Until a few weeks ago I never really took notice of any major risks with outsourcing. Yes, there are pros and cons of outsourcing and sometimes more cons than pros, but recently I got the shock and surprise of my life and I want to make sure that no one gets to share my frustration and costly experience.
Let me first start by sharing my story and we’ll cover my mistakes as we go along…
I have been working on a social network for the internet and network marketing community for months now. In fact, it’s just gone way past the half year mark.
Trying to keep my spending below 5 figures, I did extensive research and found a few scripts that would integrate well together and keep the costs down. The trick of the project would be to integrate all the databases to work seemlessly as one.
So I placed my job with the usual outsourcing providers: elance, guru and scriptlance. Most of the outsourcing responses came from India, which is where I have done the majority of all my outsourcing jobs.
What I did right: Analyzed their history, facts and figures of outsourcing according to:
- how many jobs have they done
- what there percentage of positive comments were
- there negative comments and if the the outsourced company was really at fault
- How long they have been in business
- How much money they have made with that particular outsource provider
- There understanding of the english language by setting up Skype conversation with both the sales person and the project manager
The latter I took a step further and scheduled a webinar so that I could share my screen with diagrams, flow charts and mind maps.
Outsourcing Tip:
Know what you want! Getting advice from outsourced companies are rare, you have to know exactly what you want and be specific to every single detail. It’s worth taking the extra time to spend on planning if it’s a large project to ensure that everything goes to plan.
Back to the webinar…
I explained the diagrams and explained our project to every last detail. I asked them if they would be able to do the job, they hesitatively said, yes. When I asked again, I got a confident yes. This was of course what I wanted to hear, so I was happy with the answer.
First BIG outsourcing mistake happened here…
They had no knowledge about the scripts that I was talking about. This is one thing that I should’ve checked and queried and made sure that they understood the scripts. When researching your company, there should be a list of there skills and skill level. Don’t go by that alone though, ask and dig deeper. Always make sure if the software you want to use will work and if they have the qualified experience with the technology.
… and the job was on the way!
The programmers got stuck right into it and I insisted in getting an update once a day and continued Skype conversations with the project manager.
But, not even a week into the job, THE PROJECT MANAGER WENT ON VACATION! The very guy who said it was all possible decided to take a long break.
Big Outsourcing Mistake 2
I didn’t record the webinar. The most vital information went missing. Now I had set myself up for a disaster and had to start explaining from scratch.
I continued to do screen recordings with camtasia and jingproject and having skype conversations. Sometimes via chat and other times by voice. The new project manager would always confirm “Yes, Yes, Yes” after everything I explained.
This was obviously not the case when I saw what was being done!
Outsourcing Tip:
Outsourcing really puts your communication skills to the test. Explain what you want them to do by screen recording, right it down AND get them to explain it back to you! This is so important, read the last bit again: get them to explain it back to you! If only I did this, it would have saved me weeks of frustration.
Even MORE important:
Make sure that you copy ALL your commincation within the outsourcing providers workroom and private message boards. If you have a skype or other instant message conversation, copy this and paste it into the private message board so that you have proof of the conversation.
6 weeks into the job, practically a few days away from the official due date, the project manager informs me that the project won’t work. They cant do it! 6 weeks, my site is a mess, nothing works, I’ve let me blog readers and followers down and nothing works!
What to do?
Little to say my trust with this company was non existant and I decided to do the research myself (that can qualify for a tip, or at least do more research and get several more opinions!) I came up with several solutions but nothing satisfactory.
Finally, I found a solution and we were on the way. As of today, it’s close to 2 and a half months into the project. I would be to embarrased to share a link to my site as it is still a complete mess.
The Outsourcing Solution
Within this time of major hair loss and hours of screen recordings, I have found the outsourcing solution and I only wish it came to me sooner. Unless it’s something small, I sincerely doubt that I will ever use any outsourcing provider ever again.
I recently met Jon online who has a membership called Replace Myself. Replace Myself has a online training system setup and ready to go to outsource permanent workers within the Philippines.
My brain is slightly reluctant to try and explain more tasks to outsourced workers. Fortunately, Replace Myself has the training modules setup for your employees so that you don’t have to educate them on tasks. So other than projects like mine above, the systems are setup and ready to go.
In the meantime I have employed one person in the Philippines who does all my link building, remote blogs, article marketing and some work on social networks. I am about to employ another full time content writer and I can do this for just under $500 for both of them!
Furthermore, a full time php programmer would cost me in the range of $500-$600 per month.
I cant help but think that I could’ve been blessed with a full time outsourced worker in the Philippines for way less money on my social networking project that I could also manage and improve the system on a continuous basis.
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