Have you used an outsourcing company??

[cd34]

I've used a few outsourcing companies in the last few years. The problem has always been communications related. Either in the work document or even the lack of English being a primary language. I currently have two employees that I have hired, one in Poland, one near me and the issue I still find, no matter what the distance is:

If you cannot see the people face to face, you are adding a communications barrier. Unless you are an excellent technical writer, or can convey exactly what you need, whether you outsource or hire contractors, you will have some communications issues. Language barriers further compound the issue.

However, that's not to be said that there aren't good outsourcing firms out there. One competitor of mine outsources online technical support to an Indian firm and after going through 7 companies, has found one that is rather decent. Another competitor of mine outsources programming, and flies to India once a month to coordinate. They have had rather good luck with that company, but again, they are constantly dealing with issues on a daily basis to keep up. I think they are saving money in the short run. I don't know whether they are outsourcing the maintenance of the application or not.

As for web design, I believe there are facets of this that can be outsourced, IF you can provide enough guidance. Same with programming. If you have tight enough constraints, it can work.

The biggest problem I've seen, and I've been called in to fix a few Project Management fiasco's with outsourcers, is, things progress too far before there is a checkpoint. A misunderstanding or miscommunication that takes place three weeks ago results in a lot of wasted effort.

However, I have yet to see an outsourcing firm that has ever turned down a project regardless of their technical capabilities. If you're going to outsource, check with some other people to see what their experience has been.

Personally, I've not had enough good experiences that the upfront cost savings is worth the effort. And I'm finding that even with my employees, having face to face time is very important to convey ideas and draw pictures (since my web drawing skills suck). I'm extremely lucky that my guy in Poland and I communicate quite well -- that's not to say there haven't been difficulties, but, in the long run, I can tell him what I want and it gets done.