The Opportunity

We both know that you can save a lot of money and get excellent results from outsourcing. There are companies that have very successfully outsourced information technology, customer service, manufacturing, or even whole business processes.  We also know that anything that can be done well can also be done badly.

These nine ways to fail can be applied to outsourcing around the globe, “offshoring,” “nearshoring,” “homesourcing” or any other arrangement that involves remote workers.

The Solution

The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.

-Bill Gates, Microsoft

The same is true of outsourcing.

If you outsource something that should be eliminated or automated, you are just paying someone else to be inefficient instead of doing it yourself.
Since it¹s sometimes easier (and more fun) to remember what you shouldn’t do than what you should, here’s our tongue-in-cheek list:

1)   Expect your Offshore Team to Read Your Mind

Your offshore team may be incredibly perceptive, savvy and intelligent, but the most common error when working with offshore teams is making the assumption that they know exactly what you want when you haven¹t been specific enough.   There have been many, many times when I have gotten PRECISELY what I asked for from an offshore team or assistant but then realized that what I asked for and what I wanted were two very different things.

2)   Don¹t Bother With Documentation

Many people working with offshore teams don¹t bother with documentation. They don’t specifically write out document requirements and expectations, or relying on a sketchy series of emails or IM conversations.  This is the second biggest cause of failure because if it¹s not written down, you can’t be sure it was communicated.   Emails sometimes get lost in spam filters, IM conversations can be ephemeral and aren’t always considered thoughtfully and saved for future consideration as a document would be.

3)   Speak Informally and Imprecisely

Using slang, adjectives or imprecise language can lead to some very, very different interpretations. You may be surprised at what you get, and it probably won¹t be in a good way.

4)   Don’t Ask Them Any Questions

Many outsourcing managers do way too much talking and too little listening when conversing with their offshore teams. They never bother to ask if everything is clear, or else they accept a brief affirmative rather than a detailed restatement of what is expected.  Encouraging questions and clarifications and making sure that everything is clear is worth the extra time and effort.

5)   Don’t Adjust for Different Schedules

Besides the day and night difference, there are different holidays and different working styles in India than there are here. Many outsourcing firms go out of their way to accommodate Western scheduling, but it is still very likely (and reasonable to expect) that employees would like to spend holidays with their families.

6)   Don’t Bother Checking In Until the Deadline

This always leads to interesting discoveries- like that you forgot to specify that a shopping cart should be connected to a bank account, or that many words in the UI are spelled in British-English rather than American-English!  And whose fault might that be if these things were not documented? (See item 2)

7)   Don’t have a Plan B

Having your entire business riding on a deliverable from someone halfway around the world is not a bad idea in itself, but one must plan for contingencies even when working with domestic teams.  You never know when someone will misunderstand a key instruction, come down with a virus and be unable to work, or will have some kind of communication failure due to weather or some other factor outside their control.

8)   Make it Harder for Your Customers to Get Service

Don¹t outsource your entire operation if your Unique Selling Proposition is neighborly service with representatives that they know and love. Finding out that Nancy from down the street has been replaced with someone in a city they¹ve never heard of that may keep strange hours or have a strange accent is not going to win points with your more conservative customer base.

Consider keeping onshore staff for customer interaction, It¹s probably worth the expense if it¹s one of the hallmarks of your business.

9)   Don’t Bother to Visit

Many people that outsource work never visit the teams that they¹re outsourcing work to.  Communication, teamwork, and respect all increase many times over with even one personal visit.   Whether you¹re working with someone from across the street, across the country or across the world, it’s so much easier to converse with someone after you’ve sat across a table and had a meal with them. It’s easier to understand someone if you know their voice patterns and mannerisms.  And it’s much more pleasant to work with people when you know something about them as a person, rather than just as a cog in your business process.

Conclusion

These are the top nine of MANY ways to mess up the management of any outsourcing arrangement.  These nine ways can also mess up the management of teams in the same building, but to different degrees.    Outsourcing just makes bad management more obvious.

You¹ll find that outsourcing parts of your business can be a very good business move, but doing it badly can be the worst mistake you’ll ever make.