How to evaluate the worth of an offshore development company before outsourcing?

Accomplishing bottom lines followed with pressures from stakeholders have pushed enterprises (medium and large) to upscale their productivity and as anticipated, outsourcing continues to be the key solution. 57% of surveyed businesses have confirmed they outsource to focus more on their core business processes and ease the burden off from there in house resources. Despite a swathe of benefits to avail, outsourcing has its share of risks and choosing the right outsourcing partner, tops the list.

The internet is littered with companies that have their registration and are in compliance with legal processes yet lack the required experience needed. Although agencies that check the qualification of an offshore development company are available but cutting the tedious cycle short, the evaluation can be done internally.

Having worked with various outsourcing partners, I have stumbled upon offshore software development companies of different types. Here’s what I learned to do. 

Judge them for their communication prowess

Communication drives the most complex deals in the world and finalizing an offshore development company is no different. Companies that can communicate in detail answer your questions appropriately and attach credible affirmations (such as case studies, testimonials, etc.) have not forged their details and hence, can be trusted upon for subsequent rounds of discussions. However, the essence of communication doesn’t restrict to verbal skills only and you must look forward to the clarity and effectiveness with which the consultants represent their organization.

On the contrary, if the reps aren’t answering properly or have to refer to their technical resource for the basic queries, be cautious. Lack of communication in any capacity will lead to misinformation and complications. 

Take note of extreme statements

Over commitments like ‘24x7 availability’, ‘development completion in record time with no fail’, ‘no bugs’ and ‘we are the best in the industry’ should be overruled. Professional companies with valuable experience understand the scope of abrupt issues and convey the same in their road map. Besides covering up the reality, they would tell you about their approach to addressing such issues in the best possible manner. Remember, software implementations are prone to critical issues and you must not fall for proposals that ridicule the reality. 

Decode their COE – Bigger list may not be great

If a company with small to medium employee strength advertises a long list of services, stay cautious. The logic is simple – SME service providers can't qualitatively execute multiple implementations. They are either bluffing or have worked on a few tentative requirements here and there. Only large scale companies (CMMi Level 5 & 4) can be trusted for a detailed COE since they have the resource strength, capital and the experience in performing critical implementations.

Does that mean SMEs don’t have experience in large scale implementations?

Over the years, SMEs have swept away project bids and given large organizations a run for their money. They account for 90% of employment in the IT & business consulting markets. Hence, small-medium scale companies that have a lean portfolio with detailed case studies spanning across 4-5 technologies only, is a hint that they have worked on a lesser number of though large scale projects.

A great hack to simplify the investigation would be including a technical resource in the presales discussions.

Tip -> In case of a tie, prefer working with the smaller organization as the reporting hierarchy over there is shorter and accessible.

Probe about the staffing & retention strategy

Since employees (and not just the leadership) will drive your project, verifying the work-life quality is essential to understand the happiness quotient of the resources. Companies with unchecked attrition rates or instant hiring/firing policy end up complicating the implementation life-cycle. Therefore, perform a detailed background check about the internal environment of the company. A few platforms like Glassdoor and LinkedIn can help you understand the company better.

At the forefront, you could always ask the representatives about the company’s HR policies, their recruitment strategies, staff retention policies and hence, their approach towards addressing employee issues. You may also ask for a brief interactive session with the oldest employees within the company. Try to imbibe their current staffing architecture and if they have the sizable bench strength to compensate for abrupt unavailability of deployed resources.

Check for employee training initiatives undertaken in the past

Technology is a continuously evolving sector and thus, on-demand preparedness to take up extempore business requirements is the key trait that you must look for in a services provider. Subsequently, organizations have responded proactively to the trends and begun training their employees in the trending technologies. While selecting an offshore software development company, you must probe the organization’s initiatives towards training the employees in emerging technologies. While most companies have done breakthrough work, associating with any of these services providers will ensure a quality workforce on board. Not just the exposure in different areas will strengthen the deployed resource’s productivity but also helps to make business logic changes to the system, seamlessly.

Verify if the company believes in following the legal process

Don’t fall for the sophistication adorned by the company sales reps until they agree to keep all deals transparent and within the legal compliance policies. As the web is filled with hundreds of registered companies with swanky websites but no credible record, it is imperative to ask questions. Of course, it’s legal to reduce taxes or ask for discounts but if something appears too good to be true, raise the red flags. Bribes, indirect payment options, favors, and various temptations to evade taxes must be turned down. Genuine offshore companies won’t deny keeping things straight.

And ultimately,

Not every development service provider is active on social media sites and this must also not go against them. However, digital presence can be used as an effective tool to know the company more constructively. Start with the company’s website, the content and brand’s presence on social media platforms. Companies that don’t have anything to hide will confidently allow you to have a sneak peek into their in-house work culture, events, employee testimonials and above all, project case studies attested by the respective clients.

Going through reviews is fine but have a fair interpretation as most of the bad reviews could have been intentionally posted to defame the organization.