About managed outsourcing & "offshoring"

Contracting with offshore companies is known as "offshoring".

If you choose us to build your project, you are "outsourcing" work to us.

Offshoring can be risky business especially if you are contracting with offshore companies with you as a small business entity.

If the outsource project gets abandoned or done wrong by the company you source it to, who are you going to take to small claims court?

The answer of course is no one, your going to be left holding the bag in that scenario since you can not afford to go over seas and fight a legal case in a country whose laws can be completely different than ours.

If the project get halfway done or 90% done and they try to "hold you up" for a bunch more money to finish it because of some invented problem what are you going to do then?

We take the risk out of outsourcing for you by purchasing the services of outside vendors and managing the project ourselves. Typically only a small part or no part of any given project is outsource/offshore.

We become accountable to you and the vendor is accountable to us.

We will manage the project and work to "get the lead out" to get it finished on time since we know you won't pay us if its not finished.

We work with a handful of companies who have proven to deliver consistent and timely work in the past.

Outsourcing & Offshoring allows small companies like ours to offer products and services we wouldn't otherwise be able to offer.

We cant specialize in every single discipline of programming/marketing/copy writing/Flash design etc. Also the same work can be done for $15.00 per hour that would cost $50.00 per hour here.

If we hire a team of programmers from India to build an application for you, we are "offshoring" work to them.

In our questionnaire we ask your views about offshoring. If you object to offshoring we will not send any part of your project offshore.

We also work with US based outsourcing freelancers and do send out requests for proposals to them as well.

You may ask:

Can't we just send the work offshore ourselves?

By all means, and good luck to you if you do so.

If you get lucky it will all go smoothly, but the odds are strongly against that scenario. Just sending out work is no guarantee that the work will get done right or on time, in fact it almost certainly will not in our experience unless the following conditions are met.

Case 1.) The outsource company must be constantly monitored to assure they aren't putting your project aside to do other more lucrative ones.

Case 2.) The outsource company must have a proven track record of delivering on YOUR projects and being qualified to actually do the type of work you need.

Case 3.) Your expectations must be completely detailed with the contractor completely understanding what you want the finished project to be and do EXACTLY or they WILL take shortcuts and then act as if they never understood your instructions at all.

Case 1.) is possible if you have the time for it.

Case 2.) is impossible for most of you reading this because you have only one project to do, so the only way to find out if the outsource or offshore company delivers is to risk it on the first project.

Case 3.) is possible if you are extremely knowlegeable and very detail oriented and know exactly what you want and how it is to function in the end exactly and you detail it to the micromanagement level in writing.