Monthly Archives: September 2010

Chile as an outsourcing destination

September 20, 2010 by admin
Categories: BPO | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Chile is a country that you might not think about much in the context of outsourcing.

India and the Philippines have always been the biggest players with China catching up in many industries.  But, South America has a lot to offer, and in particular, Chile.

Although there are relatively fewer English speakers in Chile compared to many other countries, labor rates for bilingual call center representatives are only about $1000 per month, and rates for hi-tech staff are around $2600-$3100 per month.

In the last few years, Chile has been attracting more and more overseas companies to set up shop there. Additionally, the government offers incentives to companies who engage in outsourcing.

An Indian company called Evaluserve set up shop in chile several years ago and Orion systems also set up shop in Chile in 2008. Many companies like to have the more labor intensive work done in India with more sensitive IT related tasks handled by their Chilean counterparts.

Another super factor in Chile’s favor is that they are on the same time zone as the United States. When dealing with India, you have to be a night owl to stay in touch and answer phone calls or emails in real-time.  Not so with Chile.

It seems that it is best to do business with those who you have synergy with.  That is an individual fit, and hard to predict. But, don’t leave Chile out when looking for your perfect IT or BPO Call Center Match!

Find BPO companies in Chile!

Mexico is America’s #1 choice for near-shoring

The fastest way to grow on Google+ is…

September 20, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

I just started using Google plus a few weeks ago. Honestly, I am nowhere near being able to call myself an expert. But, I have been doing social media for four years. I write my own blogs, tweets, posts, discussion questions, and I notice what works, with who, and why. I read a lot of materials for Google+ on the internet. The advice was similar wherever I went. You need to follow relevant people, plus other people’s content, join communities, comment on other people’s posts, blah, blah, blah. This advice is not bad advice, but here’s some really good advice.

Advice on commenting
Or should I say, my comments on commenting. As a general rule, commenting on other people’s material is a way to get noticed on social media. Most people write really witless comments that just take up space. When you see a beautiful photo posted on one of those travel sites, the comments are very predictable as well: “Oh, it’s so beautiful, I wish I could be there right now.” Commenting on Google+ will get you noticed, and will get you new followers, but slowly. If I spend an hour commenting, perhaps I’ll get around three followers as a result. I do recommend commenting on content that is very relevant and meaningful to you. Commentary should be done if you can’t stop yourself from doing it. I wouldn’t just comment on content for the sake of commenting as that is not an efficient use of your time.

Plussing
I spent a lot of time plussing one day. I went through feeds for all types of topics that interested me. Most of the feeds were based on business oriented keywords. I plussed the posts that I thought were worth having Google put in the spotlight. Plussing looks easy, but you have to read a lot to figure out what to plus if you want to give honest plusses. And there is no greater minus than a plus that lacks integrity! The day that I spent about an hour plussing only yielded me about three followers.

Posting
Posting is a great way to get seen in keyword feeds. I don’t know how many people bother to read keyword feeds. But, Google+ seems to be set up to be more focused on keyword specific searches rather than just seeing the posts from random followers that you have accumulated over time. Google makes it convoluted to see the posts of your followers. You have to lookup a keyword with a # sign to even get the option. So, it makes sense to post a few articles per day and use different keywords. The point is to show up in all of the keyword feeds that are relevant to your business. So, make a list, and make sure you are always showing up. If that means posting 20 times a day, then maybe you should! Choose your content wisely. I do not have a metric for how many followers I can get in an hour of posting, because I only spend a few minutes per day posting content. The result you get from posting depends on your “reach.” If many people will see the post, then you might get some results. See my section on communities as that is a way to get instant reach (which is a marketing term.)

Feeds
Keyword searches are pretty self explanatory on Google+. But, if you do a search, you might be able to query posts from your followers, specific circles or discovery (fun.) Unfortunately, most of the people I follow post dismal material. I only follow them because they are industry specific. The people I actually like, I put in the VIP circle, and they are in different industries ranging from general business, to photography, to social media, and call centers. The problem with the way Google+ is set up is that you will not see what your followers are posting unless you go out of your way to see it.

Following
There is a daily limit on following people which is about 30-45 people per day. I don’t have an exact count and it might change depending on how much the Google gods like you. Unfortunately, my experience has been that only 10% of relevant people I have followed will follow me back. Twitter’s follow back rate is more like 15-30% on relevant follows, so 10% is very slow by my standards. On the other hand, it is very quick to follow forty people per day, and if four will follow you back, then you have something. You might spend fifteen minutes to get your four members through following. That is a more efficient use of your time than plussing or commenting.

Share Circles
I have read on the internet that there are share circles. You have to repost content that is in these circles, and then others will repost your content as well. You can look up the term “share circle Google+” on the internet to learn more. I don’t like the idea of this system because it will not get you relevant followers. But, this is a way to get followers in a hurry.

Communities
The problem with starting out on Google+ is that nobody knows you and most people don’t want to know you. It’s a bit like being an unpopular kid in Junior High School. I’ve been there. Communities are a fast way to solve this problem in many ways. In my opinion, communities on Google+ are the fastest way to grow your account. I spent 20 minutes posting quality content on a dozen or more communities today, and got six followers as a result. That is a lot faster than commenting, plussing or general posting. The reason is that when you post on a community’s board, your post actually gets seen, and by relevant people!

Strategies for community posting.
(1) Find relevant communities and post content in them once per day in the larger communities and once every several days in the smaller communities. You might need a list of which communities to contact and when. Targeting relevant communities might not be as easy as you think. There are different niches that might be compatible with your general business model. Each different community might need a slightly different type of post. So, you might be advised against posting the same post in all communities.

(2) Finding large communities can be good.
When you post a regular post on Google+, you have the right to make your post public, sent to a particular circle, to all your circles or to your extended community which could include one, several, or all of the communities that you have joined. The beauty of this is that someone with zero followers can post some quality content, and it can be seen by millions of people — if you have joined a few dozen large communities. Unfortunately, Google+ is the new kid on the block as far as successful social media platforms go. Their communities are generally fairly small. There are only about two dozen large communities, and those tend to focus widely on photography, travel, and a few geeky topics. Even if you are in the empanada folding industry, you could post a few beautiful travel photos that you are sharing or retweeting — and you could share those with five million others by being a member of large groups. Just don’t abuse your privilege because you could get banned from these groups if you do.

(3) You won’t really be seen by millions, here’s how it works
I am not an expert at the Google+ search result algorithm. But, if you do a search in your account, you might have the option to search your circles, discover, or on the left there is an “all” link. I’m not sure how many people actually click on that link. But, if five million people are “getting” your post (whatever that means,) they might be able to see it if they click all. The all link, based on my very quick research, displays content from those you follow on top. But, if you dig down ten or more posts, you start seeing content from strangers mixed in. I’m not sure how they determine which stranger’s posts get put down there, or why, but your post might get a chance to be in the all section if you contact your extended community.

To sum up this article, to grow fast on Google+ is to:

FOLLOW — the maximum amount of people per day
COMMUNITIES — Post a lot of content on communities.
POST — I also recommend posting around seven posts on your main page per day. Posts with beautiful photos will do better, and you can also share other people’s posts with breathtaking photography to break the monotony of your industry specific content on empanada folding, the best music to listen to while doing empanada folding, and top empanada folders in California.

You can do a little plussing and commenting on the side to get your name out there and be social. Google also learns about you and what you like when you plus things, so you are sort of compelled to do a few minutes of plussing per day whether you like it or not. But, the top three activities are listed above. One last tip. Just make your hands are clean after folding all of those empanadas, particularly the lamb ones.

Mexico is America’s #1 choice for Near-Shoring

September 20, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: America | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Near-Shoring Popular in Mexico
America is outsourcing many services overseas these days.  However, it is difficult, complicated, and expensive to outsource to Asia in many cases.  When you have to send executives to Asia from America, it is expensive!  If you need to call Asia from America, there is a time difference of 9-12 hours. There are strong cultural differences too which lead to communication discordances. In short, there are many complications. 
However, outsourcing to Mexico, and various other Latin American countries is much easier in many ways.  Communication is easier due to the cultural similarities between Anglo and Hispanic culture.  Americans who don’t reside in Texas, New Mexico, or California typically think of Latin culture as something exotic and distant.  However, if you travel to Africa or Asia, you will quickly realize that the Spanish language is very similar to English, the Catholic religion dominant in Latin America is very similar to the Protestant religion dominant (or previously dominant) in the United States.  The culture is much closer to American culture than Chinese, Thai, or Indian culture.
Additionally, business trips to Latin America are much easier than to Asia. There is no jet-lag.  Air-time might be anywhere from 8-16 hours as opposed to 16 to 36 hours for a trip to Asia. If you are in an industry where you need to send your executives back and forth constantly, it will be a drain on a person’s health to be going back and forth to Asia.  However, going back and forth to San Jose, CR, or to Buenos Aires, or Mexico City will be much easier to tolerate in the long run.  There might not be the exotic pleasures of Penang Beef, or Kung Pao Chicken, but the lack of jet lag or long flight times really makes a difference in the long run. Outsourcing to Latin America is easier in many ways.
My friend keeps telling me that in the future, there will be airplanes that will be able to fly from Los Angeles to Mumbai in five hours.  That is a wonderful concept, and I hope it is true.  But, in the mean time, it easier to fly from Dallas to Guadalajara!

Which blog entries do best on which network? Crowdsourcing examined.

September 19, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Analytics, Social Media | Tagged | Leave a comment

Optimizing your blog involves a lot more than just adding the right tags and writing popular content. You need to know what types of posts work best with which types of audience. Twitter is a source for only a few hundred clicks a month to my blog, but the SEO value of each quality click that gets me a few pageviews can be astounding. This is why I created a separate category on my blog for posts that did well on Twitter. We have close to 100 such posts on my notary blog. We are going to tweet those particular posts more often on Twitter with different title variations to study which titles do best.

Next, we are going to map out which posts did well on Facebook and republish those periodically on our Facebook account, possibly using pay-per-click to further accentuate the damage.

Linked In, Google+ and others are viable networks for getting lots of traffic. Use them!

Another factor to consider has to do with basic crowdsourcing strategy. Some of our networks have mainly members who are in the industry. Take the notary business for example. Those that get our newsletter are serious service providers. They like technical notary information, stories about notaries and marketing info. However, those on our Twitter network are generally either laypeople who know little about the notary industry or are just people who rarely use their notary stamp.

The key in attracting laypeople to our blog is to write articles that are about the notary profession, but interesting and understandable to a regular person. I just wrote an article about a guy in New York, who runs a notary business from his parked car. It is very interesting, and filled with facts that every a grade school child will easily be able to appreciate and understand. We will be writing more “relevant,” but also layperson attractive type articles in the future to reel in people who are in the business community, but are not necessarily zealous notaries!

A new pay scale lifecycle strategy for India’s younger IT workers

September 19, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Software Development | Leave a comment

I just got off the phone with one of the most intelligent managers from India who I have ever talked to. He had visited 25 countries in his life and had decades of experience working for very respectable larger U.S. companies. He and I commiserated about how helpless we felt that the good programmers and IT workers almost all seemed to get poached or eaten up by the larger companies out there.

Trying to find good programmers is hard when they get poached.
As a person who relies on software outsourcing companies for tasks such as PHP, .Net, VB, Java, etc., it is always a problem to find experienced programmers. There are experienced workers out there, but their level of availability is always very low which is a huge problem if you need to get something done. The less experienced workers are always available, but seem to get stuck on programming tasks the minute there is any unexpected complication. The most efficient way to deal with this dilemma is to have the more experienced workers watching over a dozen less experienced workers. The more experienced worker should ideally not do any work himself other than to help the others, or fix their errors, test them, and guide them. But, what can you do if every worker you’ve ever had leaves the company after working exactly five years because a bigger company bought them out so to speak?

A job at a large company helps you get married in India
In India, the culture is different than other countries. Marriage is a big deal in India. To get a good match, you need to come from a good family, your dad needs to have a government job (as that was fashionable a generation ago,) you need to have a software or engineering job for a large company (preferably a JOB at a MNC that does BPO and will give you good PAY.) Even if employees have to take a pay cut to work for a larger company, they often will simply because the status of the bigger company will help them get married and impress those in their social network and family. Additionally, the prospect of foreign travel or working overseas is possible in larger companies like Sun, Tata, Infosys, Wipro, etc. Smaller companies typically offer a dead-end with no room for advancement — or at least that is the perception. In countries in Eastern Europe, it is more common for experienced programmers to be willing to work for smaller firms, but not in India.

The solution is a pay-grade change and status change at smaller companies.
Since the five year mark is when most decent employees get inducted by larger companies, small companies need to create a system offering an incentive not to quit to join a larger company. Women also pose a problem as they have the biological habit of getting pregnant. So, incentives for what Americans call, “Planned parenthood” would help if it could get ladies to plan several years in advance when they want to get pregnant and leave work. My idea for incentives would be that employees should get smaller pay and smaller raises their first two years. But, starting at around three and a half years, they should start getting larger raises and their pay should go significantly up if they are any good. They should also know other older people who stayed at the company who are getting substantially higher than average pay. It might be worth it for the company to take a loss on senior employees just to set a precedent that those who stick around will be rewarded without question.

3.5 years — the raises should start adding up
The more sophisticated companies such as Google don’t like bonuses as much as giving regular raises every 90 days. It keeps people on their toes more. The raises could be slower the first 3.5 years, and then speed up from year 3.5 to around 7. Once an employee hits seven years, their raises could slow down a bit, but they would be getting paid a lot more than most other employees at similar levels in India.

International travel as a status benefit in small to medium Indian software firms.
For companies with 20-200 employees, it might make sense for them to send some of their employees overseas to meet with clients or even work overseas just for the status appeal. In India, status can make you or break you. If employees at the 5 year level feel confident they will be able to travel to Australia to have higher level meetings, they will be less likely to leave the company. Even if the meetings are not completely necessary, don’t tell them that. Make them feel like a star, and then your team as a whole will stick around for many more years. If Naran gets to go to Ireland on business, then Pratip, Prakash, and Prashant will stick around in anticipation that one day maybe they will be able to go on a prestigious business trip and feel like they are going somewhere in life!

Summary
My solution is very simple. Give people what they want when they want it and make it hard for them to leave you. You could have nice offices and better working conditions to keep people around as well. There are hundreds of techniques for getting your workers to stay. It is worth investing in this science of psychology, otherwise you’ll end up like the others with only inexperienced workers who can’t function under pressure!

joke:
How would you like your programmers?
Preferably seasoned & well done — and I would like them broiled, but not poached!

Getting a new client is 6x as expensive as maintaining an existing one

September 19, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Marketing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Customer retention is the name of the game for big companies who study analytics. I bet you study analytics too, right? Or, at least you take an interest in them, right? Well, if you don’t study analytics you can not be efficient as a business person, so it is time to start thinking about them now!

I read a study about a decade ago. It caught my attention since I’m a numbers and an efficiency oriented guy. The study said that for some of the larger phone companies, it was SIX times as costly to win over a new client as it was to maintain or retain an existing one. Phone companies are not limited in their size like our tiny companies. They can buy a new branch office in some remote part of the world at the drop of a hat (or a pin in the case of Sprint). They can maintain infinite quantities of customers and they try to get them too.

But, winning over a new customer for a phone company is not easy. They have to have special promotions, advertising (which is expensive), they give discounts for the first several months, or they give you a free piece of hardware. Many companies take a loss when trying to attract a new client. The costs only pay off if you can keep them for a long time. Maintaining an existing client is easier.

If someone is a client of your outsourcing company such as a call center, data entry company, etc., then they will have to go to a lot of trouble to find another company to take their job. If you are lazy, give bad customer service, or try to cheat them, they might leave you. Did you bother to calculate the long term profit that you could have gotten from that client in the life of your relationship?

What if your average call center client spends US$200,000 in the life of their relationship with you, and what if your profit margin is 5%. You just lose $10,000 by losing that client. Some companies try to cheat clients by a few hundred here or there in the beginning of their relationship. Perhaps they cheat to see if they can get away with it. Or, perhaps they cheat out of nature. Let’s say that you are getting $1000 per month from a client who would stay with you for four years. You will earn a gross revenue of $48,000 from this guy. Let’s say that in month three you try to cheat him out of $300 by creating a confusing bill with some undiscussed extras on it. He will start off by arguing with you. If he gets fed up he will go to another company. You will lose your $48,000 gross and $2400 long term profit because you tried to cheat him. Bad karma and dumb if you ask me!

What if you are just too busy to deal with your client’s concerns and complaints? The girl on the phone talks to quietly and your client’s customers complain about her. Are you too busy to find your client a new girl? Would it cost you 10 hours of labor to get a new girl? How much would it cost you if you lose the client altogether? How many hours would it take you to find a new client like him. Do you think about this? Maybe you should start thinking about this!

If analytics are a mystery to you, then find a friend who can explain basic business math to you, so you realize what you have to gain or lose by various types of business behavior!

You might also like:

Gaining market share or gaining the type of market share
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/07/18/gaining-market-share-or-gaining-the-type-of-market-share/

Social media & promoting your products with humor & information
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/05/28/social-media-promoting-your-products-with-humor-information/

How many hours does it take to hire someone?

September 19, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Tagged | Leave a comment

How long does it take to hire someone?
Does it depend on what type of job you are hiring for? Does it depend on how picky you are? Does it depend on your hiring procedures? And are you the manager active in this process or do you have others to facilitate? Many managers have other staff members handle the hiring process. The manager handles the second interview, but not the first. This makes it easier. I do not have people to help with the hiring process, so I have my hands tied as it takes a long time to coordinate with everyone.

If you put an add in Craigslist or the paper, you might be inundated with calls and emails. If you are busy working, or you are behind on your work, how do you make time for all these emails and calls? How do you make time to interview possibly twenty or more people? It is very time consuming. If you are thorough, it could take 100 hours just to hire one person. And what if after all that time invested they just quit and leave you high and dry?

On the other hand, if your staff handles the emails, calls, and coordinating interviews, and you just lay back until the second interview process, you might only have to invest about five hours doing five 2nd interviews. That sounds a lot more manageable.

Personally, I would rather have staff that sticks around. I don’t like going through hiring, firing, rehiring, quitting, hiring, etc. And also, I like to test people out before I hire them. See if they are any good, and see if they are loyal before giving them any real responsibility. Cautiousness has its price, but so does going too fast!

Mumbai BPOs in the news

September 19, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: India | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Facts of interest about BPOs in Mumbai
 
Which metro gets the most outsourcing?
Mumbai is the second most popular outsourcing destination in india with 60,000 employees in the BPO sector according to siliconindia.com with Bangalore in first place and Delhi down from second to third place this year.  
 
Mumbai BPO employee was run over by a train.
It was reported on Dec 16th, 2010, on ndtv.com, that a 19 year old boy named Mohammed was talking on a cell phone and was run over by a train in Mumbai.  His legs were severed and he had serious head injuries and died later at a Vashi Navi Mumbai hospital.  The train was honking at him the whole time, but I guess Mohammed’s attention was distracted.  India is in dire need of much higher safety standards because thousands die annually from unnecessary and tragic accidents.
 
BPO’s in Mumbai and the handicapped
A Mumbai BPO called Barrier Break Technologies specializes in creating websites for the handicapped.  This company tests websites and designs websites for big ticket clients such as their government and a handful of international clients.  Not only does this company design sites for the handicapped, but this Mumbai  BPO’s workforce is made up primarily of disabled or differently-abled staff members. 
 
Honestly, the terms disabled and differently-abled don’t do a person justice.  We are all abled in many ways, and a challenge to our mobility or health should not limit us from having a productive work and recreational life.  I personally prefer the term physically challenged.   Its a broad, general, and beneficially vague term.
 
India needs to do more for physically challenged individuals, to help them get around more easily and safely, not to mention finding ways for them to have an optimal work life.  A friend from Hyderabad once made this quote, “In India, when you are handicapped… you are really handicapped… there are no ramps, no help… nothing”
 
Another Mumbai BPO called Intelenet hires 5% of their employees who are “uniquely-abled”.  This company tries to give individual support to these employees.

Please visit our BPO Mumbai page

Don’t expect to get paid more due to your GPS coordinates

September 19, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: America, Of Interest | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Don’t expect to get paid more because you were born in a particular country. Americans feel that they intrinsically deserve more money for doing certain tasks. Americans also feel that because the cost of living is higher in the United States, that therefor, they should get paid more.The truth is actually very interesting. America is actually one of the most efficient countries on earth. You get more land per dollar than almost anywhere else on the planet. It is cheaper to purchase a house in Oregon than it is to buy an equally sized house in Pune. A laptop in America costs less than the same laptop in Mumbai. America is not more expensive, except for labor and healthcare. Additionally, an apartment in an expensive part of Los Angeles is $2000 per month for what you might be able to get in Tennessee for $350. Costs in America really vary, so we can’t generalize about what “costs” are in America.

Moreover, American workers typically produce a lot more output per hour than people do in most other countries. Countries like Norway, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and the United States produce a lot of output per-capita. People at Indian BPO companies typically get less done per hour and make more mistakes that require redoing the same task multiple times.

My findings are that many Americans merit more money for particular tasks than overseas counterparts because of better skills, more efficient output, and better communication skills. The fact that it is more expensive here has nothing to do with anything.

On the other hand, Filipino call center workers are nicer and smoother than their American counterparts and can get done roughly as much work as well. Over time, the Philippines has been gaining market share for call center business and their wages have not been going down. You are worth what you are worth, so leave your GPS coordinates out of it!

Your GPS doesn’t determine what our BPO is worth!

Tweets:
(1) Just because you live in America, it doesn’t mean you deserve to get paid more.
(2) Americans get paid MORE per hour AND the cost of land and food are LESS in the US too!

You might also like:

Outsourcing Obamacare
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/01/14/outsourcing-obama-care/

Rates for Office Space around the world compared
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/12/19/rates-for-office-space-around-the-world-compared/

Is it a spiritual success to be calm when your site is down?

September 19, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Is it a spiritual success to be calm when your website is down?

The meeting
I had a meeting with a very talented programming boss. He was the brightest and most on-the-ball guy I have ever met in my work. I know many bright people, but this guy had a type of focus that others just will never have. This meeting was an interview where I wanted to hire them for regular programming tasks in particular languages. During the interview my main site went down. My site is on a very difficult server, and it goes down every several weeks. I am used to it. I am not even phased. Sure, we get 7000 visits on a busy day, but this is what life is like. It is is down at 1pm, it will be back up soon after I send an email and a quick phone call. Wait and come back later. The programming boss was more concerned than I was about my site being down. I explained to him that I had just meditated for two hours at an ashram and that I was at one with the universe. Of course I care if my breadwinning site is down, but this is how life is, and my practice is to see if it is still down after 20 minutes, and then email tech support. He said that I needed to interrupt the meeting and deal with it right NOW!

Panic attacks!
I remember how my career in web business unfolded. How I started by bootstrapping, putting my pennies together. Getting a little help from my dad with some simplistic programming. My dad was a computer genious in his time, but that was with very different technology. Web technology is something he recently learned, but never mastered. I put together a site, and kept growing it. After three years it started making some money, then more, and more. I remember, how in those days, if my site went down, I would almost have a heart attack. I literally had anxiety attacks and panicked. Once my site was down for 24 hours due to a very nasty bug. I had some very reliable programmers taking care of me at the time, but I still was so nervous.

I have calmed down
Now, it is 12 years after the inception of my main site. I have calmed down a lot. If it goes down for an hour, I know how much it costs. I know how many pay-per-click dollars I lose. I know how it frustrates my users. I know how many angry emails I will get. I have gone through this so many times, that I am completely calm when my site goes down. The level of calmness is so striking considering how I used to be. So, when that programming boss told me that I should be upset that my site was down I thought about it. Looking back, sure I should get that site back online fast, but it is a sign of some great spiritual success from my 22 years of meditation to have such a deep inner calmness when problems arise.

Measuring spiritual progress
Spiritual progress is not something that regular humans can measure. Only the gurus have the right, or the ability to judge this. But, we can see signs of progress. It is foolish to judge a person by how they behave when things are good. See how they behave when something happens that upsets them. That is the true test.

Outsourcing to Russia: hour padding seems to be cultural

September 19, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

During our worldwide search for quality custom .net software developers and PHP developers, we encountered many interesting people in Eastern Europe. We were disappointed that the number of hours they wanted to do a relatively simple task was roughly double, triple or quadruple what our local provider (who had 20 years of experience) thought was necessary. Hour padding seems to be an unfortunate fact of life in Eastern Europe, and especially with programmers in Russia. What we learned is that some companies only cheat you a little bit while others cheat to an extreme. So, when doing business with the East (outsourcing to Belarus, Ukraine, Romania, Poland, etc.), be very wary of how long they want to complete tasks that you are familiar with, so that you have an idea of how much you are being ripped off.

Also beware of their pitiful excuses for hour padding. “We are just being cautious.” How does a 40 hour job become 200 hours, I asked? I was then asked where I came up with a figure of 40 hours, and told that it was not a 40 hour job. Whenever you base how long a job should take, you have to base that on some standard that is somewhat fixed. A new programmer could use a very unpredictable amount of hours to do a relatively simple task. But, a programmer with five or more years of experience should be able to complete standard tasks in a somewhat standard amount of time. If Mark can complete a certain task in five hours, I say, “It takes 5 Mark hours to do this”. So, if you need 20 hours for the same task, your hour is worth 15 Mark minutes! Very inefficient.

Basically, you need a trusted and competent programmer to bid on a task to see how long it really should take. Then, you take that number of hours and compare it to a few bids from other providers who you are less sure about. The competent programmer might not have time to do the job, but they might have time to give an estimate. The competent programmer might charge 5x per hour as well, which is why you might think about offshoring the project.

Hour padding seems to very an integral part of Russian and Ukrainian culture. In our experience, 100% of companies in Eastern Europe do hour padding. Indians are actually much better in this respect. Roughly 20% of Indian software companies can deliver efficient results with another 20% giving results that are not that inefficient, leaving 60% who you should avoid due to hour padding or incompetence. In Eastern Europe, 0% were efficient, with 10% who were barely acceptable in terms of time efficiency and 90% who you should not even consider.

But, before you write off Eastern Europe, they are reputed to have a higher quality of accuracy for software work than other countries. I think that a few companies in that region deserve a fair chance. Even if they charge you for too many hours, their rates are very low and maybe their quality is better than you would expect!

You might also like:

Steve Jobs watched his programmers carefully — so should you!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/10/10/steve-jobs-watched-his-programmers-carefully-so-should-you/

How good are you at estimating jobs?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/10/09/how-good-are-you-at-estimating-jobs/

Tribal people on Facebook

September 19, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Humor, Social Media | Leave a comment

Sally and Jeff had dreamed of visiting the remote islands of Indonesia. Finally, their dream came true. But, the dream turned into a nightmare as the ship they were on sank, and they had to swim to the nearest island which was not that near. They almost died trying to make it to that island and when they got there, it was not inhabited. Sally and Jeff were suburban American types. They didn’t know how to make rafts or survive on an island. To stay alive they had to learn how to shake coconuts from trees and create shelter from the rain which got out of hand. They stayed on that island for ten years as they didn’t want to risk death and as nobody came to rescue them. But, then they grew restless and wanted to escape their fate. They didn’t want to die alone on this island.

So, they put together a basic raft. They agreed that perhaps they would live and perhaps they would die, but who cares. Their life was so boring anyway. After paddling for a few days, their water and food was almost all used up. They became weak and just lay around all day. During their sleep a tribal group paddling type of a canoe found them. The communication between the tribal people and our American friends was not so graceful as Jeff was not fluent in “Ooga-Booga.”

The tribal people took them to shore, and gave them food and shelter. Sally and Jeff thanked them and made head nodding gestures to show their sincerity. After Sally and Jeff recuperated, it was time for a feast and then for show and tell in Ooga-Booga-nese as usual.

SALLY: Thanks so much for a lovely feast. (rubbing her belly)

TRIBAL GUY: You look… Facu-booga.

SALLY: I have never heard of Facu-booga

Now, keep in mind that Sally and Jeff have been out of circulation for so many years, they have no idea what an i-phone is or what Facebook is. The only Zuckerberg they know is a nice accountant back home.

TRIBAL GUY: Look…. i-phonoo

SALLY: Hmmm (looking inquisitively) I have never seen a device like this. I wonder what it does? She touched a button and there was a sudden flash. Sally jolted back in surprize. The tribal guys all laughed. Then Sally squinted, and sniffed this strange device. Finally one of the tribal guys took a selfie and showed Sally the photo on the screen. Sally said, “wow” and was very impressed.

TRIBAL GUY: You likoo…

JEFF: I’m sorry, I have no idea what you are talking about.

Then, the tribal guy put his finger in the air as if to say “wait!” Another tribal guy showed up. The other tribal people were all wearing tribal looking outfits, and were 80% naked. But, this new guy was dressed in an oxford shirt and had a short haircut. Could it be that he went to school in a nearby Anglo town wherever this place was? They were actually in a tribal part of Papua New Guinea and in fact there was a nearby Anglo town.

YOUNG TRIBAL GUY: Hello mates. What my mates were trying to ask you was if you could like them on Facebook?

JEFF: Sure, but what is Facebook?

YOUNG TRIBAL GUY: You’ve never heard of Facebook? Where have you been for the last ten years?

JEFF: We’ve been stuck on a tropical island with no electricity and with coconuts and fish as our only source of nourishment.

YOUNG TRIBAL GUY: Oh, no wonder mate. Well, I can get you set up on Facebook right away, and we’ll have some Ozzie food liike shrimps on the barbee. Does that appeal to your Sheila?

JEFF: I think of her as more of a Sally than a Sheila, but yes, that sounds great. I would love to eat shrimp and start a Facebook account now that I know I’m not going to die soon.