It is in our Human Nature to fear what we don’t understand or what we have never seen and felt. The fear of the unknown is very common. Outsourcing is one such concept that has never been fully understood nor fully justified. The term ‘outsourcing’ or ‘outsourced’ is at times overused and yet, not to its fullest potential.

To understand this better, earlier for weddings and birthday parties, we used to prepare all the food items at home. Now we believe in outsourcing this to caterers, so that we can invest the same time in something more important and productive. Similarly in software business, when you outsource your product development to service IT companies, you have more time and space to concentrate on business development or marketing.

With outsourcing many other words came into being, and one that is interchangeably used is Offshore Development. This is used when the outsourcing contract is given by a company to a third party in a foreign land. Outsourcing can take place in the same country as well, but would not be wise because the cost involved would be same as that borne by the outsourcer company otherwise. In such a case, the concept of offshore development does not come into play.

Over time outsourcing has attracted many eyes and ears, and so also brought forth many false tales. These tales added a fear in the minds of the prospective outsourcers. I would like to highlight a few, which cause false perceptions of outsourcing.

It was, in fact still is, believed that once a project is outsourced the control, the direction, the authority and ascendency over the same is lost to the outsource company. This is not at all true. The project is of the outsourcer and has been financed by it, so there is no question of not having authority over it.

Check out for a service provider who has a transparent work flow wherein the status of the project and its working is always under the nose of their client. With this, the provider tries to erase the next false notion of outsourcing i.e. out-of-sight means out-of-mind.

The culture followed in the west is reflected on us Goans. We are open-minded and have good communication skills. We value the work and ideas of others as our own. You need to deal with customer-centric companies that are adaptive to the culture, working style as well as work timings of the clients.

Another misconception of outsourcing is that only big projects can be outsourced and not the small ones. And that outsourcing is only for big companies. This is not correct. One has to value each and every client, value every small, big, tiny or large project.

Outsourcing was and still is synonymous with India. The clear reason is that the workforce is talented and comes as value for money. And it doesn’t take rocket science to come to figure that outsourcing is cost effective because of these savings:

• No training of employees – saves precious time and effort
• No employment costs – one does not have to spend on employees’ insurance, pension, training, grooming etc.
• The best technology is available – this means you don’t have to buy it yourself, use it to serve your purpose.
• No hardcore investment required – that cost is already borne by the outsourced company.

 Above all the outsourced company that provides software development service has to deliver a quality product. A product which stands tall in the market and makes it a brand. Choose quality over money. Something economical may not always be the best. So invest in something which will give you long term returns and always stands beside you forever.

Besides India, there are many other countries like Philippines, Poland, Costa Rica, Ireland, Czech Republic, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Malaysia, Hungary, Ukraine, Brazil and Singapore which are coming up in a big way. However India continues to charm the world because of its central location, language, communication and powerful technical talent pool.