How do you select IT outsourcing communication tools?

As you have rightly mentioned "communication is key factor", I agree. Communication is key to successful engagement, required good execution strategy and right team construct. Build single team, have to consider offshore/ outsourcing team as extended team and part of it. Set expectations, define KRAs across with accountability. Need 2 in box delivery supervisors with defined KRAs, 1 at onshore and 1 at offshore, accountable to manage teams, have to work in-sync to achieve successful delivery, this may vary on team size. Follow 1 methodology, pick PM tool, utilize it to track and control milestones and various metrics. Communication (required email and voice channel) to have "continuous cadence" with teams across include offshore team.

Tools are no more an issue in today’s world. However one should not jump into selecting a fancy tool before setting objective , stakeholders , motto etc . One more aspect to remember while designing communication aspect of an organisation or for that matter an engagement is Security and Data Privacy . Many tools are well integrated which enable free chatting, calls from anywhere , video , file sharing etc . Thus a large amount of data may potentially get exposed leading to regulatory compliance issues and company’s confidential information may be compromised. While Formal communications must be data driven, there should be informal communication and exchanges to understand teams , their well beings to create empowered and motivated team

Understanding your communication goals is crucial for effective communication. Without a clear understanding of what you want to achieve, your message may not be received or understood as intended. Therefore, taking the time to identify and clarify your goals is essential for successful communication.

Working with an offshore development company, we only used email and a weekly status meeting to communicate. A few weeks into the development project, we started to feel that we were behind and that the assigned team did not have a proper grasp on the requirement. A couple of months into the engagement, it was clear that the project was not on track, and we had to fly in some of the leadership members of the offshore organization for a workshop to build a go-to-green plan. If we had the right cadence and tools in place, this may have been caught earlier in the life of the project.

Communication is absolutely key. But whatever tools or methodology adopted, it should support a real time integrated model. Shared platforms reflect the partnership which underpins any outsource. Enabling both partners to communicate as a single consolidated unit. After all business generally outsources for partners to fulfil non-core functions. They are nevertheless part of the team and should not in any way be segmented in communication terms, if the true intent is to gain value add.

Each one of these channels serve a purpose and is needed, none can work alone or replace the others. In a previous experience we were working as a supplier for a global system integrator (GSI) looking for application developers needed by global clients. The GSI only used an instant messaging tool and a weekly video conferencing platform. They were very weak on email and no project management or document collaboration tools were used. Resumes (CV's) were shared on the IM tool and would get lost in the discussion threads, progress against time lines would also have to be tracked in the chat, meeting minutes including actions and decisions were not stored in a common or organized repository. The result was loss of time and frustration.

The answer is to use all available mediums. With the right relationships there should be the agility to pick up the phone and talk. Just as you would with a work colleague. Teams of course offers the platform for customers and outsource partners to perform governance meetings. The monthly service review, quarterly commercial reviews and of course executive forums. But when it comes to anything formal, messages can be lost so always best to have recorded in email.

My company takes communication seriously. When our developers agree on the feature roadmap with our client, we send a commitment letter to ensure we got each other right and there was no miscommunication. Then, we start coding. At the end of each sprint we organize a meeting where we showcase how the features work and receive feedback from you. If you want a change, we can implement it early. Thus we avoid the snowball effect in the end, where one thing can undermine the rest and we spend a lot of time redoing stuff.

We use MS Teams which integrates calls, video conferences, chat, file repositories and task forces (or teams - hence the name). The more the tool is integrated and covers multiple communication channels and purposes, the easier it is to find information from previous interactions. Nevertheless, additional tools are still required, like email and project management tools. Working across organizations may be a channel though, where corporate security requirements do not allow information sharing across organizations. In such cases Slack may be more favourable over Teams (for example)

There was an instance where one of our clients required vpn access to their environment and our teams in an offshore center could not use the vpn client as it was forbidden by the government at the location of the offshore center. A workaround was put in place where our teams would access client vpn through our cloud presence in a different country. While selection of tools, and testing them is important, understanding the regulatory landscape and taking that into consideration is also very important.

Making staff aware when to use which communication channel / tool is also very important. I have been in situations where arguments escalate very quickly in email exchanges (with many people copied) whereas a phone call between the two person in dispute, or a conference call including an extra person, could solve the issue quicker and more discreetly than in an email war.

I find that the best outsourcing arrangements come from shared perspective. And in respect of that, Sharepoint is a great platform to aid governance, records amd reference points. Removing ambiguity on key commercial documents but bringing auditable tracking on activities.