Understanding the process of outsourcing

Aug. 21, 2010 - PRLog -- Before even you start engaging a vendor you should have an idea of how the process works. Outsourcing is no more a new area and there are plenty of materials which many times your vendors can themselves share with you as to what various process alternatives you can choose from. It is your responsibility to understand or be educated on how it works.

This not only makes the engagement smooth and successful, but also helps you and the vendor enters a partnership where the core goal is to refine and arrive at the best suitable process model.

For more, visit us at http://www.itflux.com/services/outsourced-software-development.html

Knowledge sharing is the key to success and throughout the engagement knowledge is being shared both ways. With you as a customer providing valid business information that is put in a clear and defined manner for the vendor to understand and the vendor in turn keeping you updated on the knowledge of the project and the engagement

Knowledge sharing does not just stop with sharing documentation, but also sharing information related to the process efficiency and other issues that will affect the final deliverable

Having a common transparent online system to share information is required. I always recommend clients to start with the system that the vendor is using and then tweaking it as that will give you the best of two worlds.

Many vendors will fail to suggest ideas for the fear of loosing business which is not good for the relationship and making your vendor comfortable will in turn help you build that trust element for the vendor to share all and every information that might positively or negatively impact the engagement deliverables.

For details, contact us at http://www.itflux.com/technical-expertise/openerp.html

Communication and Transparency
Once you understand that you are working with a group in a different part of the world you will accept that the communication might not be as simple as you do with your colleague in the next cubicle. But the good part is that with lots of good tools available you will have to implement a communication protocol and nomenclature so you all speak the same language.

This is much easier now than it was ten years ago and you can have real time communication through a range of mediums such as chat, phone, web conferencing, email etc...

If you are off shoring to a destination that has entirely different time zones, I would recommend an overlapping 1 to 2 hours time frame available where you can pick the phone and talk or chat or IM. Real time communication or at least the fact you can do it every day if needed will help clearing things off the table faster than you know.

Having a good communication process in place will also initiate high transparency among the work groups. By transparency I don’t mean a one way communication but two ways where you are also able to keep the vendor abreast of the business impacts of a schedule overrun. Many times schedule over runs can be avoided once the vendor is also clear of the business impacts.

For more, contact us at http://www.itflux.com