Outsourcing is useful for owners to focus on business processes
She/he can then concentrate on business
However, the path of outsourcing is not straightforward.
Be careful of these 7 Pitfalls
- Outsourcing on a leash
Be conscious that Outsourcing would require you to give up a certain level of control. The lines defining the start and end points of your outsourcing processes need to be clearly delineated so your teams and your outsourcing partners’ teams can work independently of each other.
- Hiding behind a veil
Agree on the level of transparency you require of your Outsourcing partner and provide the needed level of transparency they need to complete your project. To protect yourself from breaches of confidentiality, make sure that your relationship is covered by a mutual Non-disclosure Agreement.
- One timeline treatment
For monitoring the progress. different kinds of projects require different kinds of treatment. Projects that require more than a few days to complete should have regular checkpoints between you and your partner
- Squeeze-planning
Avoiding a disaster – use best-case turnaround times to plan for outsourced work. Always provide reasonable time budgets and include time for checkpoint meetings and quality reviews.
- Tin can communication
Communication between client and/or, partner that is neither planned for nor timely can result in minor issues getting out-of-hand. To avoid this unnecessary problem, clients and their partners logging in on Skype and/or Zoom sessions at an agreed regular schedule.
- Fools rush in
Not vetting out a prospective partner before outsourcing work is a risky proposition. Do a background check on your candidates, review their case studies, or request to be introduced to a few clients so you can directly ask for client feedback.
- Money matters
Not having a clearly documented commercial agreement can result in unexpected and unbudgetted costs. Always define your costs and document your agreed terms of payment explicitly. One way to manage commercial arrangements is to agree on separate billings for services and other cost items (e.g. digital assets). Cost items outside of agreed services should be pre-approved by clients before being incurred.
Suresh Shah, Pathfinders Enterprise
My thoughts in writing above, were highly influenced by thought provoking writes from Ia, a sales & marketing strategist managing director of StraightArrow and a great believer in the service called Creative Process Outsourcing.