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Challenges of outsourcing to India. Should I outsource to India? Offshore Vs Nearshoring

Jay Kinker — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 19:50:57 GMT

In last couple years, I am seeing more and more discussion on why companies in the west should look for better alternatives (especially on IT outsourcing). Many times such discussions are propaganda from companies of competing countries but many are genuine concerns as well. Concerns like: why they continue to face challenges in outsourcing, quality problems, debate on “Offshore Vs Nearshore”, etc. Everyone has their own share of challenges with many common factors but I consistently see everyone missing one primary factor. i.e. “the quality of onsite team”.

Common reasons:

Outsourcing is happening at expense of local jobs

It’s great to think about your own country and community but let’s think logically and not emotionally. Fact is that many companies have survived because of outsourcing. Outsourcing is not a choice in many cases and helps companies to grow. Eventually, it results in local jobs and healthier eco-system.

Working in difference time zone

A valid reason for a smoother communication if everyone was on same/similar time zone. However, fact still remains that team is not in same office in nearshore as well. Working odd hours continues to address this issue. Better organized team will face fewer problems because of different time zone. At the same time, organizations are able to function 24x7 because of offices in different time zones.

Cultural affinity and better communication

I see this as an irrelevant factor. I have not had or seen any major communication breach in my career so far. Even though there is vast different in accent and culture of west and India, Indian professionals have adapted and so has the professionals in the west. Openness in global business and travel has helped in breaching this gap.

Other factors

There can be few more major and minor factors but everyone is missing one important driver of getting better outsourcing experience

Missing factor:

Quality of onsite team

I have consistently seen companies stressing more on offshore units/dept for quality. No one seem to realize that this is a team work and adding better technicians and more head counts is not the solution. You tend to think it’s working when team is onsite because then you have the luxury to sit with them, clean up the mess and keep the problem under carpets. You can’t get a quality output from a crap input. You got to have a solid analyst and project/product manager onsite to get the best out of offsite team. An idea may look simple, a few pager document may be enough for the customer but when any project goes in development it requires clear instructions on what is to be done and what not.

Conclusion:

“Quality of onsite team” is paramount in making an onsite-offsite team work efficiently with high quality. Over the years, I have consistently seen that better the onsite team, better are the results from offsite team.

Are you a startup?... Even after 5 years of execution?

Jay Kinker — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 20:57:46 GMT

How do you really define a start up? Is it because of:

• Duration
• Number of employees
• Valuation
• Professional management team and business model or some other reason?

Secondly, what are you doing to ensure that you remain stable, reduce your risk of operation and get out of the startup mania to concentrate on right areas? What are you doing to build a self-sustaining growing team and business?

I rarely see business owners giving time to such topics. You can always get things done if you pay weather it’s from your employee or outsource to someone else. I have seen companies with 100+ employees – 5+ year old and still behaving like a startup. In one instance I saw 250+ people company and ~10 year old working as a startup. So, what should you really do to get out of the startup phase? Here are some points that I could think of:

Team:

You can’t really assemble few guys in a room and call them team. This takes time, requires mentoring and training before you have a resilient, confident and performing team. At no stage can you take it lightly. It’s never expendable. I have seen companies loosing key employees because they became too expensive, promises during interviews were not met, do not see growth, manager, etc. Irrespective of reason it’s the management who has to be careful and vigilant to ensure team is intact. An employee can’t really be replaced by another hire all the time. Many times there is so much IP involved which can’t be handed over or regained in short span of time. In an organization, there is place for all types of resource. It’s about keeping right heads at right position with right motivation.

A company who is not able to retain their key people and retain their team will always remain startup.

Company culture:

Every employee is part of this unconsciously. This includes the kind of people you are hiring, what interpersonal qualities you value, how good work is appreciated, how motivated your team is, etc. Leaders of the company impact this most. So often you would see people joining at less salary and smaller company because they were more comfortable and confident in that company.

How happy is your last man:

Leaders should remain in touch and accessible to the last man. You can never have a successful ecosystem until the last man is happy and delivering. Someone who is performing or vocal is always visible. A leader should be able to see beyond those people, remain accessible, take their feedback and take corrective steps.

Think beyond current projects:

As a leader, business owner or manager, you must see beyond current set of projects. It is very easy to get occupied or over occupied with current engagements. You should invest in future, upcoming technologies, keeping yourself updated with your business domain and reuse.

Processes:

This is extremely important and missing from startups. It’s not about ISO and CMM but to streamline your processes in everything you do. It’s about removing person dependencies and doing the same task with same or better quality and remain predictable.

Standardization:

A company must standardize their production/development work. This also helps in reusing, maintaining quality and achieving predicable results.

Do businessmen think only about money all the time

Jay Kinker — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 14:40:38 GMT

This is an interesting question one of my friends asked me recently. Answer to this is very subjective…. So often business owners get into the trap of numbers and miss to appreciate and honor the factors that are generating those numbers for them. Yes, being financially successful is the basic reason for doing any business. However, you have to build a lucrative ecosystem to be able to have a sustainable business. I believe business is “people” and “money” is an output of the business. Business is a people game and employees make lot of compromises (at personal level) to be able to make the business successful. Many business owners fail to acknowledge and honor it in right way which triggers such questions.

Finance is the core of any business and all successful control it very closely. Someone who don’t control finance properly understands it’s importance hard way. I will segment business owners in multiple types:

Dynamic business leader:
• These are dynamic leaders, build leaders around them and have a charged team to execute.
• Gets the best out of his/her team
• Will always look at the larger picture and not hesitant in spending money on goodwill of employees. Employee is his/her investment
• Most successful (overall) and can build the biggest of businesses

Capitalist with loads of money:
• They invest in ideas and people
• Do not really get involve closely in business (many times) as long as they see/get their profits
• Level of risk they take is highest as they are not the one in control

Calculator:
• Toughest to work with.
• Most successful (financially). Can get the best return on investments but most time won’t make it BIG.
• Technically, there businesses can behave like start-ups even about 10 years of operation.

Technocrat:
• In best control of commodity/product and production.
• Many times confused and can take fatal decisions. A technically correct product might not be a business correct product.
• Having a business mind + technologist is rare.

What is the Right Time to Start a Technology Organization in India

Jay Kinker — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 14:55:50 GMT

More “right time” questions:
What is the right time to:
    - start any business?
    - take some risks?
    - realize your dreams?
    - dream, plan and act?
    - experiment and learn?

Answer to all is “NOW”. There could be many such questions but no one can time the market, luck or dream. Every time I think something different than common: I hardly see people getting aligned or relating to those ideas/thoughts. I see them realizing it only after it is done or proved! This has happened with me in both personal and professional life.

You cannot time the right time – all that you can do is plan and execute! As I always say, “you plan well – you execute well”

Over a period of time, I have learned that every “wrong can be right” and every “right can potentially be wrong”. Its multidimensional and very relative/comparative. Something which is “right” for an individual need not be “right” for entire community and vice-versa. Everything cannot be decided by majority or election. So, it is ok to think different and do different.

P.S. – Very relevant 100 years old Bengali poem: “Jodi tor dak shune keu na aase, tobe ekla cholo re….” written by great Ravindranath Tagore. In English: “If no one comes along on your call, march alone…”.

Ingredient to Correct Working Environment

Jay Kinker — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 13:44:16 GMT

Ever wondered what makes an organization better from others to work for? Most professionals have been through this question. So... what makes an organization different and better than others? Here are some parameters:

Salary: yes, one of primary reasons. (There is no salary bigger than expectations )
Employees: Irrelevant factor as they keep changing and you end up getting similar employees across organizations (in same category)
Your manager: Big factor which can change your life in either direction.
Team: Good factor as you are champion because of your team. Every successful person is because of his/her team
Company size: Irrelevant factor
Work: Primary factor!

I believe good quality work will attract good talent and professionals. Good professionals will make a good, motivated and performing team. Good team work makes an organization with correct working environment. Hence, for an organization to succeed, it requires good work and good management. So, look for quality and quantity of work – rest will follow automatically.

Setting up a Technology House in India - Technology Center or a Cost Center?

Jay Kinker — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 11:08:23 GMT

Today, outsourcing is not a choice but NEED. In today’s time, you cannot ignore technology irrespective of your business domain. If you are looking for a decent sized technology development or support (especially in developed economies): you will have to look at cost effectiveness for doing technology development. You cannot just do it all in-house (in developed economies) for the level of cost that is required and the level of professional required to do the job.

I run a software development house from Pune, India and often come across following questions. Here are my answers to them:

How cost effective is technology outsourcing?

- So often I see outsourcing being related primarily to cost and just cost! I see this as a wrong approach. Yes, cost is one of primary drivers but not the only one. So, instead of answering this question, I suggest them to aim at forming a “Technology and R&D Center” instead of a “Cost Center”. Philosophy is very simple: you can always get another vendor who could provide same service at lower cost! Secondly, in the ever demanding and competitive market you cannot run a sustainable and successful business with substandard products/services.

What takes to start my own technology center in India?

- Beyond work and money, you need someone who can run the show in India. Setting up an enterprise in India, especially technology house is easy but getting right heads and right position holds the key. I have seen multiple instances where organization closed because of wrong business heads, teams failed to deliver proper outputs because of wrong technical leads and managers. Right processes, culture, vision starts from top. Secondly, you cannot just outsource anything and everything and expect miracle to happen. In most cases you need correct resources onshore/onsite.

Conclusion: its not just money power but people who run the show!

How safe and reliable is it to do outsourcing? What to outsource and what not?

- First of all, you are not inventing outsourcing today. It’s a proven and reliable way of doing business for the smallest to the biggest possible business houses. Answer to above question can be included here – having right set of people at right position holds the key to reliability. Initially, only disconnected and low profile work use to get outsourced. Time has changed and so has the trend. Today, even Microsoft does core development and R&D from its India office.

What is the best location for doing outsourcing?

- Of course India! I have seen people debating on this and everyone is entitled to have an opinion. Fact that almost all large technology companies worldwide have a development and R&D center in India. Frankly, I see many global enterprises shutting down if they stop their operations from India. Outsourcing is no more a choice but a NEED. Its not only the low profile work that is being outsourced today but the best and most technical work that you could possibly do in any business vertical.

Error code 80072efd MSN Messenger

Jay Kinker — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 09:51:32 GMT

Simple solution for me: Allow MSN at Anti Virus

I upgraded MSN yesterday and it worked well. When I rebooted my laptop today it stopped working!

When I searched for the error code, I got huge list of pages with variety of solutions like registry changes and all sorts of setting which was not required at all (at least for me). So I choose to write my solution.

I am using Vista Ultimate 64 bit

Microsoft Help on MSN

New updated website for Microsoft MVP

Jay Kinker — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 06:07:26 GMT

Microsoft announced the new updated public website for MVP (Microsoft Most Valuable Professional):
www.microsoft.com/mvp

The site is designed to help people understand the MVP Award Program and the exclusive nature of the MVP Award. Offered in nine languages, the new pages feature a fresher design, and simplify the user experience while addressing the key questions that site visitors ask.

One improved way to the MVP Award Program!

Microsoft with IIS Search Engine Optimization

Jay Kinker — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 01:27:22 GMT

Yes, now its Microsoft getting into SEO. Personally, I have not been a big fan of SEO initiatives and the action that is going around it. Following article is what I agree: http://societrends.com/2009/05/07/seo-is-todays-snake-oil/

Having said that, we still have to keep our customers happy and IIS SEO Toolkit can make developers life easy. Some of customization we do today for achieving SEO requires multiple third party utilities and in the end becomes miserable to maintain.

Executive Summary

Microsoft recently announced the IIS Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Toolkit Beta – a free toolkit that helps Web developers, hosting providers, and server administrators improve their sites’ relevance in search results by recommending how to make them more search engine-friendly. The SEO Toolkit Beta is available for installation via the Microsoft Web Platform Installer 2.0 Beta.

Additional Information & Resources

The IIS SEO Toolkit can:

· Improve the volume and quality of traffic to Web site from search engines

· Control how search engines access and display Web content

· Inform search engines about locations that are available for indexing

The IIS SEO Toolkit includes three modules that integrate with IIS Manager:

· Site Analysis, which suggests changes that can help improve the volume and quality of traffic to your Web site from search engines;

· Robots Exclusion, which makes it easier to control and restrict the content that search engines index and display; and

· Sitemaps and Site Indexes, which can help inform search engines about locations that are available for indexing.

The IIS SEO Toolkit Beta can be installed with the Microsoft Web Platform Installer 2.0 Beta.

· For more information, visit: http://www.iis.net/extensions/SEOToolkit

· For more information on the Microsoft Web Platform, visit www.microsoft.com/web

· To follow Microsoft Web Platform on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mswebplatform

Windows Azure Management Tool (MMC)

Jay Kinker — Sun, 17 May 2009 12:21:30 GMT

Available immediately from Code Gallery, download the Windows Azure MMC. The Windows Azure Management Tool was created to manage your storage accounts in Windows Azure and makes it simple to help debug, create, and explore your storage solutions. In our testing, this tool has been invaluable to us to inspect messages in our queues.

debug, create, explore…

Developed as a managed MMC, the tool allows you to create and manage both blobs and queues. Easily create and manage containers, blobs, and permissions. Add and remove queues, inspect or add messages, or empty queues as well.

Features

· Manage multiple storage accounts (makes it easy to manage all your accounts)

· Easily switch between remote and local storage services

· Manage your blobs

o Create containers and manage permissions

o Upload files or even entire folders

o Read metadata or preview the blob contents

· Manage your queues

o Create new queues

o Monitor queues

o Read (peek) messages

o Post new messages to the queue

o Purge queues

* The current release does not work with Windows 7 due to a bug in the underlying PowerShell version. All other OS versions should be unaffected.