/2008) I know one place that has done 3 outsourced projects with the same data and has nothing 3 yrs later to show for hundreds of thousands of dollars invested.

I bet they get a Christmas card for all the "work" they've given out

RBarryYoung SSC Guru Points: 143329 More actions · Answer 9

I will say this, an inability to properly manage employees is rarely fixed by outsourcing the employees.

Likewise, however, an inability to properly manage consultants is rarely fixed by hiring employees instead.

[font="Times New Roman"]-- RBarryYoung[/font], [font="Times New Roman"] (302)375-0451[/font] blog: MovingSQL.com, Twitter: @RBarryYoung [font="Arial Black"]
Proactive Performance Solutions, Inc. [/font][font="Verdana"] "Performance is our middle name."[/font]