Author: Marcelo Tribuj ⎢ CEO at Truelogic Software.
Companies from all industries face the challenging decision of having to pick a partner when they think it’s time to outsource their software development projects. Options are unlimited since your partner can be located anywhere in the world. Pros and cons will always be attached to the decision you make. Below, you’ll find the 10 things you need to consider when choosing the most fitted outsourcing partner to your company.
Communication skills
It is a fact that people can’t work successfully with a person that they aren’t able to communicate effectively with. Before you get started, you need to verify that the vendor’s point of contact to your project has good communication skills. Just ask for a call with the Project Manager that will be working with you, and ask him to drive you through the process and show you the tools they use to manage their projects.
Timezone
Just try to picture yourself waiting until 8pm to talk with your vendor. And on top of that he has just woken up and is taking the call from his house or car because the day has just started.
Now imagine that you have to wake up 2 hours earlier to have a call with your vendor…
There’s no need to explain that this is what happens when you work with a technology partner that is in a different timezone.
If you are located in Europe, and you are looking for a competitive offshore/nearshore vendor, the best option for you would be Eastern Europe or if you are looking for something more competitive in terms of rates and a little more challenging regarding timezone difference, you’d think of India.
If, on the other hand, you are in the US, an American vendor would be the most convenient partner to work with. For the East Coast, countries like Costa Rica, Colombia and Argentina are probably the best option, since there’s only 1 or 2 hour difference according to the season. As for the Central Area you get 2 or 3 hour difference, which doesn’t sound so bad, and 4 or 5 hour difference for the West Coast. If you can at least overlap 5 working hours a day with your vendor, you could consider that a success.
Truelogic Software (www.truelogicsoftware.com) has its development center strategically located in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In order to maximise this overlap, we start the day a couple hours later (somewhere between 10am and 11am local time), guaranteeing from 5 to 8 hours a day of interaction, wherever you are in the US.
Stay tuned for the next chapters to come…
Next chapters:
- Culture
- Process
- Infrastructure
- Track Record
- References
- Location
- Prices & Payments
- Technical Skills
