Outsourcing – Get Your Work Done At a Lower Cost

By: Sebastian Schneider
The globalization phenomenon of the 90s brought about two significant changes, which were looked quite an unrealistic proportion just few years before the dawn of the 90s. The internet revolution, the ultimate thing that helped globalize the world, caused physical distances to shrink and economies became more and more interrelated, in a way such that an economic change at some part of the world bound to have some sort of an influence in other economies as well.

Globalization virtually expanded the contours within which businesses functioned earlier – both in terms of economics and service – and redrew the limits to encompass every corners of the world where businesses can be set up without much hitch and services bought in plenty. This paradigm shift had indeed become the soul of outsourcing. A good 15 years since outsourcing commenced, market researches have shown that outsourcing accounted for services at a low cost – as fewer by 50% – and that without compromising on the quality of work and execution time.

In these early years of the new millennium, where we stand today, the Asian and south-Asian countries ranks themselves as hot beds of outsourcing, a fact substantiated by market experts who put the net worth of outsourcing industry based on these countries to a whooping $100 billion, and the number increasing by the day. The figures itself is clear indication of the amount of work outsourced to this part of the world. But if you are new to this field, how to get yourself started with outsourcing? Also, there are other questions such as how to outsource work and where to find the required services and talent? Furthermore, where to post the proposals so as to receive maximum exposure? Well, these are exactly what we are trying to explain in the following paragraphs.

There are various websites in which you can submit the project proposals and requirements. Most of the websites charge a fee for signing up so as to post the project details while some others are partly-free. Also, there are free sites which allow people to sign up and advertise projects free of cost, and a nominal commission will be charged if the advertiser finds a freelancer through the site.

Which ever website you choose to post to, it is the visibility one’s advertisement gets that ultimately matters in drawing more talents and hence a better talent pool from which the final selection can be made. Therefore, tactically, it will be prudent to post the project in at least two websites at a time. Ideally this should be a pay-site with the most competent services and maximum viewer ship and a free one. The project posted in the former may provide an enhanced promotion – as per the marketing standards and quality of the site – meanwhile posting in the latter, and if it is a new one like WorkAsFreelancer.com, gives the client a place at the top of the list and hence better chances for finding quality bids with less struggle.

Alongside visibility, there is one more aspect that the advertiser need to stress on – it is the type of the project and a detail of the requirements and demands from your side regarding the freelancer who is bidding for the project. It is in fact a way of telling the freelancer about what you expect from him. Such enunciated way of posting projects eliminates the issue of inappropriate bids and draws more freelancers instead.

Author Bio
If you no longer want to pay commissions or fees in terms of posting a project and using the service, visit WorkAsFreelancer. This service is free of any commissions and fees from signing up to signing the contract with freelance workers. Get to know about all the free features you can make use of when you use WorkAsFreelancer.com

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12 Essential Tips to Finding the Best Outsourcing Company

The very foundation of outsourcing means getting someone to handle your work, a partner in business. Ideally the outsourcing consultant or company should have a similar vision as yours and solid work ethics.

Success in business would depend greatly on finding the right outsourcing company and for this you must:

The cornerstones of a good and ideal outsource is a company that will enhance your performance; partner you in growth by infusing talent and technology; will share your visions; and contribute positively.

Interview the companies. After you select one discuss in detail the contractual terms. Be sure to protect your own interests well. It takes trust, collaboration, communication, and chemistry to make an outsourcing successful.

Author Bio
Paul Wilson is a freelance writer for www.1888Discuss.com/outsourcing, the premier REVENUE SHARING discussion forum for Outsourcing Forum including topics on general outsourcing, best outsourcing tips, HR outsourcing, sales outsourcing and more. He also freelances for the premier Outsourcing Directory Site www.1888Outsourceservices.com

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Freelancing – The Way Forward for Webmasters

Ten years ago the internet was in its infancy. Computer science was hardly a proper, or prudent, choice of career for the serious person. Those who tended to enrol themselves in such courses were expected to end up with jobs as computer technicians and nothing more than that. Such careers had no particular gravitas – but all that has changed.

The modern world is a global village and this is thanks to the internet above all else. Markets have been made available that would hitherto have been hidden – and the field is rife with potential for success. Companies are slowly catching up to this latent hegemony – and the power that lies beneath the fingertips is being recognised internationally from governments downwards.

Small and large companies alike are vying for pole position in attempting to capture the imagination of the huge international markets. Such demographics have enormous spending power as is evidenced by the success of firms such as Ebay and Amazon. With costs kept so low compared to more conventional brick and mortar businesses, there is little wonder as to why so many companies have ‘gone online’. Even the humble webmaster working from his garage or bedroom can make millions, most recently the school student Alex Tew made his first million by selling pixel adverts! He sold one million pixels in half a year!

Competition is tough however – everyone wants a slice of the advertising potential of the internet. Markets can be powerful yet fickle and attempts to capitalise on these new areas can be fraught with danger for the inexperienced.

Great emphasis is now placed on the visible branding of a company. Web designers and developers convey specific messages to their audiences – working as both artists and public relations officers in their quest to secure leads for their clients by producing enticing and practical designs and structures.

The humble computer graduate has never been so eagerly sought after. A whole new breed of web developers has sprung up. There is now a work force of eager, attentive, enthusiastic and energetic freelancers available to the savvy employer. Vitally, these individuals tend to opt for this type of work not out of a need for profit, or a lack of choice, but because they actively enjoy web design and development. You cannot pay for such devotion in most other fields of work.

It’s the win-win situation to beat all others. There has never been a better time to hire freelance web designers and developers – and it has never been such a good time to be one! Many have noted the irony that has befallen the career of the computer science expert – now the most coveted of all professions.

Powerful Tools: Outsourcing and Hiring Freelancers

Knowing your limitations is the subtle art to being a webmaster. Knowing when to do the work yourself and when your time is better spent on other things is a skill in itself! Investing in the expertise of a freelancer can save you money and time. But where do you find them? Fortunately there are sites that do the hard work for you – where freelancers meet to fight for the privilege to work for you!

Author Bio

Professional webmasters are multi talented – but there comes a time to outsource and look for a freelance expert to invest in. To find the perfect freelancer for your project, visit http://www.nirutech.comtoday.

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An inevitable rise in tution fees for post-graduate courses could damage the UK’s standing in the global IT industry. But could the IT suppliers put their hands in their pockets and help universities find a way of lessening the blow?

I was at a round table hosted by Logica this week. One of the experts speaking was Anthony Finkelstein, dean of engineering sciences at University College London (UCL).

He said there will be a worrying knock-in effect of the increases in undergraduate tuition fees which have sparked a major storm since the government introduced rules that meant universities could charge anything up to £9000. See full story here.

But perhaps more worrying for the UK IT sector is that Finkelstein says fees in Masters degrees are set to rise substantially as a result.

He says postgraduate degrees that cost between £3,000 and £5,000 per year might rise to £10,000. “The full consequences of the undergraduate fees decision and the HE White Paper are yet to become clear. The broad direction of travel for institutions such as UCL is however, more or less apparent. It is appropriate that now some attention should focus on postgraduate taught provision, which forms a large part of our portfolio and that of other research-intensive universities,” Finkelstein recently blogged.

He said that although the full impact of the undergraduate fee rise is as yet unclear current fees will increase. “Obviously, the situation in which a full-year postgraduate course, with a lengthy dissertation requiring close supervision, would be priced below that of an undergraduate programme, of shorter duration and lesser intensity, is unsustainable. Thus it will be necessary for universities to raise the fees for most postgraduate taught masters (note: some professionally oriented courses already have high fees) to somewhere above the £9000 payable by incoming undergraduates.”

He said the university might have to lessen the blow to avoid potential students staying away. “At UCL we may choose to taper the fee increases in order to test the market and to subsidise some specific courses. Our capacity for continuing subsidies will however, necessarily be restricted, undergraduate students will expect the experience they are paying for and financially such subsidies are a zero sum game.”

See Finkelstein’s full blog post, which he published on July 14, here.

I was wondering if the IT industry could step in with some funding initiatives to help keep UK universities and research at the top of the global sector.

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IT services firm Logica is campaigning government to set up a central register of the intellectual property (IP) of universities to help good ideas make it into commercial environments.

UK businesses are missing out on world-leading research from UK universities, simply because the communication between academia and commerce is inadequate.

At a round table discussing UK innovation Logica UK CEO Craig Boundy said the company would write to government to suggest the creation of a resource that could be shared between businesses and universities.

“We need an effective knowledge sharing platform. It is currently far too difficult for organisations to access university research,” added Boundy. “We are calling on government to establish a register that allows universities to share IP.”

Businesses could take the IP and support its commercialisation in partnership with universities.

What do you think?

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Back in November I Outsourcing/2010/11/disability-rights-campaigners-could-take-direct-peaceful-action-against-atos-origin.html">blogged about a group that had been created by disability rights campaigners that believesbenefits for sick and disabled people have been wrongly cut because of the system that DWP supplier Atos Healthcare uses when assessing them.

Atos is investigating one administrative worker and one nurse for making comments on Facebook. The workers are under investigation after they allegedly referred to the claimants as “parasitic wankers” and “down and outs” separately on Facebook.

Atos, through its Healthcare arm, uses Logic Integrated Medical Assessment’ (LiMA) software to support medical professionals when assessing claimants. It does assessments on behalf of the DWP.

Basically the computer says yes or know and there is a campaign against the use of the system. The group, known as the Black Triangle, wants Atos removed from the contract and Atos Healthcare staff have

 In a written statement Atos said: “Atos Healthcare is committed to providing a high quality, professional service to the DWP and expects the same of all its employees. Where it is found that these standards are not adhered to, this is taken very seriously and appropriate disciplinary action taken.”

If true it doesn’t half show the importance of outsourced staff to the reputation of an organisation. It is obviously an awful thing for Atos to deal with but it doesn’t reflect too well on its customer the DWP.

Read the article about it here on Computer Weekly. 

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Agile software development requires development teams and users communicating all the time.

The flexibility and constant testing makes it a challenge to succeed using agile software development techniques if these groups of people are not in close contact during work time. You can’t really do a scrum over thousands of miles.

This gives Outsourcing let alone offshoring a disadvantage. 

I had a conversation with the man heading up Cadbury’s digital developments today. He told me that when the company embarked on its digital strategy, which involved the creation of lots of websites to increase interactions with consumers. Cadbury did not have the in-house re-sources to complete the project so decided to outsource to a specialist. After looking at a number of suppliers it chose Romania/Moldova based Endava.

This nearshore location had the best combination of experience, cost and proximity to customer, when compared to other digital development suppliers based  onshore, offshore and nearshore.

The fact that the supplier works the same hours as the customer means agile software development techniques can be used. The client can work very closely with the development team, like a virtual team,  and ensure constant targets are reached.

Could this be the biggest advantage of sending work to nearshore locations?

There is a lot more interest in nearshore locations such as countries in central and Eastern Europe. It seems it is a case of big businesses not wanting to have too many eggs in one basket, namely India.

Hear are five reasons to outsource to Eastern Europe

1. High skilled labour
The former Soviet Union had a strong educational emphasis on engineering and the sciences. As a consequence, many of the countries in this region today have a highly skilled workforce in areas such as computer science, but at much lower labour costs than the UK.

2. Cultural similarities
Some companies believe that Eastern Europe has a distinct advantage over places such as India when it comes to outsourcing because employees tend to take a more collaborative and less process-driven approach to projects.

 3. Time zones
Eastern Europe covers a vast region, but most of the countries within it are just a few hours away from the UK in terms of time difference, making it easier to communicate within working hours.

4. Data protection
Eastern European countries within the EU could be a good choice for work which requires adherence to the Data Protection Act.

5. Growing labour market
While skills shortages remain a problem in the UK, growth in IT outsourcing in Eastern Europe continues to increase. In 2009, Romania was found to be the country with the highest growth of IT specialists, increasing by about 12% compared with 2008. Ukraine followed with over 9% growth.

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I had an interesting conversation last week with Robert Morgan who is a director at sourcing broker Burnt-Oak Partners.

I called him to get his views on a meeting next week of an All Party Group that will be looking at how the government can become a better customer of Outsourcing.

The conversation got interesting when he told me that the Ministry of Defence had recently outsourced HR and Payroll to the Department of Work and Pensions. Could this be a sign that the government is tired of the big suppliers?

If the DWP wins enough HR and Payroll contracts within government the suppliers might find it hard to compete.

Below is a copy of a blog post from Robert, which originally appeared in the Burnt-Oak blog.

The Trick for Government Shared Services

By Robert Morgan

“In anticipation of the meeting of the All Party Outsourcing and Shared Services Group on the 22nd of August we would like to say that Government has finally started to make in-roads to using the principle of outsourcing (consolidation, standardisation and scale) to secure deep departmental savings through Shared Services.

There is however a significant difference in how they have gone about this, and ample evidence that this will continue. Take the case of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) who have recently won HR services and payroll business from two parts of the MoD. Logically this makes huge sense – utilising DWP’s core strengths to undertake similar work for other sections of government. Currently DWP’s IT and business services are being underpinned by commercial outsourcing contracts with suppliers like Fujitsu, HP and CapGemini. But will they really need them if government business continues coming DWP’s way?

The trick for Joe Harley, Director General and CIO for DWP and also the lead player in determining and driving IT policy for government in outsourcing and shared services, is can he secure enough volume and expertise to ensure the right blend of professional and dependable services, scale for service provider economics and staff retention levels to rival the private sector. We believe he can.

What would success bring?

By virtue of the huge volumes of back office services involved, Government has in its hands the ability to rival and beat the world’s largest service providers such as IBM, CSC and HP, for many simple but critical back office functions. This could be particular bad news for Capita, Logica, NorthgateArinso and Liberata who thrive on such additive business without necessarily attempting to reform or re-platform the applications, merely run them into the ground.

At a recent briefing Jane Platt, CEO of National Savings Investments (NSI), stated that they were “open for shared services business” having recently won two significant deals, firstly with Courts Funding Office, and secondly with Equitable Life Payment Scheme. Even East London Boroughs are clubbing together to reinvent themselves by providing common or shared services through a single centralised powerhouse.

So, with or without a utilising the financial and service strength of professional outsourcers, government HAS firmly entered the shared services market. More importantly they have the ability to dominate the market and build a significant asset that could be privatised at a later stage.

In today’s market this is a unique example of building up the “family silver” for another generation of politicians to squander away.”

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I blogged earlier about SWIFT as an example of a shared service that goes way beyond offering organisations a way of reducing overheads by cutting the need for people and IT assets.

The message that the UK government needs to cut costs has not missed anyone by now. Even the far reaches of the universe have probably had word of it by now. To this end share services are as relevant as ever.

The basic premise is that shared IT services will cut costs through the process of putting servers from a group of organisations into the same building and then use fewer people to support it.

But Swift, which was originally a Outsourcing/2011/06/can-shared-services-do-more-than-just-cut-overheads.html">payments service shared by a community of banks is using its strengths to experiment way beyond transacting payments securely and reliable. I wrote earlier about how SWIFT was testing out an App Store for banks.

Today I had a conversation with Swift’s head of innovation Kosta Peric, about another development in incubation. This one is all about identity management. More specifically the fact that Swift is developing a service where banks will be able to offer customers a way of securing their digital identities while making online activity easier.

Read the story I wrote here, but basically consumers might just have one digital identity that all the companies they have a relationship with, including government, can use as proof in a transaction. It will ensure that the consumer’s ID does not fall into the wrong hands.

It is an interesting one. It shows that banks, who are about the most competitive beasts around, are willing to put down their weapons and share their toys when it is pointless competing and for the greater good.

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It’s long been a complaint of SMEs that government spend on systems integrators (SIs) eats up the vast majority of the public sector IT budget (80%-90%), leaving very little for innovative small businesses.  

Having spoken to several SMEs part of the gripe isn’t just that they’re only left crumbs from the public sector table.  SIs will often subcontract specialist work to small businesses and take the lion share of the profits themselves.

I’ve also heard cases where SIs have  said it would not be in their interest to work with small companies,  as they don’t want a quick and innovative solution but something which creates long drawn-out contracts, enabling them to keep  milking the public sector cash cow.

I had an interesting chat with Chris Chant, responsible for setting the strategy for the use of cloud computing, who believes moves toward the cloud will help break up the ‘oligopoly’.

“We’ve got to recognise that some of the organisations we outsource to are as big as the civil service, so why would we expect agility with something that big,” he said. But with a lengthy legal contract lock in still in place, the cloud panacea still seems a long way off for the moment.

And of course, it’s important not to underestimate the power of these contractors, many of which have account managers with one-to-one relationships with people in government that SMEs simply don’t have.

“These providers are used to getting a certain amount of money from the government and they can’t afford for their shareholders to lose out by reducing their income in the area of public sector contracts. So of course they will push back against change,” says Mark Taylor, appointed by the Cabinet Office to lead its New Suppliers to Government working group.

If the government is to change the entrenched culture of awarding contracts to a few large suppliers, it will need to recognise it will have a fight on its hands. The question is, will it be able to back up it good intentions with the necessary action?

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