7.4 Listen to your partners concerns

Here are some concerns listed by offshore service providers reacting to this article:

- Client's goal are not clear enough and the big picture is not given. Offshore team is considered more as a 3rd party than a partner, which hinders good collaboration and understanding.

- Expectations are not quantified at project's start. That generates a lot of misunderstanding later in the project.

7.5 Listen to cultural differences

Listen to Indian classical music and you will get a feeling how western and Indian cultures are so far apart and so close at the same time.

8. Evaluation using eSCM.

Most of offshoring issues can be formally assessed and improved through evaluating offshoring processes using eSCM eSourcing Capability Model which applies to both Provider and Client:

- What is the performance of the outsource/offshore provider?

- How are we handling outsource/offshoring process as a client?

Read more information here:

Provider/Outsource/Offshore side named eSCM-SP (The eSourcing Capability Model for Service Providers (eSCM-SP) v2)

Client side named eSCM-CL

9. Conclusion

As a rule of thumb: An offshored project will cost 4 times less but will take twice the time to complete . But there is room for improvement... Improvement will come through building trust, trust and trust.

Eric is an active member of LinkedIn and his profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mariacher.

For in-depth information on outsourcing and offshoring see Amy Lynne Williams article: Outsourcing in the Global Village and for other articles on the ideas page refer to the article and author menus.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author only and do not represent the views of the Techman/Kanata or of any of its directors, officers or employees. The author, Eric Mariacher, can be reach at eric.mariacher@gmail.com