Last week, I took a few minutes to post a piece on the 5 elements that make for a successful relationship between Flatsourcing and our clients. Most of the items in that list fell under the “common sense” category for anyone working with outsourced development resources. When I say outsourced, I’m not only referring to oversees development teams, but really any situation that requires a company bring on external resources to complete a project. I would argue that the 5 items I list below also fall into the “common sense” category, but may be a little harder to identify when you haven’t worked with outsourced teams before.
Inexperience - This isn’t to say that people who are trying to launch a web application for the first time can’t make good clients, just that often the process of getting from the germ of an idea to a live product is a bumpy road. Having some experience with the ups and downs of a product launch helps curb the moments of panic that can set in as hurdles are encountered.
Lack of Engagement - I’ve seen a few occasions where a client enters into a contract and then expects the team to know exactly where to begin. Strong vision and clearly articulated leadership are just as, if not more, important with an FS team as they are with an internal team. Having a full-time project manager (See #4 below) is an important piece of the puzzle, and keeps your team focused and productive.
Unrealistic Expectations - It’s not unusual for me to have an initial call with a lead who believes their work can be completed in a matter of days or weeks rather than months. This is the core reason we focus on long term relationships over a higher volume of project work. It takes time to find a comfort level with any team on any project. As one of our favorite clients like to say, “We are always looking for a win, win, win situation in our partnerships”. It’s all about the fit, and this is the primary reason we take extra time before entering into a contract to ensure we all share the same goals and vision.
Missing Layers - It takes a lot of pieces and parts to put together a successful business. Whether it is the front-end design, the content creation, the project management of day-to-day tasks, or any of the other elements, they are all pieces of the greater whole. Building a team with Flatsourcing can help you fill a lot of these roles, but not all of them. One way we have begun to resolve this problem is by bringing together existing clients with potential clients when there is a need. For Flatsourcing, it is not about bringing on new clients, but bringing on new clients that we can help become more successful in attaining their business goals.
Inflexibility - One of my favorite quotes is, “A little process goes a long way”. On the flip side, too much and/or too rigid a process and small problems can often become big ones. We have a baseline process that we have found works well for most of our clients. That said, we tweak the pieces and parts for each client because each situation is unique. Sometimes it takes a little faith and a little flexibility to find the best way to collaborate. Being open to new ideas and new ways to communicate is a necessary component of a successful working relationship.
Again, this is just a top 5, there are nuances in every client relationship that can make each of these issues more or less critical. If you have any experience with outsourced development teams, we invite you to comment below and tell us what made your relationship a positive or negative experience. Of course, if you are looking to build a team, drop us a line and let’s see if Flatsourcing is the right fit for you.
I was very privileged to get the opportunity to moderate a panel at SXSW in Austin last week. Our topic was Outsourcing 2.0 - Is the World Flat or Not?
My fellow panelists were Andrea Azril from Star Tech Global, Sandeep Sood from Monsoon Company and Matt Tritico, a developer in New Orleans working for LSU.
We had a very lively discussion about working with overseas teams, focused on the trade-offs and lessons learned through the work we’ve done. Frankly, we expected a more politically focused discussion with the world economic crisis and job losses in the US. However, the audience was a very sophisticated audience, much more focused on learning the in’s and out’s of outsourcing than scoring political points. As I’ve mentioned to people I’ve discussed the political sensitivity of outsourcing with, in other parts of the world they don’t call it outsourcing, they call it competing.
The video from our talk is below. I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Special thanks to Andrea, Sandeep & Matt for making it such a great panel and the Net2NO crew for all their support.
Truly global scale. Worldsourcing companies have no single corporate headquarters
Porous corporate boundaries.Worldsourcing companies have porous corporate boundaries – meaning they manage a portfolio of “internal” (same owner) and “external” (different owners) resources in most aspects of their work.
Across all business functions. While some business leaders have managed global scale and porous relationships in one or two key functions (e.g., manufacturing and software development), Worldsourcing companies take this approach across all business functions – including marketing, product development, sales and customer service.
Wow, I couldn’t be more excited about how well this defines Flatsourcing, Inc. We are truly a global company and Worldsourcing is our enterprise model. A partnership between teams in Russia and the US with customers worldwide. I don’t think I could define our company better.
Will and I attended a core conversation panel at SXSW called Outsourcing 2.0 led by Sandeep Sood of Monsoon Co. It was a very interesting discussion, and Sandeep worked through a number of topics that are important in the next generation of outsourcing.
We discussed with Sandeep the pros and cons of building a personal connection between an overseas team and client. I offered up that it is important to Flatsourcing that our team in Russia is as connected as possible to cutting edge movements and technologies in Silicon Valley and across the globe. We must understand the environment that are clients operate in to fully understand their strategic direction. For this reason, even if technologies like Twitter, FriendFeed, and Facebook haven’t penetrated Russia yet, it is still important for our team to be active with and understand them.
Furthermore, we position our approach as “replicating hiring an an employee in your office as closely as possible.” We believe this is important because often the roadblocks to successful outsourcing are not technical, they are the fundamental barriers to human relationships: trust, respect and communication. We have found that building a “virtual bond” between our team and our clients via social technologies like Twitter, Facebook, instant messenger and blogging facilitates an understanding of each other and builds the relationship, just as social interaction amongst a team in an office does.
Sandeep felt that keeping business and personal interactions separate is important, and doesn’t encourage his team in India to connect with clients this way. We agreed that this may be more of a reflection of the more corporate environment of his client base than a fundamental difference in the importance of connection between virtual teams. Both approaches are clearly successful as Monsoon has a wonderful client base. We really enjoyed spending time with Sandeep.
One of the core values of our company is building a working environment with our clients based on trust, respect, open communication, and understanding. My strong belief is that one of the fundamental breakdowns in outsourcing 1.0 was the inate distrust that is built into the relationship structure. Of all the bad experiences that I hear about with outsourcing, they often start with eLance or oDesk. In my mind, trust and respect go further than technology can in ensuring a successful working partnership. The oDesk approach monitors a contractor like big brother, which imbues the relationship with a feeling of distrust right off the bat. I haven’t seen a time clock in a internet company ever where employees are required to clock in an out every time they sit down. When a contractor is involved, why do these systems become necessary?
We are thrilled about the recent addition of 4 new clients to Flatsourcing. Each of these clients has a different need that we are meeting. We are doing our best to build a trusting and personal relationship with each of them, and its working great. After all, the closer we are (even thousands of miles away), the more successful we can be together.
xxxxxx <xxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxx.com> wrote:
i HAVE GOOD 500+ OFFSHORE DEVLOPER IN ALL TECHNOLOGIES IN INDIA IF YOU INTERST
WITH US REPLY ME
This type of spam makes me so mad, because it is what drives the impression of outsourced web development that most people have. Would you do business with a company that sends you an email like this? Of course not. There’s clearly no reason to list everything thats wrong with it, but I will anyway:
No acknowledgment of addressee (Hi!)
ALL CAPS
misspelled “DEVLOPER” & “INTERST”
Incorrect grammar
No website for more info
Completely unprofessional
Obviously SPAM
While this email makes me angry with people who try to foist outsourced development on people as if they were buying a $19 DVD Player from Wal-Mart.
But… it also makes me happy, because I know the niche that we are targeting: high-quality, high-value outsourced web development exists because companies like this created an opening for us. This is why our focus on the user experience with outsourcing is what keeps our clients happy and is the reason client references keep us growing.
So, keep it up spammy outsourcers, you’re our best marketing.
As all global IT companies Flatsourcing faces factors that used to be difficult parts, but not in modern age! For example what if your company has several offices? Our company has two major offices in New Orleans (US) and Kazan (RU), not counting cities where other friendly development and management staff members are located.
What we do to stay connected like we’re in one company? We use IMs, web-cams, desktop sharing tools and social networks a lot. It probably becomes so common where you know about your own friend more not from sitting in same office room, but through facebook, for example. So knowing each others habit, birthdays, etc. is not a problem indeed! BTW recently have created flatsourcing facebook, and so we now have a fan club!
The main thing about having multiple offices is that each office has to have core staff, somebody who’s managing it all and unites the company offices! The info on the core staff of flatsourcing company, who’s managing its all aspects has been recently updated on the flatsourcing about page.
The sweetest part about our long successful global IT company experience is that just like we unite our company’s multiple offices, we’re also able to use those techniques with our partners and clients, so that we work with them just like they are part of our team (or we are part of their team)! And we really like to work with professionals! So everybody, let’s cooperate, and benefit from globalization, outsourcing, rather than suffer from it’s high competition factors!
Focus on listening. The best way to improve any outsourcing relationship is to listen better and more often. Your developer likely spends long hours ingesting industry information in order to be better than his peers. We know you probably do too, but if your developer is voicing concerns about a project it’s likely warranted. Don’t let any concern go unanswered. Paying respect to a developer’s concern is a display of trust, which is the goal in any outsourced relationship. Be attentive and make sure your communication is clear. If you want a project to work right the first time, focus on providing good materials and listen, listen, listen.
Well there isn’t just one. You’ll find several here. We’ve developed a model that works. It’s not a get rich quick scheme (you’ll still have to work just as hard), but we can help you improve the quantity and quality of your clients by providing them quality development.
We’re not selling a scheme or a system. We sell development. We have offices in Kazan, Russia where our team works everyday. What we offer you is information on how to work with them to improve your efficiency. You can learn more about us here. For now let me give you some tips on outsourcing:
When you move your development offices abroad, you can’t micromanage your employees because they aren’t (literally) sitting in front of you. You’re essentially creating a trade off: micromanagement for cost.
The thing is micromanagement probably took up way too much of your time anyways. Now, you have a developer somewhere else and you can’t watch his every move. So what do you do?
You learn how to communicate. At the end of the day, good communication is what will make you succeed in your development pursuits. Now that sounds oversimplified – it is.
By good communication I mean:
Tools – Video conferencing, project management tools, VoIP, and patience and respect
Empathy – What is your new employees schedule? Find out how best to work together. Take time to see it from your employees time zone/perspective/level of communication.
Goal Setting – You have to create goals for yourself and your team. They can’t hit your goals unless you establish them and communicate them effectively. Most people get this most important point all wrong.
Trust – You can’t have a good working relationship without it. Trust until it’s broken. Then find the manager and tell them about it. Just because you got burned by some developers in (country here) back in (year here), doesn’t mean its going to happen every time. We have all been there.
Stay tuned: You’ll hear more info on each of those points from me. If you want to make sure you don’t miss it, RSS our blog.
I’m very excited to commemorate the launch of the new Flatsourcing.com website in this blog post. Oleg, Alex, Timur, Will & I have all been hard at work over the month developing the new site and working on our positioning and branding.
Our new site is a WordPress blog that will enable us to continually update our team, our clients, and our community about what’s going on with Flatsourcing and our thoughts on the greater world of web development and outsourcing.
As important as the blog is our new more focused branding and growth strategy. We spent a lot of time and soul-searching figuring out what it really is that Flatsourcing does, and what it is that our clients value about Flatsourcing.
One of the common threads running through all our discussions is that we are web developers for web developers and industry professionals. Our clients are web development firms, web application companies, and experts on the Internet. We are their back end. A lot of the work we do for clients is a piece of their greater puzzle.
In that sense, what we do well is private label web development
We’re thrilled about the launch of the new site, and appreciate all of the input from our clients and friends in this process. We’ve got our new website up, and were ready to rock!
If you or anybody you know needs great web development, get in touch with us.
