Offshoring/Outsourcing

dahamsta

Be interested to hear people's thoughts on oursourcing and offshoring. I'm finding it very difficult to come to a decision about it meself. On the one hand, I can see that economically free trade will pay off in the long run; but on the other I can see it taking decades, while everyone but the corporate executives get screwed. Very difficult.

adam

De Rebel

Am in the middle of a substantial outsourcing project. Mixed feelings. Change my opinion from time to time. Main benefit is that all the sh1te that I don't like is now somebody else's problem. Main disadvantages are that I need to trust ppl and can't put my arms around the servers every morning.

Specky

Well in a way it's a lot like outsourcing here.

You have to make sure your requirements are well defined.
You have to make your requirements are well understood.
You need well defined deliverables and payment terms.
You need to be confident that your sub-contractor can fulfill his promises.

Problems are the person reading the requirements may not have english as a first language (assuming english is the language that the requirements are written in), so it can be hard to know if they're been understood the way you want them to be.

There's no substitute for face to face meetings to make sure you're speaking the same language (metaphorically and actually) and too get the confidence in the other person's capabilities. If the subby is in Madras that's going to be a bit harder than if they're in Athlone....but only just

I've heard horror stories about sub-contracting even to companies who're just down the road, I've even been a part of some of these horror stories, but I have also heard some unpleasant stuff about Chinese subcontractors recently (this would be more on the manufacturing side of things but by the types of problem I'd say they would be the same in any sector) with people in China on the other end of a phone just plain lieing through their teeth, and it's required someone to get on a plane and go over there to sort it out.

People here lie too, but at least you can nip down and give them a clip round the ear....metaphorically of course...

I think it's pretty much common sense. If you were doing something here you'd factor in the cost of a few trips to see the supplier, if you're doing something in the far east you need to do the same (but add in a couple of extra trips for contingency) if it's still economical to do the work over there then off you go. I don't think there's any doubt that the skill sets are available over there, the work ethic seems (to me) a lot more positive and pro-active and they're damn cheap.

Fergal C

There is an excellent Sitepoint article on this. You can view it here

DadaKopf

Good one about it by George Monbiot, too.

GreeBo

I think its "goodness" is up for debate.
He's pretty opinionated, however there are a few good points.