Category: Offshore outsourcing

Drawing your HR Map for 2008

December 18, 2007

I know its not the end of financial year as we still have one more quarter to go. It’s however very important to draw of all significant plans within the last quarter and then start making adjustment early on so that you can take on the first three quarters of the next financial year without “loosing” more time in planning. Planning for the HR is very important function in order to ensure that you have production capacity to undertake any expansion plans or support other organizational objectives. You need to sit down and answer the following questions: 1. What are new positions within the organizations that will be filled? 2. How many people will be required in what positions? 3. How will the current man-power evolve? (Think promotion and attrition!) 4. What are the new competencies that will be required? 5. What jobs would you like to remain in-house and what would you like to outsource? Once the future labor requirement and the current availability has been clearly established, the gap is action oriented target that can be handed over to the HRD (if you have one!) or in some cases you may need to draw a more detailed plan to fill those gaps. As soon as you begin to think of HR requirements, it is important to separate the qualitative issues from the quantitative issues. Let’s talk about them in more details: Quantitative Issues The quantitative issues are easiest to spot. A simple way to do this is simply calculating the ratio between number of people in the company and the current revenue and then calculating the number of people required to achieve the targeted revenue. Ofcourse, this assumes that efficiency with the organization does not change and this short process usually does the job pretty well. So, if you have 2 employees who are maintaining 40 client installations and generating $20000 every month, you simply calculate that by doing 60 client installations, you will generate revenue of $30000 and you will need one more employee. This “1” employee then needs to be hired and trained before he is actually needed for production. Qualitative Issues In a layman term these are the sort of issues that you can’t put number against and usually means that the current man-power or a part of it does not have the skills and knowledge future job requirements or in some cases you may see that the person is overqualified for the particular job. These are the sort of issues that can only be handled by Training and Restructuring. As as business owner you must realize that right people with right skills and doing the right jobs are the precondition to success. Is Outsourcing a Qualitative or Quantitative decision? Outsourcing is a quantitative decision only when same economies of scale can be achieved with an outside vendor or when it’s a strict question of changing capacity within an existing relationship. Getting this plan ready with you will allow you to look for possible outsourcing opportunities early and notify your vendor in advance about your ramp-up or ramp-down plans. However, if you ask yourself – “Can this job be done better by a specialized vendor because I want to focus on core areas?” – it becomes a qualitative decision. The core is that you must plan ahead of time about what you are going to outsource and in what volume.

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Making A Dedicated Hiring Project work!

Making A Dedicated Hiring Project work!

November 8, 2007

Even though distance, communication barriers, lack of local knowledge and geopolitical factors create significant risks, the economies of Offshore outsourcing are numerous and significant. However, to make these economies work for you, you should keep in mind the following few very important points: Project Scope – Clarity and Understandability Project Scope is the most important part of the project. The success or otherwise of your project largely depends on how clearly the developer has stepped into your shoes and understood the project scope, the purpose of his actions and the consequences thereof. It is advisable that your initial efforts should mostly go in making sure that your words are being understood clearly and correctly. If you find any deflection, you should right away contact either the Project Manager or the Account Manager and get a meeting scheduled with the developer, where the relevant issues are discussed in an open and constructive manner. The importance of clear communication should never be discounted at this stage and everything should be put in black and white as far as possible. Manage The Project Developers are mainly concerned with developing and not with project management. Someone needs to manage the project and that’s your job in a dedicated hiring project. You should not treat the project as the Developer’s responsibility alone, but should also understand yours as well, which includes the following: Make sure the Developer’s interpreted your description the way you intended. Make sure the Developer delivers what you asked for. You need to set expectations and inspect the Developer’s work to make sure it meets your needs and quality standards. If something turns out to be much harder than expected, or does not work out exactly as planned, you might need to decide which of several paths the project should take, after consulting the developer with regards to their feasibility. Again, Developers do not know the intimate details of your business, your users, etc. An old expression says you only have the right to expect what you inspect. You have to be involved in the project to make sure it delivers what you need. Finally, it is your project! You have the final say about what the project is. Share Your Vision With The Developer After hiring a developer, most people answer the developer’s questions about the project and assume that if he doesn’t ask a question about a particular part of the project, everything must be OK. What they did miss are all the assumptions: Assumptions made when writing the project description Assumptions the developer made when he read the description One problem is that we tend to write from our own perspective, not even realizing the assumptions we make. But the fact remains that you know your business inside and out, but your content developer probably won’t know anything about it. So to avoid this issue, one should take the following precautions: Be very clear and concise in your project description. Keep it brief and focused. Adding more words often just adds chances for different interpretations. Ask the developer some probing questions about the most important parts of the project. You will very likely discover some assumptions that you or the developer are making. Get some interesting or useful work output from the developer as early as possible. Use Instant Messaging for Communicating at the initial stages Instant Messaging makes remote workers feel as if they’re in the office. It’s faster and more intimate than email and allows you to track and transcribe exchanges. It’s also best for immediate feedback, quick question-and-answer exchanges and other important discussions. Again, only important matters be discussed over the messenger during the project period or before the beginning an important phase of the project. Have regular goal-oriented communication sessions scheduled with the developer and the project manager. However, it is always recommended that you send your suggestions, ideas and views through email, as you can be express yourself in a much better and free way and discuss the same over IMs. On a personal level, you must try and gain certain information about the Developers. For example, send across an e-card to wish him on his birthday or on his marriage anniversary. It is similar to treating him like an employee in your own office. This will motivate him and make him feel like a part of your family, after all, he is working for you as your employee! Proper Expectation Setting This is the most common mistake people new to software projects make. Unreasonable expectations lead to despair and failure. Most of us just give away a few general ideas about what we want, then sit back and wait for the finished product. Result: unsatisfactory projects. You need to put time and effort into managing the project to get exactly what you want. Hiring a developer is not “fire and forget” methodology. To succeed, you need to be involved in the process. You must be prepared, determined, and flexible. You should first ask the developer to work on at least one small project you want to be done. This allows you to learn the ropes on a project you fully understand. It also frees your time for other more important or more profitable tasks! Understanding The Cultural & Language Differences Most of us believe that there’s no need to be concerned with culture or language differences that exists during outsourcing. But we must understand that cultural differences can appear in any function. Acceptable user interfaces may have a different look and feel from one society to another. Colors and sentence structure may differ just enough to draw the user’s attention. When business processes are outsourced, cultural differences are even more pronounced. For example, the way the developers answer your queries, how they interpret the complaints of irate customers, and how they try to add humor to the conversation may all be driven or affected by local culture. For example, a message that is written by a well-intentioned customer to his client in

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Thank you Scott for having faith in us!

September 21, 2007

We have recently completed a website http://www.chivaroli.com This is what Scott has to say about the project and his relationship with Indus Net Technologies – Thank you.  Quote: “I have used Indus Net Technologies for several projects. They are always professional, courteous and understanding of my needs. On our last project, a complete redesign of a website, it took us months to get the content to them. With patience they waited for us until we were ready. Then we had several changes that were completed by Indus Net without hesitation. I work with several outsourcing companies in India and Indusnet Technologies is always on the top of my list.” Scott E. Palmquist What can I say? A BIG Thank you to Scott for having faith in us. We existance is due to well-wishers and partners like you. Abhishek   

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Indus Net Technologies re-affirm its credibility through Paypal Reputation Numbers

August 9, 2007

Today, Indus Net Technologies reached another milestone. We have reached 1000+ Reputation Number (Seller) at Paypal. What are these Reputation Numbers? Here is a mini guide directly from Paypal.com Reputation Numbers are a new feature developed to help PayPal members better evaluate the person or business with whom they are transacting. The feature measures how active a member has been within the PayPal community by showing the number of unique Verified PayPal members with whom they have transacted. Reputation Numbers are an indicator of trustworthiness because members who have completed transactions with many other Verified PayPal members over time are unlikely to have been participating in fraudulent transactions. This is because members who have completed transactions with lots of other Verified PayPal members over time are unlikely to have been participating in fraudulent transactions, as such activity would result in the member being removed from PayPal. So why is this important to you as a customer or a prospective customer? This simply means that you are dealing with a trustworthy IT partner who is not a fly-by-night operator and your money is safe here. We have build up this reputation by keeping a simple philosophy of “delivering value for our customers’ money”. We make our commitments, our policy known in advance and follow the same in a transparent way. If you do not get value from us as per our initial agreement, you get your money back! Another thing. When we told several prospective customers that we have served more than thousand customers, they found it difficult to believe. I am sure this will not be the case anymore as our claim is backed up by a third party data who processes a part of our payment. I understand, it is difficult to trust a company in a different country, especially when the relationship is entirely based on digital communication channels like email, voice and document exchanges. It is very easy to misrepresent and lie about one’s infrastructure, capabilities, resources and client base. This results in many companies been taken for a ride by several offshore outsourcing companies from hot outsourcing destinations like India, Brazil, etc. The problem multiplies for small businesses because they do not have means to verify credibility and capabilities of these outsourcing companies. We are trying to solve it for our customers in our own way. We continue to host more and more clients in Kolkata to see them around our facilities, have them meet our team members, our vendors and show them our way of doing things. If you are interested in visiting our facility, please do not hesitate to contact your Account Manager at Indus Net Technologies. Dear Customers – I will like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for showing your trust in a company which did not have this “credibility landmark” before today. You have helped us in building Indus Net Technologies. This landmark is dedicated to you all!  

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Indus Net Technologies moves into new office in Chennai

June 15, 2007

Indus Net Technologies Chennai development center is moving to a new location! This ppremises can accomodate upto forty professionals. It is much more comfortable, reachable (in the heart of Chennai) and has great interiors. It is also equipped with a conference room and a seperate server room which was much awaited! I wish everyone at Chennai Development Center on this great achievement! Now we are actively looking to hire more PHP / MySQL programmers for our Chennai Development Center. If you know anyone who might be interested, kindly ask him/her to be in touch with us at hr@indusnet.co.in today. I will post pictures of the new office soon.  

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Indus Net Technologies incorporated in United Kingdom

March 28, 2007

Since 1997, Indus Net Technologies has been an online service provider. Our delivery and communication model has always been around internet tools such as FTP, Email, Instant Messangers. This helped us in keeping our costs down and we always passed on the benefit to our customers.   However we always felt that we could have delivered more value to our discerning customers if we were closer to them. Few advantages we see of face to face meetings are: Better understanding of your business and project Indepth technical and business consultancy to deliver comprehensive know-how and options that you have to get maximum benefit from Internet Assistance in project management Comfort of interactive discussion in real time which can cut down on timeline for a project Comfort of getting in touch with us immediately in case of an urgent requirement Regular update and a better suited website maintenance service This initiated us to take a decision to go closer to our customers and make bigger positive impact on their businesses. On March 20th 2007, we formed our first overseas business unit in United Kingdom as Indus Net Technologies Private Limited. This is a 100% owned subsidiary of Indus Net Technologies which is an India based company. Our company number is 6174001. You can check our incorporation here. We have already appointed our bankers and accountancy/audit firm. We are in process of setting up a fully operational office at this point, which should be in place by first week of May 2007. I will keep you informed of the latest developments. Feel free to suggest how you will like our local subsidiary to make things better for you. Looking forward to serve you and make your business grow. Abhishek Rungta

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Indus Net Technologies at CeBIT 2007

March 9, 2007

Indus Net Technologies will be participating in CeBIT as an exhibitor along with the Govt. of West Bengal under the “Advantage Bengal” campaign at CeBIT 2007 in Hannover between 15th March and 21st March 2007. You can meet me in person on 16th, 17th and 18th March during exhibition hours in Hall No. 8, booth Nos. C-6 & C-7. You can also email me at talash@indusnet.co.in to set up a 1-2-1 meeting during off-exhibition hours. We will be presenting our capabilities as a premium offshore / nearshore outsourcing partner for Internet services like web design, open-source programming (specially PHP programming) and Internet marketing. More than 1700 small, mid and large-sized companies are enjoying the Indus Net advantage. If you want to discuss how our 175+ workforce can make your life easier by taking care of your Internet strategy, drop in for a discussion. If you are an Indus Net Technologies customer feel free to drop in for a chat. I look forward to see you all! Abhishek Rungta Founder / CEO

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Why build open-source software?

January 17, 2007

What incentive does a commercial organization have to build an open-source software? Why will a programmer spend time and effort in contributing to any open-source product? These are some questions that we tend to avoid. We are an open-source web development company. Each day of our company is spent working with PHP/MySQL/Apache and Linux. These are all very powerful open-source products. We generate revenue by creating application based on these platform or co-opting them in commercial projects or by customizing an open-source product to individual business needs. But, what is the economic benefit for the programmers who created these applications or extend them continuously? I recently came across an article from Harvard Business School – Working Knowledge that answered some on these questions. Benefit to a ProgrammerA programmer will volunteer for a project only when they see a “net benefit” in doing so. “Net benefit” consists both of monetary benefits (immediate benefits) and non-monetary benefits (or delayed benefits). Monetary benefits are easy to visualize if the programmer is working on a commercial project. It will normally include things like Salary and Bonuses. Non-monetary benefits the author says, consists of improved chances of receiving future job offers, shares in commercial open-source, access to venture capital and ego gratification (my personal favorite). The group of programmers working on an open-source also share very strong alumni relationship with each other and will be available to help in future. In a commercially created program, outsiders can’t really tell who did what. Open source is different. As Lerner and Tirole write, “Outsiders are able to see not only what the contribution of each individual was and whether that component ‘worked,’ but also whether the task was hard, if the problem was addressed in a clever way, whether the code can be useful for other  programming tasks in the future,” and so on. Thus, a programmer can prove that he is competent and his career prospect greatly increases. The commercial world will offer an opportunity only when capability and credential have already been established, whereas the open-source world offers an opportunity to establish that credibility in the first place. The full working paper can be accessed from here. It seems that all that notion of altruistic programmer is not entirely true and it simply may be a gateway to enter into the commercial world.

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Selecting a CMMi consulting partner

December 29, 2006

At Indus Net Technologies, we have been internally discussing about implementing a more software specific Quality Management system (QMS) since 2004. Capability Maturity Model (CMM) from Software Engineering Institute (SEI) of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) was on top of our mind as this is a standard quality process followed by all the top offshore service providers. We started talking to several consultants who can help us in process improvement in a way that it helps us in delivering better quality software to our clients and also benefit Indus Net Technologies by bringing about a much more disciplined way of writing software. The first thing was to allocate a budget for the whole initiative. If you go by book, it sounds like a big investment because most of the consultancies quoted us around $20K to $35K for their services. However, on closer examination it was clear that the actual cost of “unaccounted” expenses that are supposed to go behind the scene is at least 3-4 times of the consulting fees. And the best part of it is that majority of the expense is an ongoing expense. It soon became clear that we cannot move in this direction unless we have a set allocated budget of our annual revenue (which we cannot compromise under any circumstances) to go towards our quality management processes, the whole effort will be futile and will not evolve as we expect. The biggest challenge was to make sure that the company can continuously afford the cost year on year! This whole thing delayed our initiative till mid 2006, when we found that we are ready for SEI CMM model. The next question was the level that we should target. I had an idea that if the sponsoring organization wants, they can opt for the highest level i.e. Level 5 and achieve that. However the picture became very clear when we spoke to few reputed consultants – all of them spoke that the realistic goal is to achieve Level 3. So the goal for 2007 was set to SEI CMM Level 3. Now, I was facing the toughest question – Which consultant to opt for? All the agencies are so different in their construct, approach, merits and demerits that the entire analysis leaves you puzzled. Add on – a bad headache at the end of the day. One consultant is providing a very personalized service with a hands-on approach while some have the top consultants who will provide best practices from their experience in several organizations. One consultant was known to almost everyone, whereas the other one was not even known to my peer companies! One consultant will tailor training for individual employees and do 1-2-1 session to make sure that they understand the concepts well, whereas the other one has great trainers and one of the best quality training materials in the industry. The call is a tough one! As of 29th December, I am still pondering about my choices and doing a detailed analysis. I am sitting and mapping these organizations with Indus Net Technologies and trying to find the best match. We will collectively take a call on 31st December and sign up our partner for our journey into CMMi. Will definitely keep you updated. Abhishek

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Different Models of Outsourcing

Different models of Outsourcing

December 29, 2006

I was thinking earlier today that I have been talking about outsourcing but I have not covered what are the different models of outsourcing that are available to a business when its finally ready to grow. Lets talk about that today. Basically, when you are thinking about outsourcing, you have two fundamental models i.e. Onsite Outsourcing and Offshore Outsourcing. Onsite OutsourcingIn this model the design, development and testing teams are allocated on the clients location directly for a particular period of time. This model is particularly useful when: 1. You need access to very specialized skill 2. The nature of the project is very confidential 3. Support is needed on a constant basis4. Requirements are not defined clearly or they change dynamically Savings: LowOffshore OutsourcingIn this model the entire SDLC is executed at suppliers premises which can be located in geographically different location (typically in lower cost countries). In this model the communication is carried out by digital channels such as Phone, Email, Messengers, Video Conferences etc i.e. physical meeting is occasional if at all present. This model is used when: 1. You want to “Follow the Sun“2. Lower the costs significantly3. Have adequately defined requirements Savings: High Apart from the above fundamental models of outsourcing, there are several hybrid models. They have been discussed below: Model 1: Offsite Outsourcing In this model the supplier is located not inside your location but somewhere near it. This model allows physical interaction with the supplier when required. This model is ideally suited when: 1. The project is of shorter duration 2. Your office does not have the excess capacity to accommodate the suppliers team 3. The requirements of the project does not change very frequently. Savings: LowModel 2: Hybrid Model of OutsourcingThis model offers you the best of both worlds by separating various steps in SDLC into different locations. This model is typically offered by suppliers who have onsite office as well as an offshore development centre. The client is supported locally by a coordinator who in turns interacts with an offshore project manager. In this model activities like requirement analysis, high level design, acceptance testing and deployment is done onsite where are development, detailed design and testing is done offshore. Savings: Moderate

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