How do I work with multiple offshore service providers?
Sometime ago, I was presenting to a group of senior managers at PMI’s Global Congress in Singapore, an executive with a multinational software company (shall go unnamed) raised her hand and asked: “I have been tasked with governing our offshore outsourcing strategy and will be working with multiple service providers. Are there any tips you can provide?”
This would have been a typical “Aha” moment for a sales guy at a software service company – including Infosys – and an opportunity to launch into a lengthy discourse on how the Global Delivery Model (GDM) can help. I would have done the same if I were a sales guy…probably gone the full nine yards: exchanged business cards and booked some calendar time with her. But I wasn’t there to sell Infosys* or our GDM. I was there to talk about my (then) forthcoming book and the idea of an “Offshoring Management Framework,” a vendor-agnostic model to approach offshoring.
I began explaining the fact that most large organizations like her employer were trying to address similar challenges. The challenge was to find the right approach, the ‘sweet spot’ between Offshoring Strategy and executing and delivering offshored projects. A summary of my thoughts can be found in my Computerworld column “Managing and Implementing Outsourced Projects”
*Footnote: though I didn’t sell the Infosys GDM to her, we did exchange business cards and continued to ideate
Comments
Having multiple offshore vendors allows you to spend great time for new development of products and strategy. It prevents your company from extra expenses like opening new offices and work space for completion of several tasks while saving money for other business expenses.
Posted by: Virtual Assistant | May 7, 2008 11:05 AM