Recently, I talk to a new prospect and he was though want to work with me seen our company profile but still very hesitant to go with us. When I try to know the reason for his hesitance he clarify that he had bad experience with Offshore outsourcing partners in his previous projects. This is not the first time I face this situation, I have often seen that lot of people choose developers in Asia sub-continent and later regret their decision. Today, I want to talk to such people and want to tell them why they go wrong.

Firstly, before a buyer decide to outsource the project he must asked himself, that how ready he is to go with the project. There is a huge number I have seen when a client ask us to build a site and they during the development realize that they are not sure what they need on site and why they need it. I have at least  2-3 such project every year where this happens.

Second most important consideration is budget. We all know that outsourcing is done for two reasons only: A business is not self efficient in performing the outsourced project otherwise, and second is to cut the cost of development/job. However, a outsource project such as Accounts management, or Call Center that runs over the time are pretty secure to outsource if you found a good company, but they have a fixed budget on monthly or yearly basis. They run in same manner over the time. But the project such as Website creation, TV ads creation, Content writing which are one time may have additional cost other then the actual job. This is where most company miss the budget. Making a website from free CMS is less than 3 days job, but marketing it online or offline does have its cost. A TV ad once shoot can still need a broadcast fee by operators.

Thirdly, what I have seen is most often buyers are not able to visualize the outcome of their project, however they know what they need. For example, you can say I need a website for my business with my business Logo and my corporate color. But you are not able to view how will your website look at end of day? What content you want to display there. I remember we recently drop a project because client want us to change the content for third time and since it is still the same website for their business he is not willing to pay for it. These situations are not sellers fault if they ask extra money, and in one sense you are right, because your budget is for one site. But unfortunately buyer forgot to plan the content of his website, because he feel that he can get it done later, first he want to see his website ready.

Fourth stuff you need to decide the timeline and time you can devote to project. In one of my project, client wants to start his simple business website. But whenever we try to show him the progress he never take time to review website and often says “Yes, its good please continue”. Later when we finish the project, he suddenly wake up and says “What have you done, I don’t need this”. Morale of story is your outsourced partner have never seen you, he only read your emails, he is a software developer and not running the same business as you run, so how he knows what is important for your business ? This can only be tested by you. It often take 1 hr in a week to check the progress of your projects. Why not devote that time to save your money ?

Fifth, Plan for future upgrades. It is important that before you outsource any project you plan the future of project, in case it gets success. If it fails you probably close that project, but what is it get success? You may want to modify it, if yes then what will you modify. Answer might be hard to find, but having a vision of future helps you prepare your present.

 These are some tips I would like to share so that you as a Buyer don’t get it wrong. I will write another article soon on how and what quality you should look for your website development outsources partner.