Ask These 5 Questions Before Hiring An IT Outsourcing Company
Versatility, cost-effectiveness, and efficiency — hiring an IT outsourcing company can present a handful of solutions to you. But along with those come a few unique challenges as well. Through outsourcing, we entrust critical business data and operations in the hands of an outside entity. Therefore, it is important to establish trust and ground rules to achieve a successful collaboration and effective project conclusion.
Why Choose An IT Outsourcing Company For Software Development?
Outsourcing has opened a plethora of access opportunities for businesses to collaborate with software development companies with the best technologies and resource persons. It is cost-effective, time-efficient, and most importantly, ensures that your company’s robust software needs are realized without disrupting your business operations.
Small and mid-size businesses generally outsource their software development and management needs and focus hiring on core staff. Many companies that have experienced business success and growth have the solid technological support of a software development company.
We’re living in a global village. Everything and everyone is now connected through mobile and web-based applications. We communicate via instant messengers and video calling apps, store and share data via the cloud. Considering the heights of digitization, outsourcing IT operations is definitely a smart way to go. IT companies will manage data servers, technological infrastructure needs and provide tech support to businesses. These, in return, enable them to carry on with what they’re best at.
In the words of Peter Drucker, “Do what you do best, outsource the rest.” This legendary quote addresses businesses to concentrate on their forte while IT outsourcing companies handle their technical backend operations to ensure smooth business activity. Improved communication has won over the challenges in outsourcing business operations. Better facilities enable businesses to bridge their skill gap as they can access global talent by outsourcing wherever feasible. As Azim Premji of Wipro once also said, “The important thing about outsourcing or global sourcing is that it becomes a very powerful tool to leverage talent, improve productivity and reduce work cycles.”
Here’s an informative piece of writing for you to gain deeper insights on software development outsourcing. Look through the read!
5 Key Questions You Need To Ask A Software Outsourcing Company Before Hiring
I can’t emphasize this enough, but finding a reliable software development partner is of utmost importance for your business. There are some factors that must be taken into consideration while designing the firm’s IT outsourcing strategy. The business managers must have a clear vision of their expectations and ask the right questions to ensure that the IT outsourcing company is the best fit.
See, it’s easy to jump into a partnership with a firm that promises the world to you. But do your due diligence and ask the potential partner these 5 critical questions so that you can rest assured that your money will be invested for at par outcomes.
1. Do You Have Experience In Similar Work Before?
Budget is, of course, a looming criterion in the outsourcing decision-making process. However, that must not be a constraint as one will be tied to the IT outsourcing company over the long run and must be assured of the best services. Thus, the budgetary parameter must be tempered with an assurance of the IT outsourcing company’s experience.
How many projects they have handled so far, their experience with the software solutions relevant to your business, their understanding of long-term benefits of the business association — these are some key takeaways you must glean from the interview. You must also inquire about the latest tools and training provided for managing the system and the company’s data.
2. How Will You Approach Our Project?
How many resource persons will be employed? Will it be a large team, or will a small team of 6–7 people be adequate? Here you need to consider the pay rate and overall cost to the company. Take this opportunity to meet with the team leader or manager, establish grounds for communication, understand their knowledge and skill level, and see if they will be the right fit for your company.
You should also gauge the flexibility of the outsourcing partner in terms of delays, unexpected changes, and how they cooperate in the face of challenges. Understand how the outsourcing company handles uncertainties on the client-side and how prepared they are with backup plans and contingency measures in crisis.
In the case of a long-term association, you must discuss how the IT outsourcing partner will be able to serve your business as it grows and changes. How will they deploy the emerging software needs of your growing company as you hire more people, take up new projects, add new departments and functions? Your IT partner must provide a reservation for an extensible IT infrastructure. It is essential that the IT outsourcing partner must have knowledge and experience to create bespoke, scalable IT infrastructure for the company.
3. What Will The Service Level Agreement (SLA) Be?
The SLA is one of the significant factors you should prioritize while outsourcing your IT needs. In this agreement, the IT outsourcing company decodes a detailed list of support actions they will provide. It will include end-to-end program management and deliverables to the company.
On perusal of the agreement, you must have proper information on how the IT outsourcing company will take up the project, deploy the remote or on-site team, delivery dates, and quality compliance. It will provide thorough timeframes of services and the estimated time for service request response as well.
4. What Are The Security Measures From Your End?
Every IT outsourcing firm offers some data privacy and information security measures, but only the best firms maintain high-security standards. A single question, “how do you maintain and endorse your data integrity?” will give a measure of the company’s security standards. Partner with the outsourcing firm only if they can provide information on their security team, internet security protocols, and contingency plans to ensure your data is protected. [Text Wrapping Break]
Generally, IT providers offer security compliance support through their package bundles. These include incident response, firewall configuration, intrusion detection system (IDS), vulnerability patching, intrusion prevention system (IPS), etc. These default features help in protecting your hardware and data. As per your business needs, you have the right to choose security measures and ask for proper security documentation. The IT outsourcing company can give you an idea of the level of security your business may require.
5. Who Will Govern The IT Services?
There must be a foundational governance framework that will ensure accountability and understanding for your company’s team and the IT service provider’s team. It will basically define who will make specific decisions in specific scenarios.
Suppose the responses to these queries are aligned with your business interests. You are satisfied with the individuals from the IT outsourcing company with whom you will be working closely. Under these circumstances, you can go ahead with the project. With a proper system established at the beginning of the association, the process of reporting, progress tracking, and work log will be transparent and streamlined.
The Closure
When you’re hiring an IT team that you can’t meet for coffee every morning, the issues can be serious. You barely know the team, and it’s hard to trust them at first who won’t punch their employee card in your office.
So, ask questions! A good round of questions will provide you just enough insights about your future IT outsourcing partner. Show them that you’re eager to work with them if everything goes fine.
I hope you find these questions helpful in picking out the best software development outsourcing company and ensuring 0 negative surprises at the time of delivery.
Happy outsourcing!
