Outsourcing to India? Some info that may be helpful
By Lucid Softech IT Solutions | Outsourcing, 11 Apr 2017There is no doubt that India is biggest IT hub in the world. IT related work from across the globe is outsourced to India. Countries like US, UK, Australia, Canada etc, are leveraging the low cost offshore development center in India and getting improvements in their bottom lines.
With India becoming IT hub there are lot IT professionals, lot of big and small companies so it becomes really difficult to identify the right company for any project. For large companies it is quite easy to outsource work to big IT Company in India. Large companies can hire multinational companies from India and get their work done. For small overseas companies and individuals who want their work done, it becomes difficult to identify the appropriate company and outsource the work.
With more than 9 years of experience in IT industry I have come across many client and while interacting with them I understood that they have few common issues which they face while working with Indian companies. I will address them here which can be helpful for both clients and IT professionals:
English Communication: Most of the clients are worried that if they will be able to properly communicate with the provider or not? If not than how they will make team understand their requirement.
For this I would suggest you look for a company/ agency which have a person who will be in constant contact with you for discussion, taking requirement and sharing update. The person may be project manager, project coordinator. The usually have good communication skills and skills to understand business requirement and pass it properly to programmer in the format they need it.
Want to talk directly with programmer: There are huge number of clients who want to talk directly to the developer as they think that it will remove the levels and the requirement will get transferred to the developer through them properly and they can get quick update. Also they think that this can keep their cost low.
This happens with client working with offshore development team in India. Due to less trust on overseas team they want to talk to the person who is actually works on their project and not any intermediary person.
In some cases this may work but in most cases this model doesn’t work. In effort to make clear communication and keeping budget low I have seen clients end up project in a mess and huge amount of money gets wasted.
Website development or software development is a complex process and requires variety of skills to get project delivered properly. Project development team needs development skills, design skills, graphics skills, business skills, communication skills, testing skills etc. When a team works then all persons expert in their respective field will work and will collectively deliver the project. This makes a really quality and successful project.
Project managers with appropriate experience know how to get the work done and how to get desired output. They can do proper planning and get that executed which client tend to miss.
So no matter whether the project is big or small the business analyst/ project manager is always better for good requirement understanding, planning and execution and will make sure that the bugfree system is delivered.
So now I think you understood that to produce quality work, a team is needed.
Too much negotiation with Off shore development company: Normally when clients outsource work to India they have a mindset that the rates will be less. Due to this mindset they tend to negotiate too much. Since most of the client don’t have correct idea on what can be best quote for project fro India, so they end up with getting some low cost sloppy company or developer. Few companies/ individual pick project up even at a cost which is not feasible for them and then they end up spoiling the project and this ay we end up having a frustrated and unhappy client.
So here I have 2 suggestions 1 for developers and development companies and other for clients.
Suggestion to providers: Don’t lower your price to a level where you are not able to deliver the project. Set your minimum rates based on skills and experience and work based on that.
Suggestion to client: With too much negotiation you will end up getting poor developer or development company . So always offer a reasonable price for the project and get things done in proper manner. The standard hourly rate in India for a developer can vary between $10/hr to $35/hr. Depending on experience, technology and complexity of work and other few factors price may vary.
Infrastructure Issue: When client talk to small companies or individual freelancer, I have seen they ask do you have good internet? Do you have uninterrupted power supply ? do you have web camera? Etc.
For this I would say that gone are the days when there were poor internet or too much power cut and no backups. Now in India you can get high speed broadband at a very low price so that everyone can afford. Also in garde A and grade B cities the power cut is almost nil so these issues are no more an issue.
Time zone issue: When client works with team in India their time zone get mismatch and sometimes want their team to work during their business hours. Big companies can manage that but small clients don’t get this leverage.
Based on my experience I can say that it is better if team can work in client’s time zone but even if they don’t work in their time zone there is no major issue as long the project manager is in communication with the client to give regular updates and taking the requirement. Normally a project manager makes themselves available to discuss with client in their business hours by giving some time of overlap with their time zone. I have seen client who were worried initially but once they started, they are more than happy that they are getting low cost work and they are getting the same level of updates and quality work as in their own contry. So time zone is never an issue.
Too Many companies and freelancer how to identify who is good: With India being IT hub, there are lot of professionals in IT industry. We have more companies and more IT professionals. So it becomes hard to indentify who is good and who is not.
For identifying the company you have to do your homework like checking their website, portfolio, their feedback, references etc. and after doing proper screening you can go ahead with the project and I am sure you will get success.
Don’t worry in outsourcing to India. This is what globalization is all about. Through outsourcing to India you can always take an edge on your competitor by getting low cost work done here.
If you are looking for any kind of help in outsourcing work to India, please get in touch with us on contact@lucidsoftech.com. We are also a web development, web design and Internet marketing company. We are always ready to work for you and deliver you the best of work from our team here in India.