How to choose the right IT Offshore country?
Choosing an IT Offshore country is a strategic decision for a company that wants to outsource IT development or IT operations to an offshore country. However, it is often seen that there is too little focus on selection of the country. It is often more a random contact with a supplier or a specific need of a specific job. That is a mistake – one of the big ones!
Although the savings are often immediate, an offshore engagement should be seen as a long-term collaboration and the assessment of the country should of course match this.
In the assessment, one should look at both macro and micro conditions and compare the results against the scope and time outlook of the expected engagement. The professional offshore partner should help to structure the strategy of the corporation and, provide an objective assessment of the country as a whole.
Together with other external assessments and the company’s own, it is thus possible to obtain sufficient basis for decision-making without having to dedicate a lot of resources to the work. However, the analysis is important and may prove essential to the overall yield. Of course, there are a number of relevant matters that are company or task specific, but there are also a number of general conditions that must be assessed in all cases.
The general stability of the country: Often, IT Offshore countries are located in regions with less security and / or economic stability than we know from Europe or GCC. An assessment of the security situation is therefore important to ensure contingency in the activity and to ensure that the onshore employees are free to, and not least want to, travel to the country.
The economic stability of the offshore country is of great importance, as the economic development in several countries means that the immediate economic advantage is quickly reduced by inflation and subsequent wage increases.
Pool of talent: One of the crucial benefits of using IT Offshore is that there is often greater access to highly educated, well-qualified and highly motivated employees. Therefore, it is also essential to ensure that there will also be a solid recruitment base going forward.
Business culture: It is important to understand each other on the business level. Unfortunately too many good opportunities are wasted in all industries when the business cultures are too far apart from each other.
Cultural readiness and openness: Just as the business culture is absolutely essential and a right choice here can save you many challenges later. The national culture is and must be different, but it is important that there is an openness and readiness in both the onshore organization and among offshore employees.
Language skills: Good language skills are essential in order to be able to communicate quickly and easily. The language skills can vary a lot and there can be great variation between the oral and the written competencies. However, it should also be mentioned here that European and GCC employees also often are the ones who do not have the perfect language skills.
Time Zone Issues: Many things can be done through education and organizing, but the geography is firm. Therefore, the time zone is very important to keep in mind before choosing an offshore destination. A few hours in time difference is normally not a problem. But if you only have a few hours or no overlap compared to a normal European or GCC working day, this will suddenly be a challenge for the organization as employees will have to work at different working hours in order to cooperate with the offshore location.
Transport time: Although a professional offshore setup includes professional web conferencing systems etc. there will still be a need to travel to the offshore destination sometimes hence the transport time is important.
A.T. Kearney made a thorough analysis of offshore countries called “The new factor impacting location attractiveness 2019 Global Service Location Index (GSLI)”.
We, at CrossWorkers are of cause happy to state that our ODC country Egypt (Cairo) is in a good spot, especially because the time zone and travel problem has not been a part of the assessment made by A.T Kearney as the analysis is worldwide. Cairo’s short travel distance to both Europe and GCC, and the fact that they almost are in the same time zones makes Cairo a great spot for both European and GCC customers.
The analysis can be found at https://www.kearney.com/digital-transformation/gsli
If you want to learn more about what CrossWorkers can offer you please do not hesitate to contact us.
Egypt as an IT outsourcing destination
How we recruit IT personnel for our clients
How to choose the right IT Offshore country?
Choosing an IT Offshore country is a strategic decision for a company that wants to outsource IT development or IT operations to an offshore country. However, it is often seen that there is too little focus on selection of the country. It is often more a random contact with a supplier or a specific need of a specific job. That is a mistake – one of the big ones!
Although the savings are often immediate, an offshore engagement should be seen as a long-term collaboration and the assessment of the country should of course match this.
In the assessment, one should look at both macro and micro conditions and compare the results against the scope and time outlook of the expected engagement. The professional offshore partner should help to structure the strategy of the corporation and, provide an objective assessment of the country as a whole.
Together with other external assessments and the company’s own, it is thus possible to obtain sufficient basis for decision-making without having to dedicate a lot of resources to the work. However, the analysis is important and may prove essential to the overall yield. Of course, there are a number of relevant matters that are company or task specific, but there are also a number of general conditions that must be assessed in all cases.
The general stability of the country: Often, IT Offshore countries are located in regions with less security and / or economic stability than we know from Europe or GCC. An assessment of the security situation is therefore important to ensure contingency in the activity and to ensure that the onshore employees are free to, and not least want to, travel to the country.
The economic stability of the offshore country is of great importance, as the economic development in several countries means that the immediate economic advantage is quickly reduced by inflation and subsequent wage increases.
Pool of talent: One of the crucial benefits of using IT Offshore is that there is often greater access to highly educated, well-qualified and highly motivated employees. Therefore, it is also essential to ensure that there will also be a solid recruitment base going forward.
Business culture: It is important to understand each other on the business level. Unfortunately too many good opportunities are wasted in all industries when the business cultures are too far apart from each other.
Cultural readiness and openness: Just as the business culture is absolutely essential and a right choice here can save you many challenges later. The national culture is and must be different, but it is important that there is an openness and readiness in both the onshore organization and among offshore employees.
Language skills: Good language skills are essential in order to be able to communicate quickly and easily. The language skills can vary a lot and there can be great variation between the oral and the written competencies. However, it should also be mentioned here that European and GCC employees also often are the ones who do not have the perfect language skills.
Time Zone Issues: Many things can be done through education and organizing, but the geography is firm. Therefore, the time zone is very important to keep in mind before choosing an offshore destination. A few hours in time difference is normally not a problem. But if you only have a few hours or no overlap compared to a normal European or GCC working day, this will suddenly be a challenge for the organization as employees will have to work at different working hours in order to cooperate with the offshore location.
Transport time: Although a professional offshore setup includes professional web conferencing systems etc. there will still be a need to travel to the offshore destination sometimes hence the transport time is important.
A.T. Kearney made a thorough analysis of offshore countries called “The new factor impacting location attractiveness 2019 Global Service Location Index (GSLI)”.
We, at CrossWorkers are of cause happy to state that our ODC country Egypt (Cairo) is in a good spot, especially because the time zone and travel problem has not been a part of the assessment made by A.T Kearney as the analysis is worldwide. Cairo’s short travel distance to both Europe and GCC, and the fact that they almost are in the same time zones makes Cairo a great spot for both European and GCC customers.
The analysis can be found at https://www.kearney.com/digital-transformation/gsli
If you want to learn more about what CrossWorkers can offer you please do not hesitate to contact us.
Egypt as an IT outsourcing destination
How we recruit IT personnel for our clients
Phone: (+45) 70 27 20 40 E-mail: info@crossworkers.com
Telefon: (+45) 70 27 20 40
E-mail: info@crossworkers.com
