Outsourcing is always advantageous if done correctly. The benefits of outsourcing to India are both immediate and long term and include cost cutting, increased profits, access to specialised workforce, on time project completion and delivery, access to new markets and so on. But the first step towards a great outsourcing venture is to start out right. Here we detail the tips and precautions to take while outsourcing your first project or business.
Before you narrow down on your overseas Indian outsourcing partner, these short and quick questions will go a long way in selecting the right service provider and ensuring you are not taken for a ride along the way. There are several service providers in India that offer content development services from India. You can find them on the Internet. However, zeroing in on a single one can be a difficult task. Here are some suggestions to filter out the rest. Find out if the vendors you are evaluating put their writers to work on their own projects/sites. Did the content persuade you to try their services? Did it attract you to their site? If so, you can be reasonably assured of quality in their content writing for you.
Read the articles on the vendor’s website. You can get a good idea of writing quality - substance, style and flow from the site. Ask the vendor to give you references of other customers who have used their services. Get feedback from them about the process, the reliability, the quality and commitment to deadlines that the vendor assures. You can also check out the websites of clients for whom the vendor has specifically created content. Remember that many clients provide their own content while developing websites. Don’t get carried away by the content on all the sites you see on the vendor’s portfolio.
Try to evaluate the diversity of the team. What areas of writing can they deliver? Some Indian outsourcing companies may only have a few writers able to write in a narrow band of topics, styles and substance. This may be fine. It depends on your needs. Check on costs too. But don’t get stuck on getting the “lowest price”. Rather, look for a vendor that provides complete solutions, gives you suggestions and adds value to the content development process. What is the track record of the vendor? How long have they been in business? What is their experience in providing content? What is the depth of their knowledge on the topics you would like them to write about?
There is no hard-and-fast way to select the right vendor for you. Finally, you have to take the plunge and try them out. We recommend getting to know a vendor by starting with a pilot project.
Many time outsourcing service providers promise the sky in terms of the number of services offered and their past experience and expertise but deliver practically nothing, resulting in time cost overruns. To avoid such scenarios it is best to verify all the vendor claims directly and from the service provider's other and previous clients.
Ensure that the outsourcing vendor has the requisite infrastructure including high speed internet connection, telephone links, power back-up (especially if located in a remote location), computers with required hardware and licensed software and so on. These factors are important because they can either add to the speed of the projects undertaken or act as bottlenecks in the project completion if not adequate.
When dealing with sensitive information and especially when the information is outsourced to a third party it is essential that your data is well protected through security personnel, video cameras, firewalls, VPN's, data backup, confidentiality agreements and so on.
A company's customers are one of the best indicators of its profile. Ask the vendors customers whether they were happy and satisfied from their past experience with the company or not. If yes then even a few shortcomings on other benchmarks can be excused.
India alone commands 65% of the world’s BPO
offshore outsourcing market. For one country to alone
hold such a significant share of the outsourcing
market is certainly a reflection of India’s
dominance in this industry.
Furthermore, 80% of US and European outsourcing firms
ranked India as their number one outsourcing destination.
The contract between Staff India and client is devised such that the client takes minimal risk when outsourcing.