3. DON'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ IN THE PAPERS |
Despite what some people might say, not everything is suitable for offshoring, at least not right away. Some things are best left where they are, others have to be carefully prepared prior to offshoring and the majority can't be moved offshore until the new combined Customer/supplier organisation has been designed, appropriate knowledge acquisition completed, infrastructure set-up and Customer/supplier processes adapted and synchronised. Choosing the right things to offshore in the right sequence are critical decisions that very few, if any, first timers to offshoring are qualified to make. Not that that stops them from doing it. Unfortunately there seems to be an inherent distrust between Customers and suppliers in the UK IT industry (research conducted by Intellect in the early 2000s identified a disturbing lack of trust between UK Customers and IT suppliers) and previous bad experience can sometimes poison Customer's minds when interacting with suppliers. What Customers ought to understand is that it is very likely to cost your supplier a lot of money to engage with you for the first time. New Customers always require lots of 'love and attention' particularly from senior people who are a scarce commodity. A good supplier company will be very focussed on achieving a successful outcome for the Customer, otherwise the supplier is likely to lose money. So listen to your supplier's views, after all offshoring is their business and they probably know more about it than you do. If they are a successful company, they will have been doing it for years and will have learnt the hard way 'what works and what doesn't work' in the offshoring world. Better to benefit from their mistakes rather than making your own. Most competent suppliers will have tools and techniques for evaluating options for offshoring. At Arrk we have a set of 'opportunity assessment' processes and tools that enable us to work together with our Customers to explore which projects and services are most offshore friendly. Believe it or not we sometimes come across people who think that somehow offshoring, and by definition outsourcing, a problem project will magically fix it or that at least it will somehow suddenly become the supplier's problem and not theirs. The rule is; you can't outsource a problem but you can outsource a solution. |
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4. TOO MUCH, TOO SOON |
This problem is related to the third Great Way above, about being over zealous about short-term cost savings. But what is the impact of pushing things offshore before they're ready? The previous section contained a clue. Although it sounds a bit hackneyed, the truth is that commercial software development is a knowledge industry. Software professionals acquire and combine two distinct knowledge sets. On the one hand is business knowledge (industry, markets, competition, company products, services, brand, processes, policies, organisations, culture etc) and on the other hand technology knowledge (IT strategy, application portfolios, technical architectures, IT processes and policies, systems designs, generic technologies and processes etc.) Let's assume that it goes without saying that a lack of business knowledge is an obvious handicap for offshore personnel working for a particular Customer for the first time. However, it is very likely that staff from your offshore supplier will also be hampered on the technology front. Whilst their knowledge of generic technologies and IT processes will be good, the manner in which these are applied in your business will be foreign to them. Building and maintaining a complete, accurate, up-to-date knowledge base across both business and technology domains is vital if the offshore teams are to be able to do work productively and efficiently to produce high quality deliverables. We believe that nine times out of ten it is a weakness in this area that is the number one reason why offshoring doesn't deliver. Both the Customer and the supplier should view such a knowledge base as a critical asset worthy of specific investment. The problem with driving things offshore too quickly is that often the knowledge base hasn't matured before the new team has to relocate. There are gaps in the knowledge. Some areas are well covered whilst others are only superficially dealt with. Some might be completely untouched. Once offshore the team's ability to acquire new knowledge will be greatly reduced. They will be particularly handicapped in their ability to acquire the implicit intangible tacit knowledge that so often glues everything together.
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Missed previous Great Ways episodes?
View more Great Ways: 1 & 2 | 3 & 4 | 5 & 6 | 7 & 8 | 9 & 10 | 11 & 12 | 13
Learn how to avoid all the mistakes of those that have tried and failed...
The tips above are taken from my paper '13 Great Ways to make your Offshore Project Fail'. Rather than waiting until next time, if you'd like to receive all 13 Great Ways in full now then please just complete the free enquiry form on our web site by clicking here or call 08 456 210 278 and we'll send you a copy of the paper free of charge (perhaps there is a free lunch of sorts after all!)
Arrk Group is a UK headquartered, award winning global IT services company specialising in the design, build and ongoing operational management of complex and secure web and mobile applications for both Independent Software Vendors and end user organisations. Established in 1998, our unique position and experience provides us with a deep understanding of the offshore services market. We recognise not only the benefits but also the pitfalls and limitations of the offshore phenomenon. This sensitises us to the difficulties often faced by organisations that are relatively new to offshoring and enables us to offer Customers prudent advice on a global service delivery strategy that delivers the best balance between risk and reward.
(C) 2009 Arrk Group Manchester Science Park Manchester M15 6JJ |
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