9. WHAT'S BEST, HANDS ON OR HANDS OFF? |
This is one of our favourite bug-bears, Customers who want to offshore/outsource but still want to manage everything hands-on. Smarter Customers seem to sense that some sort of joint-team is required, blending Customer and supplier people as one team. After all, their team does have a bunch of people who have tons of knowledge about their business and IT systems – knowledge that the supplier’s teams desperately need. And what’s the best way of getting that knowledge into people’s heads? – why it must be direct interaction. Well, yes, up to a point. The problem is that it is often a very short step from such ‘direct interaction’ into ‘direct interference’. The one critical piece of value-add you must insist that your offshore supplier provides is that they bring to bear their expertise in making offshoring projects work to make sure that your offshoring project works. If they are to do this they must remain in control of their team. Whilst they will fail without your help, on the other hand you must not disempower them by trying to manage their team or, worse still, insisting on designing their team or choosing individual members. By all means contribute to the process but if you don’t give them the authority to manage you can’t expect them to take responsibility for the outcome. |
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10. NOT TOO HOT, NOT TOO COLD. |
A fact of life in the offshoring world is that no matter what steps you take, no matter how hard you try, it is inevitable that the offshore knowledge base will be incomplete and out of date. No doubt your business environment is increasingly dynamic and as a consequence the knowledge base supporting it will be constantly changing. Some of the new knowledge can be transferred easily to offshore teams but much of what happens is either too intangible or ‘tacit’ or too fast moving to be captured and documented. As Tacit knowledge refers to knowledge that people have in their minds, this in particular is difficult to share and generally requires extensive personal contact and trust. Often people aren’t aware of the knowledge they possess or how it can be valuable to others but this can be very useful as it provides context for people, places, ideas and experiences. Regardless of these problems, as we have discussed above, the success of offshore teams relies very heavily upon them having access to an up to date knowledge base. The key word here is access. The offshore team don’t necessarily need to hold this knowledge – although a certain amount of tacit and explicit knowledge is essential – rather they need to have the know-how and means necessary to enable them to access the onshore, and often in-house, knowledge base. The principle tool here is the onshore component of the offshore team, in our case Indian Arrkitects located onsite at the Customer’s premises. Located, as they are, on the Customer’s site, these onsite Arrkitects act as a conduit for transferring knowledge to the offshore teams. It is worth noting that high-quality relationships between Customer and supplier teams at all levels are another critical success factor in offshoring. Such relationships have a direct bearing of the efficiency and effectiveness of knowledge transfer and dissemination. Representatives of the offshore team working onsite are well positioned to build and maintain relationships with key members of the Customer’s team. In our experience, the optimum onshore/offshore mix is around 25%/75% although a smaller onshore presence will work, at least for short periods of time. However, serious problems start to occur as this dynamic is disturbed. Relationships break down, the currency of the offshore knowledge base starts to deteriorate and very quickly productivity and quality start to suffer. |
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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
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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.
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