Daily Archives: July 2, 2012

The 6 Tips For Productive Outsourcing Software Development

Software outsourcing has great benefits. Nevertheless most corporations lose out on the benefits of these advantages due to wrongly planning, misleading goals, and absence of knowledge on the subject of hi tech tools. Here are seven tips to make any software outsourcing project a success:

Successful contract

Just about all legal agreements must be inclusive and also clear. Different ethnic rules, work ethics, legal requirements, probable contingency strategies, for example, should be detailed inside the contract. A contract could be the foundation of your very good software outsourcing commitment. Always be clear about how exactly committed as well as stable a good outsourcing provider is.

Understanding the time difference

Outsourcing involves executives sitting around the globe. An outsourcing project could involve team members with a time difference of more than nine hours between them. The basic idea is to have at least two hours of working hours overlapping between them.

This improves the communication and results of team work. Advanced technology offers superb tools for team collaborations like web conferencing. All communication should be saved via a repository for permanent documentation of all messages.

Specific development environments

It’s best that every offshore team has its test and development environment ready. They should have a frequent appraisal methodology. There should be a supervisor for each team. All supervisors should report to the key handler at the head office. All goals should be clearly outlined at every level. A powerful technical professional as the head of any offshore team is vital.

Set up a monitoring team

A tiny team that monitors workflow is crucial. Or, a single person might also be appointed simply to keep a record of work progress and workflow. The monitoring of the progression of the work in the right direct is crucial so that issues may be detected earlier and resolved immediately.

Gauge financial goals

Setting and managing finance goals is crucial. There should be regular reviews of progress in productiveness, performance, and resource generation. A contingency plan should be in place for astonishing fiscal crunches. Both long- and short-term monetary wants should really be kept under consideration when planning the project. Regular financial appraisals are also required.

Security essentials

One of the most important facets of software outsourcing is security. Further security technologies and bandwidth should be utilized whenever needed. Your team must be aware of country-specific info encryption regulations also. Apart from security, info loss should be stopped with the best backup solutions.

And if you wish to remove the probability of outsourcing your project put us to the test right now risk-free. We don’t want you to have confidence in us we want to earn your trust as well as prove ourselves.

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To Outsource or not to outsource?

There have been and still are a lot of debates about the outsourcing some business processes to outside organizations. Many start-ups, small, medium and large business wonder which processes should be delegated to services providers and which should be developed in-house. We have statistical information based on our long experience and experience of our clients that both speak to the truth of the statement – one should outsource only those processes which are not crucial for the company, which don’t give a competitive edge or which require investing significant funds into the infrastructure or human resources and this, perhaps, is not affordable at current stage of company growth.

Outsourcing has many advantages such as possibility to concentrate on core business, no need to duplicate key specialists, adaptation of innovative technology, quality improvement and service reliability.

Nevertheless, many companies question the effectiveness of outsourcing.

We would like you to ask yourself a string of questions that will allow you to make a sound decision:

•    Will software outsourcing give you more time to focus your attention and efforts on the strengths of your company? If yes, then this will help your employees concentrate more on the reinforcing the strengths, major tasks and future development strategy of the company.

•    Will software outsourcing improve your effectiveness and quality of service? Choose such an outsourcing company that specializes on the processes and services that will work for your company welfare.

•    Will your business get a competitive advantage? Outsourcing can add flexibility to your business, converting your fixed costs into variable, releasing human resources and assets. Also, it can give your business an advantage when adapting to changing market conditions.

What options do you have? (Let us explore all the options)
You might want to rush headlong into outsourcing – hold it! For a start, set aside some time to think over which processes are best to outsource and which vender is the most appropriate to work with. Let us examine the following:

•    What are your key strengths and what are secondary? Which processes are you going to outsource and why?

•    What are the costs of implementing this process within the company? Including hidden costs such as office space, recruiting and payment.

•    Calculate ROI – ask your potential vendor to help you out with this as nowadays many of them offer such a service.

•    Is it worth cooperating with an independent advisor who will search for an appropriate vendor? Doesn’t the advisor recommend the company which he has special arrangements with?

•    What are the costs if not outsourcing? Will your business suffer if you don’t invest into knowledge and artifacts your partner already has and can supply you with.

Also, we strongly encourage to ask yourself the following questions before outsourcing:

•    Are your expectations realistic?

•    Are you ready to regularly set aside time and effort for managing outsourcing relationships (managing the work of outsourcing partner)? Or can you assign a special person who will manage the communication and create tasks for an outsourcing partner?

•    Is this process a key concern which your company should address directly for the sake of future competitiveness?

Source:

http://www.iksanika.com/blog/to-outsource-or-not-to-outsource.html

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IT Outsourcing Services: Protecting Your Data in Every Industry

Data security is a hot issue in just about every industry. Because more businesses rely on e-commerce, online marketing and virtual support than ever before, it follows that data security concerns are paramount.

When data is transferred across the internet, it can potentially be accessed or stolen by anyone – but only if data security is sub-par. For industries that deal with sensitive information, this is an especially important consideration. The good news is that IT outsourcing services provide an effective – and cost-effective – solution. Indeed, the growth of IT outsourcing services for data security has exploded over the last decade.

To be sure, different industries have different data security concerns. Here are some examples of how specific industries are using IT outsourcing services to better protect their data:

Health IT: The healthcare industry was one of the first to make data security a pressing issue during the beginning of the computer age. Things haven’t changed much, except that almost all hospitals now rely on health IT to access vital patient information. Thus, keeping patient records secure from unauthorized access is a major concern. IT outsourcing services help alleviate this concern by providing robust security support and monitoring tools.

Online retail: Anytime a customer purchases something from an online retailer, secure credit card information, contact information and other details are exchanged. If data security is lax, this information can be intercepted or stolen from of a retailer’s internal database. IT outsourcing enables retailers to shift the burden of security to the experts so they can focus on what they do best: online sales.

Software development: Data security is a huge concern for software developers due to the possibility of copyright infringement. If code or other data resources are copied by a virtual trespasser, patents can be stolen and sensitive material can become public. One way to avoid this is by letting an IT outsourcing services provider set up a virtual, secure server for you and your staff to access, store and make code changes. This creates a secure firewall between your software development and the outside world.

Government agencies: For this industry, above all others, data security is of maximum concern. Not only do government agencies keep vital records of people for very important reasons – tax records, legal records, social services, etc. – they also keep highly classified records about foreign agencies, criminals, militaries and politically sensitive issues. Should this data fall into the wrong hands, it could be a matter of national security. Hence, many government agencies use IT outsourcing services in addition to in-house security. Having an outsourcing partner provides a second layer of security, as well as immediate assistance if a problem arises.

Source:http://www.prosum.com/2012/06/it-outsourcing-services-protecting-your-data-in-every-industry/

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Outsourcing Price – Don’t Lose the Cost Linkage

Getting to the right price. If not the primary objective, it’s certainly one of the more important goals of any customer who has ever outsourced a piece of their operation. While striving for the lowest price possible, in order for the transaction – and long term relationship – to be successful, it must be beneficial to both parties. If a customer negotiates a supplier below the point at which they can make money on the service, there will be problems with that relationship. It might take a little while for them to surface, but surface they will.

One of the longstanding precepts of pricing in the sourcing world is to maintain, as closely as possible, a linkage between the underlying cost of providing the service and the price being charged for that service. No customer should begrudge their supplier making a reasonable profit, for without a fair return on their work, it is unlikely the supplier will be there in the future to support the customer. Hence, if the costs of providing the service plus a fair margin are equal, in as many cases as possible, to the price being paid by the customer, then the chances for a long, happy and productive relationship between the customer and supplier are good.

This does not mean that one should strive for a "cost plus" arrangement. On the contrary, that pricing paradigm comes with its own set of challenges. What this does mean is the price should be closely linked to the underlying cost of providing the service. An O/S image support charge is directly attributable to the labor and maybe some productivity tools that are used in the delivery of that server’s support. Conversely, the charge for a gigabyte of data streamed to a tape has no linkage to the underlying cost of providing data backup services.

Just a few weeks ago in Outsourcing Pricing Models: Recent Trends and Ever-Important Considerations we discussed an article from CIO Magazine that highlighted a trend in the industry to explore different pricing models. Customers are always looking for new ways to manage the cost of technology and commodity business functions and better align them with their lines of business. This is not a new concept and has been evolving for some time. In another example, about 18 months ago the Outsourcing Center assembled a panel of industry experts to discuss different approaches to pricing (see Outsourcing Experts Discuss New Flexible Pricing Models).

A desire for output based pricing is a common objective for customers seeking alternative pricing structures. An insurance company wants to pay by the number of claims processed; a payables department wants to pay by the number of checks written or invoices processed; etc. When trying to achieve these type of billing metrics, the buyer must not forget the still relevant principle discussed above (cost + margin = price). The challenge often encountered with these output-based pricing metrics is getting to an objective, measurable and agreed-upon cost basis for each of the output events. Sometimes there is a direct correlation between output and cost and in those cases, output based pricing is probably the right way to go. But sometimes the parties try to take the concept too far and bundle in costs that have nothing to do with changes in the volume of output. In those cases, there is often a hidden trap that catches either the client (through higher than necessary fees) or the supplier (through margin shrinkage or even loss).

The buyer of sourcing services should use caution when pursuing these types of pricing strategies in the absence of good historical metrics on the underlying cost structure. Suppliers try to give the customer what they want in as many cases as possible. If asked for an evolutionary pricing metric, most suppliers will try to accommodate the request. However, they will also ensure they are protected. When faced with a request to price for an unknown risk (e.g., if the underlying costs of a particular metric are not inherently clear), the supplier will mitigate that risk with either contingency funds, increased margin, or both. The customer may get the new billing metric they were after, but they may also end up overpaying for the service.

In summary, regardless of whether you are pursuing input-based, output-based or even a more revolutionary pricing metric, the underlying principle of cost + margin = price should be respected as a fundamental reality to supplier pricing. This should ensure you don’t overpay for the service and that your supplier earns a fair margin on their work. Both are necessary for a successful outsourcing relationship.

Source:http://www.jdsupra.com/post/documentViewer.aspx?fid=a54dee1b-67ee-46d4-adbc-dc55778c1b24

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