The perils of outsourcing
read — August 2014There are probably hundreds, if not thousands of articles on the risks, and even the benefits of outsourcing to offshore companies.
The reality is that offshore development can be a valuable way of getting work done, and the output produced can be as good as an internal team.
The risks though are inherently high with the biggest being the communication breakdown and loss of urgency that comes with the disjointed offices.
This is the case for both English as a first, and English as a second language offices. I have experienced the effect that time-lag has on two offices and the 'us and them' mentality in a number of positions. It's almost unavoidable.
Where reputation is concerned the risk is far too great, especially when claiming to be a full service agency, though that's an entirely different discussion.
I recently consulted on a mess created by a company outsourcing work to Vietnam and not completely understanding how it should be handled.
In this particular case the client was educated enough that when the project commenced an immediate flurry of activity from Vietnam visible in Google Analytics seemed an unlikely coincidence.
A few days later they were asked a series of confusing questions via Olark about their shipping rules, and the various attributes of their products. These questions also came from someone in Vietnam.
Cont. reading