Tag Archives: Offshoring

Outsourcing programming work vs. Offshoring; what’s the difference?

April 25, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Software Development | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Outsourcing Defined
Outsourcing is commonly thought to mean the offshoring of American jobs to some less deserving foreign destination. However, outsourcing means to hire an outside company regardless of location. They might be down the street from you, but it is still outsourcing if your company hires them to do a task for you. Offshoring means to hire staff or create an oil rig not on your shore. It might be on an island, in the middle of the sea, or in a foreign country.

Hiring Programmers
It is common for Americans to hire companies overseas to handle programming tasks for them. India is the most famous in this niche while Eastern Europe has many companies that are often better than their Indian counterparts — at least for now. If you hire overseas, your choices include:

(1) Having an overseas company do jobs for you on an on-call basis, or work on a specific project until its completion.

(2) Hiring an overseas company to do a specific amount of hours a week for you such as 10, 12, or 18 hours a week.

(3) Hiring a dedicated half-time or full-time employee from an IT leasing company. This allows you to interview the indivual programmer and perhaps communicate directly with them more easily.

(4) Hiring your own employee overseas, or perhaps creating your own office.

Problems with overseas companies
The problem with hiring overseas companies to do tasks for you is that they typically have one or more project managers, and many programmers of varying skill levels. The high quality programmers are normally either completely unavailable because they are working on a large project, or they might have a little bit of time. What normally happens is that the company will try to stick you with one of their worst programmers, or at least a very mediocre one at best. You won’t be able to get quality work done with them. So, you go to another overseas company and the same thing happens a second, third, tenth, and one hundredth time. By now, you’ve learned your lesson. Hire the programmer before you hire the company. Even if you get a good programmer, there is no guarantee they won’t quit, die, get pregnant, or get run over by a rick-shaw.

Hiring your own staff
In my experience, I tend to get much higher quality work done when I hire myself. I am very picky, and only hire people I am confident in. Whenever I hire an outside company, they typically pick workers who are either poor at communication, unfriendly, not particularly talented at their task, or who quit when I need them most. You can hire your own staff in India. You can hire freelancers. You can hire someone full-time who will work from home for you if he/she has a good internet connection and reliable electricity (which is a big problem in India.) You can also rent your own office space in a place with reliable electricity and hire your own people.

My recommendations
If you need only part time help, try to find a reliable vendor in India or Belarus and interview the programmers one by one until you find one programmer and a few backups who you can test. If you need a single employee, an outside vendor or leasing company might be your best option. You still need to interview and give quick tests to the programmers to keep them honest. But, if you need two or more full time programmers in the long run, it might be better to look into getting some office space. Here’s why.

Get your own office in India
Getting anything done in India has a lot of red tape. You can get an office there, but it doesn’t need to be under your name. You most likely will not be there to manage it in any case, so you will be forced to rely on others. Be wary of the fact that people in India don’t always do what they are supposed to or what they promised to do, so you will have a few surprises along the way. Try to be tolerant of a fair amount of nonsense if you are able to get your office to function. The real benefit here is that you are no longer at the mercy of other companies for picking your employees. You pick them yourself. You would have to visit India and make some new connections which may or may not work. In the end, it may be easier to have your employee work in some other IT company’s building under their supervision if you give them a fee for their cooperation.

Optimize personalities & skill levels of the programmers
When I work with employees at other companies, I am never completely satisfied with their work. Some are fairly good, while most are miserable. If you can pick your own staff, you can pick programmers with exactly the type of personalities and skill levels / skill sets which you need for your business. If you like them a lot, you have the freedom to give them larger raises to increase the likelihood that they will not quit. In India, programmers like to play musical chairs and change jobs every few months. If you are running a serious operation, you cannot afford this. Give them good working conditions and pay so that they will stick around. You are running a company, not a circus after all.

Outsourcing or Offshoring? Which is which?

June 16, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest, Semi-Popular | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

When I use the word outsourcing, I am thinking of a mystical character named Rajiv who kisses his sari-clad wife goodbye, mounts his elephant, and makes his way down the crowded streets of Agra with his briefcase in one hand and his mobile phone in the other. Of course in real life, people in India only ride elephants for festivals since the cost of buying 600 bananas every time breakfast rolls around isn’t getting any cheaper. But, it is a nice caricature of Indians, having them ride exotic creatures.

But, outsourcing only means giving work to another company or freelancer to do. If the work is not done by an in-house staff member, that would constitute outsourcing.

Offshoring is another concept altogether. Offshoring is when you take your work and send it to some other country far far away. But, offshoring might not be outsourcing. If you had your own branch office in Nepal and hired your own people, it would be offshoring, but not outsourcing. If you are in Arkansas and hired a company next door to do your data entry, it would be outsourcing, but not offshoring.

Then, there is Nearshoring where you take your job and give it to somebody in another state or country that is not that far away. If an American companies hires someone in Mexico that would be nearshoring.

Then, there is Backshoring when you bring your overseas jobs back to the good ‘ole United States.

Then there is Non-shoring where you have your work done by the Outsourcing boat! Just have Isaac mix me another mojito!

All of these terms delight me, but what would be a good term for having someone on another planet do your work? What if your medium consults the spirits on the planet Gorkon for some deeply philosophical spiritual matter? Off-Planeting or Off-Terra-Firma-oring? Maybe Off-Terrestrializing.

Call earth for only 3 cents per minute!

You might also like:

Outsourcing: Why everyone is doing it. One bizarre example
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/03/25/outsourcing-why-everyone-is-doing-it-one-bizarre-example/

Don’t expect to get paid more due to your GPS coordinates
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/03/19/dont-expect-to-get-paid-more-due-to-your-gps-coordinates/

A Special Economic Zone idea for “Insourcing” in Oklahoma

September 4, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Americans are so afraid of losing their jobs, and for good reason. Jobs are either being automated or outsourced to countries like China, The Philippines and India. This trend will not end until wages in outsourcing destinations rise to roughly 70% of what costs are in America. Will all the new automation being developed these days, will they even need humans at all? But, the obstacles to American employment are much more severe than overseas competition. Payroll laws, minimum wage laws, and immigration limitations make it hard for employers to fill positions here! To hire someone you need to pay their health insurance, pay unemployment insurance, hire an accountant to do payroll, and more! Office rents are not cheap either. No wonder people outsource to the Philippines — no rules apply — they can do whatever they like over there!

China has had economic zones for years!
China has built many special economic zones for manufacturing and even for IT work. These zones got a lot of government support and have flourished. How come the Chinese are the only ones having good ideas these days? Why can’t we develop good ideas too? Why don’t we build our own outsourcing zone right here? Call it an “in-sourcing zone.”

Here are the basic tenants of the in-sourcing zone
(1) No minimum wage. Too many rules make it risky and constrictive to hire new employees. They can be paid whatever the market will bear.
(2) Free immigration. Anyone can come from anywhere to work in this zone with NO visa. All that would be required would be a complimentary ID card from the special economic zone! By having free immigration, businesses would have complete flexibility as to who they could hire which would make it easier for them to grow, not to mention control costs!
(3) No payroll accounting required. No unemployment tax either. Taxes would be paid monthly by all residents. The amount of tax would be based on which part of town you want to live in and not on your income. Live in a slum, save money. Live with the billionaires, pay through the nose!
(4) No income tax. By having a residency tax instead of an income tax, the zone would be very attractive to people from around the world. There are many tax havens such as Dubai and islands in the Caribbean that have been using the same principle for years!
(5) Residency tax would once again be based on which class of neighborhood you choose. In this zone, you are not born into a class, you choose your class with your wallet.

There would be (8) distinct classes:
(1) Homeless (for those making zero to US$10,000 per year)
(2) Barely Making It (recommended for those making US$10,000-$20,000)
(3) Lower Middle Class (recommended for those making US$20,000-$50,000)
(4) Middle Class (recommended for those making US$50,000-80,000)
(5) Upper Middle (recommended for those making US$80,000-$120,000)
(6) Affluent (recommended for those making $120,000-$200,000)
(7) Wealthy (recommended for those making $200,000- 1 million)
(8) Opulent. (recommended for those making more than 1 million per year)

Residency Fees
There would be hardly any homeless people in this zone because admittance to this special economic zone would come with an initial residency fee. The only way you could be in the zone and homeless is if you had a job in the zone, and then lost it, or suddenly became mentally ill. The homeless would have their own part of town, and their housing (cramped) and food would be taken care of by the government of the zone (assuming they used to be a paying resident of one of the other seven classes). For those who want to save money, the barely making it section would have very economical accommodations at very low prices. In such an area it would be very easy to save money. For wealthy people, the choice of the Opulent part of town would be appealing. They might have to pay residency fees of $20,000 per month, but for a billionaire that is pennies.

The neighborhoods for the (8) classes
Your residency fee would cover your medical care and transportation costs to and from your part of town. Employers wouldn’t have to bother with insuring their workers as the government would take care of this. The quality of medical care would range from stripped down clinics in the less expensive areas to choosing from one of many of the finest doctors around if you were paying the most expensive residency tax. But, is this fair, you might ask? You get what you pay for. The homeless would be getting a free ride, and the poor would be getting a partially subsidized ride. How much more fair do you want? Transportation for the poor might include basic buses, while the wealthy people’s residency tax would pay for mag-lev short-distance bullet trains, Mercedes taxis, highways, and more!

Transportation in the Special Economic Zone
Each part of the SEZ would have a variety of different transportation modes. There could be:

(1) Walking paths
(2) Moving walkways
(3) Bicycle highways
(4) Segway paths
(5) Roads
(6) Highways
(7) Shared Taxis as “feeders” for trains
(8) Mini-Buses & Regular Buses ( that would travel on their own dedicated roads)
(9) Regular Trains & Magnetic levitation trains that could go 200+ miles per hour.
(10) The Snake Train
(11) Boats (if there are areas near water)

You would not need a car in this zone. You would have many choices for transportation. Certain parts of town might have a greater concentration of bicycle paths and less roads, while other parts of town might have more shared taxis feeding into train stations. The only people who would really need to depend on car travel would be those living in the outskirts of the zone as most people would live close enough to very clean and comfortable public transportation to use it daily — especially with the added convenience of “feeder shared taxis” that would be free of charge for those who paid residency tax in the area being used.

Biking
Please also keep in mind that in American cities, people who like riding their bike don’t dare because they might get run over by a bus. In my special zone, the bikes would be on roads or elevated paths for use ONLY by bicycles. Some of the paths could even be covered in case it rains. Special stores for bike repair, refreshments, and whatever else bikers might need could be integrated right into the bike routes. Safe locked bike storage compartment areas would be available where bikers might need to park. This way bikers do not have to worry about their bikes being stolen or parts being stolen. What a great lifestyle! Safety, health, and convenience wrapped into one!

The snake train is a novel concept.
It would be a very slow moving train that could be very wide, and as long as you like! It would have coffee houses, book stores, drug stores, and every conceivable way to keep you busy for a slow and pleasant ride. Multi-task on your way to work on the snake train. The snake train would weave in and out of different neighborhoods, but it wouldn’t stop. You just run and jump on when it is going slow. Or perhaps get on the snake by riding a “feeder” train that picks you up, accelerates, and drops you on the train. Read more about the snake train in our other blog article!

Parks and gardens
It has always been my dream to build a city that had huge sections devoted to beautiful gardens of all descriptions. Imagine being able to conduct all of your business with walking through gardens as your primary means of transportation? You would walk through a rose garden, a zen garden, a Korean garden, an English flower garden, an Italian garden with arbors and arches, a water garden, and the list would go on infinitely. Why have cars, pollution, and misery, when you could have an engineered lifestyle that includes beautiful and simple ways of life? Cafes could be in the garden, office buildings could be right next to gardens, and Segway paths could go through gardens as well.

Where would such a zone be?
America has some of the least expensive land in the world. Imagine pairing that with the least expensive labor in the world? The need to outsource services offshore would be eliminated. On the other hand, our Special Economic Zone would resemble an offshore destination due to the fact that the majority of the people living there would be from foreign countries! I choose Oklahoma as my first choice for a location since there is plenty of available land and low building costs.

What types of businesses would flourish in the SEZ?
Any type of business could go there, but it would be more oriented towards tasks typically outsourced overseas. IT work, call center work (which is already very strong particularly in Oklahoma due to low land and labor costs), Medical Transcription, Data Entry, and more. But, in Oklahoma, you could also include farming. The Mexican farm laborers who currently live illegally could come to the zone to enjoy legal status and a comfortable life! The government of this zone could help businesses get established. There would be no income tax for businesses, but there would be lots of benefits. Businesses could get very flexible month-to-month leases for offices of any size. You would pay by the square foot! The government could also have marketing programs to help local companies succeed in difficult markets. The point of this zone would be to create an area where the government helps you instead of burdening you with endless taxes and restrictions. The result would be prosperity for all involved, and a top-notch alternative to offshoring!

You might also like

Solutions to India’s transportation nightmare
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2011/04/10/solutions-to-indias-transportation-problem/

Here is what Americans should really fear
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2010/12/20/here-is-what-americans-really-should-fear/

A free economic zone in America?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/08/03/a-free-economic-zone-in-america/

Offshoring & Outsourcin​g — which country is right for your company to offshore to?

January 7, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

The world of outsourcing is baffling. So many of these companies out there are unprofessional and fly-by-nights. If you look at outsourcing directories, many host companies with disconnected phone numbers, or companies whose websites are long gone. It is a scary world, and is like a jungle. So, how do you play the game? First, find stable companies that have longevity and you will be safer. Get to know the company bosses who you will be dealing with as well. Visit these companies in person if the work you are giving them matters a lot. But, what country should you target?

India – My personal experience has been with India.
I live in Los Angeles where we have boatloads of people from all over Asia and Latin America. I am familiar with all of their cultures since I’m amongst them on a daily basis. But, I have not sampled life in their countries except for Taiwan which does more electronics and manufacturing and doesn’t engage much in the type of outsourcing tasks that we promote on 123outsource.net. India has more companies doing the type of outsourcing tasks that we promote than any other country, and they seek work more agressively than other countries as well.

Honestly, India is a very sloppy country where there is a hair raising incompetent way of doing everything. There are no doors on the inner city trains, so people can fall out and die (and they frequently do). Instead of picking a number at a hospital, you sit in a row of 50 chairs and play leap frog everytime the person in the front of the line is picked. All 49 of the remaning people move over one seat. At the airport, they always inspect my passport and then lose it under a bunch of papers — or drop it on the floor and then can’t find it (as a matter of practice). I always get diarrhea, food poisening or dyssentary almost every trip to India — otherwise I start asking why I didn’t experience any gastro-intestinal disorders. It is common for the sidewalk repair people to just abandon a large pile of dirt or bricks for months at a time on the sidewalk. The only traffic rule that exists outside of Mumbai is that you bribe the cop if pulled over. No other rules apply — not even driving on the left which is merely a recommendation and not a hard fast rule (or so it seems). 70% of rick shaw drivers either try to cheat me or proudly announce that their meter is broken.

If you hire companies in India, you will be dealing with people who grew up in this mess that I began to describe. PROCEED WITH CAUTION. I’m not saying don’t offshore to India. The cost benefit is definately there, but you will be putting up with a lot more nonsense than in most other places. More than 90% of companies in India do not even announce their company name when answering the phone — how unprofessional. Workers in India usually have some technical skills (varying degrees of competency), but lack people skills. The owners have good people skills, but those are not the people who will be doing the actual work.

Philippines
The Filipinos are catching up in the technical outsourcing professions. There are more programming and internet marketing companies in the Philippines than before. They are known for call centers and they just overtook India as being #1 in the call center industry a year or two ago. Medical transcriptions are another profession that is popular in the Philippines. Filipinos have very good people skills, and there are many who have excellent English skills. For jobs that require communication, you could start your search here.

South Africa
There are many types of outsourcing companies in South Africa. We have found many web design companies, and companies that do a lot of translations, editing and writing. There are many high end people who will do very professional work for you for a great price in South Africa.

Kenya
There are some call centers sprouting up in Kenya. These are popular with British clients since the Kenyans speak British sounding English. You will find a large work force with great people skills in Kenya.

Costa Rica
Known for its cultural affinity with the west, many companies find it easier to do business with call centers and web design companies in Costa Rica. They are swimming distance (well, not quite) from Florida, and on a similar time zone as the Eastern United States. Once again, just like the Philippines, Costa Ricans have comparatively good communication skills and there are many with supurb artistic abilities too.

Argentina
This is a country that we found to not be very businesslike. However, the artistic skills seem to be the best in the world, and at bargain basement prices. Web design or any other type of design should be done in Argentina — at least they should be the 1st on your list.

Vietnam
I am about to try out a company who has one leg in the United States and another in Vietnam. I have no experience or knowledge about outsourcing to Vietnam. There are many programmers there, but English skills are somewhat limited based on what I have heard and experienced with Vietnamese living in California. I do not know how their technical skills typically compare to those at smaller companies in India. Is Vietnam a hidden outsourcing gem that few ever think about? We shall soon find out!

Outsourcing can save you 60-90% of costs

January 1, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

We all know that you can save a boatload of cash by outsourcing.  But, outsourcing is scary and risky because you have to deal with overseas companies who you have never met.  Only god knows what they will go to you — or if they will leave you high and dry.  The truth is that companies in America are very likely to cheat you and leave you high and dry. You might be able to sue them here, but getting taken for a ride is no fun on any side of the Pacific!  Outsourcing involves more skill when managing work and choosing companies.  There are cultural differences, geographical differences, and time differences.  It is harder to meet with your overseas counterparts in person, and harder to talk to them on the phone.  So, is it worth it to do offshoring, nearshoring or outsourcing?  If you plan on mastering the skill, you will save 69-90% on related expenses and I say — JUST DO IT!

Costs are deceptive – willingness to work is  a factor
It is baffling comparing costs when outsourcing tasks.  I have seen programming companies that charge $15 per hour and others that charge $180.  The irony is that the company that charged $180 refused to do business with me, and the company that charged $15 per hour took me on, and then refused to finish projects.  Those who say, “You get what you pay for” are simply wrong.  The reality is that you get people who either refuse to function or can’t function unless you shop around and find people who actually do function.  A rate of $15 per hour is not a real rate if you refuse to complete work — or if you say that the work is complete when you never started.  A rate of $180 per hour is equally meaningless when you refuse to take on new clients.

Definition – A REAL RATE is a rate that someone charges who is actually willing to work on a regular basis for that rate without putting you on hold for two months while they are busy with another project. Don’t compare rates unless it is a REAL RATE! And there is no way to tell what a real rate is unless you have tried out a company for 3 months and seen how they function.

Hour padding – adjust for slugginness and dishonesty

Many employees and bosses do hour padding. They will add on hidden costs, or say that something took longer than it did.  Koreans do “Reverse hour padding”.  In Korean culture, you lose face if it took you too long to do a simple task.  Koreans are notorious for learning to be the fastest and the best at whatever they try to do. My experience is that if a Korean does one hour of work, they will charge you for 45 minutes.  While, someone in India might take 2 hours to do the same task and then bill you for four.  The Korean might charge $125 per hour and accomplish the work relatively error free.  Hour bill would be $100 for 45 minutes from the Korean in my imaginary example.  Meanwhile in Hyderabad, your Indian counterpart will be finishing their samosa and finishing the two hours which they will bill four hours for and submit a bill of $60 for work that is far from being up to specifications.  So, after all is said and done, the Koreans are still more expensive  on a “by the job” basis. But, the error rate will probably be less which saves you management time.  Therefor, your total expenses including management time are EQUAL when you compare a $15 per hour company and a $125 per hour company in this silly example — make sense?

If you work with companies and have a sense of how long particular tasks should take, you can guess how much hour padding they do, and you can keep a log book of what their REAL hourly rate is.  Additionally, you can consider various factors to give them an OVERALL SCORE

Example.
                                Hourly Rate  Adj Rate       Follows directions          Page speed         Consistancy  
Sun Myung & Co           125                100            80% rate                         Fast pages             A                

Chakrapati & Co              15                  60            40% rate                           Slow                      D        

Krishna Infosystems        25                  40            70% rate                        Medium speed     B+

AKA Infosystems           150                  120          80% rate                         Great                   A          

In my example above, Krishna Infosystems (a fictional company) doesn’t have the lowest published price.  But, their work is more efficient and less “padded” than their other Indian counterpart.  Additionally, they do a better job following directions. When all is said and done, they would be your ideal company to hire.  Their rate is cheap, they don’t cheat in any detectable way, and they follow directions relatively well.  No programmer that I have ever met has a 100% rate of following clear written directions

Mistakes are costly

If you hire a programmign company to do a task, and they do it in a way where pages load slowly. You might have to have them recode much of the work.  This is very costly, not to mention the lost revenue that you encounter as a result of your slow pages.  If you hire companies that make mistakes, you are looking at very big costs.

What to look for first when hiring an offshore company to attain cost effectiveness.

I tend to have a “what does it really mean” attitude when people quote their prices.  If they quote too low I will think they are incompetent. If they quote too high, I will wonder if they are really, “all that”.  What I am looking for is much more involving questions that effect overall cost efficiency:

(1) How hard do I have to crack the whip to get you working.  Do you start on your own, or do you ignore me?

(2) How fast do the pages you create load. If it is too slow, then the work is almost useless.

(3) How consistant are you about getting work done?  If you have a competing big project, do you put me on hold?

(4) What is your rate of following directions.  I have seen 20% to 70% in real life.. 40% being the minimum to not get fired.

(5) How much do you pad your hours or cheat? (at this point it is actually a much smaller concern than points 1, 2, and 3)

(6) How much work do you get done per hour?  Do you do 30 minutes worth of work in an hour?  It is all relative to my past experience how I define how much an “hours worth of work” really means.

(7) Do you return calls… ever?  If you do, then I don’t believe that you are a real computer programmer.

(8) Is there a project manager involved? Is he/she/it a complete fool, or a competent professional who is, “on the money”.

(9) Can you handle really complicated and sensitive tasks?

There is a lot to analyze when trying out new companies.  I would try out a handful on a small project, each for three months to see how cost effective they really are.  Remember — if a company refuses to lift a finger, then they are not cost effective, and they are not EFFECTIVE at all.

Offshoring & Outsourcing — why does it happen and is it worth it?

September 20, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsourcing Articles, Popular on Twitter, Semi-Popular | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Do you have a company that needs to outsource part of its busy work to another company to save time? It is hard hiring staff to do odds and ends, or busy work in America. Costs are high, people are lazy, and then you have to deal with payroll taxes, unemployment taxes, EDD, and more! What a pain!

The government doesn’t get it.
If they really want to stop all of the offshoring that is going on, instead of having RULES that stifle offshoring, they need to have incentives for INSHORING (if that is a word). All of these taxes, payroll rules, and minimum wages create high unemployment and make it risky to hire anyone. Labor laws make it difficult to fire someone without risking being sued for wrongful termination as well. If you combine all of these factors with the laziness and disrespect which is part of the modern American culture — a logical person will draw only one conclusion: Take it overseas — and fast!

In foreign countries, people ACTUALLY want to work.
I know this might sound hard to believe, but it is true, and I am an eye witness. People overseas might not have the work skills or communication skills that you want, but you can get lots of work done really cheap if you know who to go to and how to handle them.

Offshoring takes skill
Many Americans are afraid to outsource because they are afraid of what people in foreign countries will do with their work. This is a legitimate fear. There is an abundance of sloppy and unprofessional behavior. It can get so unprofessional that you will say, “What is wrong with these people?” frequently. However, if you find the right people who really want to work (sort through them), you will find that you can get work done at 20% of the cost, and often much faster than you could get it done here. In addition to needing skills picking a company, you need to know how to HANDLE them. I have taken many rick shaw rides in India, and you have to know all of their tricks and how to manipulate them instead of letting them screw you. Either you have to be a player, or you will get played. Overseas companies can be very unresponsive and uncooperative, not to mention sloppy. You need to know when to bribe them, when to threaten them, and when to pack up and leave them. It is a lot like how dating is if you live in a low income neighborhood. It is a jungle out there, so if you want to thrive, you need to know how to play the game.

Don’t fear foreigners — You can get screwed right here on domestic soil
The typical white American feels so comfortable with other white Americans and so uncomfortable when in a foreign environment. Your feelings have very little to do with reality. Sure, if your senses tell you that an individual is trouble, you very well might be right, but outsourcing is not something to fear — it is something to master. I have dealt with many American companies. Although they are more professional on the surface, they are notorious for not returning calls, not returning emails, keeping you waiting indefinately, and even outright cheating clients out of thousands. Remember: when you get screwed in India you get screwed out of Rupees (2 pennies per rupee). When you get screwed in America by middle class white Americans and you can lose thousands. The scale of proportion is very different and you can lose big right at home. People here cheat all the time. My personal experience is that you will get screwed twice as much in India as you will here, but the one time you get screwed here will be of a monetary value of 10x what you got taken for in India.

Basically, I recommend trying to do some outsourcing and offshoring. Start on a small scale and try some companies out until you find someone you like. If later on, they are too busy or become uncooperative, you can try some others out. In the long run, if you learn how to play the game, you will increase your profit margin in ways that you might previously have thought were unimaginable.

You might also like:

An emotional experience with a Russian outsourcing company
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/10/18/an-emotional-experience-with-a-russian-software-outsourcing-company/

Are you dealing with a broker or an owner?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/09/16/are-you-dealing-with-a-broker-or-an-owner/

Which parts of the USA have better programming companies?

September 3, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Software Development | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

When we think of BPO outsourcing, we often think of offshoring, but you can also nearshore to other parts of the United States for example. Many California BPO companies hire in the Midwest or the East Coast for example. The question is, which parts of the country have the most reliable service providers?

What I learned through a lot of searching around and interviewing people is that California is the worst place to hire programmers. Interestingly enough, 17 years ago, I remember that my aunt told me that her husband’s friends with businesses never hired California companies to do anything because of the unreliable service. They always hired companies in the East Coast. I remembered her story long after the fact and found it to be generally true. I also learned that people who live in California who are FROM a reliable part of the world, tend to be more reliable.

In any case, the Midwest is a place where the level of integrity is much higher than the rest of the country or perhaps the rest of the world. We encountered personality issues with a few emotionally unstable service providers in the Midwest. We also found some people who were not that smart. But, we encountered far fewer liars and cheats in the Midwest than in other parts of the Country.

New Hampshire was another good place to find programmers. New Hampshire is a no nonsense state for rugged nature loving individualists. The folks there bring new meaning to the term, “Live free or die!”.

Massachusetts, my place of birth had mixed results. There were many highly intelligent software companies there, but many wanted to charge 200 hours for a project that experienced people typically bid 35-45 hours on. What does that tell you? Are they bidding high so that they can get rid of us? Very dishonest if you ask me.

No place in America is perfect, but New Hampshire and the Midwest are where I would refer a stranger to find good outsourced help in programming or perhaps other specialties as well. If it were me, I would strongly consider outsourcing to India. Good Indian teams can get your job done quickly and cost effectively. Good luck!

You might also like:

How to make sure the software company you hired will deliver
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/06/22/how-to-ensure-that-the-software-company-you-hired-will-deliver/

Slow-but-good verses fast & sloppy programmers
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/06/16/slow-but-good-verses-fast-sloppy-programmers/