As a director of a small Internet and development consulting company, I have been a subcontractor and subcontractor in my career. Seeing both ends of the environment certainly helps me make better decisions when it comes to outsourcing web development and marketing work. This article offers some key points for companies looking to outsource some or all of their IT requirements.
Low cost does not necessarily mean low quality
Although it can often be the case, hiring a cheap worker from your domestic or international market can sometimes get you a higher caliber worker than your higher paid counterparts. The hardest part of finding a cheap but quality worker is knowing what is needed in advance.
The blind hire the blind
When hiring a web programmer, for example, a company’s human resources department may not be able to distinguish between someone capable for the position and someone who will not be suitable, simply by comparing resumes and / or doing an interview. While some specific skill sets may be a requirement for the position and weed out some candidates based on their resumes, the final interview must be given by the relevant IT leader in the company. If a company does not have an IT department but is considering outsourcing some IT work, I recommend that you hire an IT consultant to manage your projects. This can save them valuable time and potentially a great deal of wasted money, if they had mistakenly hired the wrong person for the job.
Hiring from abroad
In my career, I have outsourced various projects and assignments, from web application systems development and data entry to graphic design and voice acting. My subcontractors have been citizens of China, Argentina, the Philippines, Vietnam, Russia, and even first world countries like Japan and the United States. Again, there is no flat rate per country for certain professions abroad that will guarantee you to find cheap and quality labor, but in general, the average salary in developing countries means that you have a higher chance of finding a suitable candidate. at a lower cost than in a first world market.
How now vaca Cafe?
When you have tasks that require a minimum level of English, workers from any of the non-English speaking countries listed above will generally be able to understand enough English to do the job. That is, by hiring a programmer, you may be more interested in their math and problem-solving skills than if they can spell out grammar correctly in your email communications.
For content writing or projects that require a fluent command of English, the Philippines can be an excellent source of workers with a very high level of spoken and written English. Please note, however, that for English text content that will be used directly in marketing to the US or other English markets, you may need to hire a native English speaker from the first world. When someone from the Philippines can have an excellent command of English grammar, without the cultural background of living in a first world country, some nuances can be difficult to produce in their language.
Hold outsourcers accountable
When hiring remote workers, especially from abroad and with different time zones, it becomes very difficult to control their working hours. For this reason, I suggest working on performance-based milestones to better control your project costs and eliminate the trust issues faced by many IT subcontractors now. If you must use an hourly accounting practice, I recommend that scheduling, content, or other applicable work be maintained in the project through a version control system. Using a popular version control system, such as SVN, allows workers to “commit” their code and files at certain intervals. The project manager can see exactly how many changes have been made at each interval, with the added benefit of archived backups for each edited review.
General Pros and Cons of IT Project Outsourcing
In this article, I have covered some key points in outsourcing, specifically for IT project outsourcing. To summarize some of the pros and cons mentioned in point, the following comparison is provided.
PROS
- Potential cost savings
- Reduced staff overhead
- Temporarily increase capacity
CONS
- Harder to monitor workers
- Linguistic and / or cultural barriers
