Archive for March 5th, 2009
Outsourcing: Choosing the perfect service provider
In these dark times of economic recession, most companies from US and Europe are looking to outsource their projects to offshore service providers in a desperate rush for cutting costs. Keeping with the trend, many independent service providers are coming forward to provide services at lucrative rates to their US clients. However, choosing the perfect service provider is no easy task for US based companies. Before outsourcing the business or IT processes, the company must make sure that the service provider will be able to carry out the services properly and meet the standards required by them. A balance needs to be maintained between the quality of service and the cost incurred by the company that is outsourcing its work processes.
When choosing an offshore service provider to take care of their work processes, companies need to be cautious. If the provider is small, there is every reason to check out everything about the provider and make sure that they are indeed capable of providing the service required by the company. There are several procedures for doing this, not only in case of small companies, but in case of larger companies with a stable reputation in the market as well. These include:
1. Contacting trade associations – The trade associations maintain records of the type of services provided by most organizations in the same country. For example, in India, the trade association is the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM). These associations can help the companies looking for service providers by providing important details regarding the quality of service provided by the company, its past record in the market, and so on.
2. Sending out an RFP – The next procedure would be to send a request for proposal (a.k.a. RFP) to the service provider. A questionnaire can be sent along with RFP to ensure that the company gets proper service from the provider. If the provider has a website, where it displays the list of past clients’ names, then personnel from the company outsourcing its project should check that first. This helps by providing concise information about the service provider. The questionnaire should contain questions asking the provider to state how they are better from the competition, the process model that they follow, their delivery methods, how qualified the personnel concerned with the project would be, and so on.
3. Conducting a thorough background check – This is easier if the service provider has a website. Otherwise, it is a must to call up at least some of their clients anonymously and ask about how well the services were provided. It is crucial to know whether the projects were delivered on time, without any problems in communication at any stage. If the company has certifications of quality maintenance, such as ISO, then it is a clear indication of their capability.
4. Running a pilot project – This is a good thing to do, if possible. Running a short pilot project will help the company assess the capabilities of the service provider properly. It will cost some funds though, so it is always a good idea to carry out the first three steps mentioned above first.
These procedures can help a company to choose the perfect service provider for outsourcing their projects to. The key is to get superior service at low costs. That alone can help a company survive these troubled times.
