There are numerous new outsourcing
and offshoring issues that need to be
recognized and dealt with before a company jumps on either practice’s bandwagon.
“Company executives are always looking
for ways to lower costs and increase services delivered,” says Al Solorzano, practice
manager in Application Delivery Infrastructure at Agile360. “Outsourcing and offshoring are ways to increase efficiencies,
however, the shift to globalization isn’t
without pitfalls.”
Smart Business talked with Solorzano
for his insight on some of the things executives should consider.
What should be my first concern as I consider outsourcing and offshoring?
You have to be realistic in your expectations. Your organization must have the
infrastructure and systems in place to maximize the efficiencies expected or you will
never get the best return on your investment. In order to maximize the potential
benefits to your company, you also will
want to partner with an adviser who has
done this before who can help you think
outside the box and analyze the pitfalls on
both sides. Realize that the person or company that you are dealing with to supply
the offshore work force has more experience in this field than you have. Consequently, he or she is going to have more
experience in developing a contract.
Doesn’t it make sense for you to partner
with someone who is looking out for your
best interests?
What about security concerns?
Security is definitely an issue. You have to
consider security of data — electronic and
print — and security of communications,
with an emphasis on access rights and user
authentication methods. Along with that,
you have to think about turnover — how it
relates to security and to customer service.
Training is another issue. What systems
does your organization currently have in
place to allow new employees to learn
their tasks quickly and accurately? Are
your account provisioning systems and
security auditing tools efficient? The higher the turnover rate the offshore work
force has, the more an inefficient IT infrastructure can result in increased costs for your organization. It is also always best to
plan for more turnover than initially
expected.
How do I know what I am going to receive
from a potential supplier?
Both service-level objectives (SLO) and
service-level agreements (SLA) should be
developed. Understand which is which. An
SLO lays out what you want to accomplish
and what is needed to meet those objectives. An SLA is the agreement by the supplier of what is actually being supplied and
usually comes with financial compensation for not meeting the agreed-to terms.
An SLO is analogous to the postal service
and standard mail delivery. There are posted terms on standard mail delivery, in this
case the service-level objective. You agree
to those terms when you send standard
mail by using a stamp on your envelope. If
the postal service takes another day or two
to get the mail delivered, the postal service
does not compensate you.
However, the SLA is more analogous to a
higher-level service like next-day delivery.
You contract for a certain service and, if
the postal service misses its obligation, you
may receive a refund. In some cases, if you
don’t receive what is agreed upon, you may
even be compensated damages that
are specified in the contract. Be careful though; in our example, you could also be
liable for damages if you don’t meet your
obligations based on the contract, such as
trying to send a 10-pound package when
you only paid for a 5-pound package. Make
sure you understand your contract and
whether you have SLOs or SLAs.
Most organizations have issues supporting
local desktops, much less desktops halfway
around the world. How is this addressed?
Managing desktops is a concern, but
there are many methods to get the users
access to the applications quickly and efficiently. Centralizing your data, access
methods and applications would be the
most efficient way of getting users access
to the tools they need to perform their
work. Efficiencies are going to have to first
be internal. The more efficient the organization is, the easier it is going to be to make
the outsourced and offshore tasks efficient. The reverse is also true, but your
organization must be efficient first. To really optimize the return on your investment
in an offshore work force, your IT infrastructure must be able to adapt to changes
and scale as additional requirements are
identified or as new opportunities to out-source are identified.
What kind of technology infrastructure
should be considered to make an organization efficient?
An application delivery infrastructure
that utilizes remote display capabilities
makes the most sense. You want centralized application, centralized data and IT
control maintained by your organization.
You should also have rapid application
deployment that is adaptive to changes in
requirements while, at the same time,
keeps all data securely on your network
and does not traverse other networks.
Combine these solutions with desktop virtualization infrastructure and your organization will be ready for globalization.
Spend time with an organization that is
knowledgeable in these solutions, and you
are well on your way to achieving an efficient offshoring and outsourcing plan.
AL SOLORZANO is practice manager in Application Delivery
Infrastructure at Agile360. Reach him at (949) 253-4106 or
[email protected].