We’ve experienced both scenarios within our business, and also acted as an outsourcing agency in that regard to our clients. We believe that there is definitely a place for outsourcing, but that the key is not that you outsource, but what you outsource and how you do it.

Expertise

It’s often overlooked that the skills that are outsourced require a certain amount of expertise. We have in-house expertise to manage any outsourcing requirements, but the worst thing to find is when outsourcing is taken on without the understanding to be able to manage the quality and properly test what is returned.

There are many things that have been good and many things that haven’t worked.  Here’s a quick checlist of pros and cons to help you figure out whether it’s right for your project.

Pros

• Genuinely cheaper daily rates
• More resource and more available resource
• Quick turnaround times
• Will often accommodate changes more readily (generally for a fee)
• You get what you ask for (!)

Cons

• You get what you ask for – if you don’t scope properly and provide a comprehensive specification, you will end up with an incomplete product
• Quality can be very hard to assess
• Design work (for websites especially) can sometimes be of a significantly low standard that it’s better to design in the UK
• Following accepted methodologies (agile, Prince2, UML etc) is no guarantee of ability
• Can be difficult to manage remotely
• Relationship between yourself and supplier can be very complex
• Language can cause an issue (if the supplier does not have a native English speaker for example
• There are a lot of companies out there, and not all of them are good – finding a good one is worth taking time over

Is this your experience?

We are experienced in this area, and these are just some of the things that we take into account when looking at outsourcing outside the UK. It can definitely work, just go in with your eyes open!