In the last years I came across several quite competent managers at customer’s side. One team impressed me with a quite in-depth analysis what a typical user has to do in order to start a successful offshore project from scratch.
Typical steps as defined by them and where one might the necessary input were
- Typical experiences, best practices concerning offshore/nearshore services utilisation
- Definition of potentials and risk, calculation of business case
- Service provider identification and evaluation, tender process
- Implementation planning
- Legal due diligence and contract negotiation
- Internal preparation of Global Sourcing and change management
- Project and team set up, transition
- Continuous improvements, including benchmarking
Per step, those managers saw different bodies where one might get realistic and trustworthy information, e.g. offshore vendor associations, analysts, consultants etc.
Whatever topic, I personally see the best source of information actual users who are willing to share their experiences openly with other users, if need be in a very close circle or even one-to-ones.
I hereby encourage everyone to comment on his experiences how to best obtain useful insights and real help to ensure a success in Global Sourcing projects!
