Frankfurt airport departure lounge. Full of western tech executives, each with an open laptop. They're all from different companies, all travelling separately. But one particular subject is making them feel like they're old college buddies, and they're networking like a swarm of honeybees.
"So, you've just been to Bangalore, have you?"
"Is it everything it's cracked up to be?"
"Is there still room there for new customers?
"Did you find a good deal? Did you close?"
"Are they shrewd business people?"
"How do you know that your new-found service provider is reliable?
The fact is that as far as outsourcing goes, India is (at present) akin to paradise. Those who have gone before talk about golden fruit hanging from the trees, about how they plucked that fruit and about how that fruit imbued their balance sheets with enhanced flavour.
If you haven't already outsourced your non-critical operations to India, you had better move your tail and do it fast, else your competition, who likely has a back-office operation in Bangalore, is going to eat you alive.
If you are a mid-size company you will also have to make an 'outsourcer's trip' to India, and here in Part I of this article we describe the preparations you have to make in the run-up to the trip.
Part II tells you what to do once you go out there.
There are a handful of simple prep guidelines, which, if kept in mind, will optimize the benefits accruing from your journey.
We will assume that you already have compiled a comprehensive RFP for your service requirement. This should include precise, quantified definitions of what you expect in terms of:
* Volumes
* Delivery periods
* Scaling capabilities
* Reporting norms
* Performance metrics
* RFI response times
* Service uptime
* Track record
* Disaster recovery strategy
* Problem management
* Change implementation
* Data and physical security
* anything else vital to the operations you plan to outsource.
You should also have budgeted 10% of the project cost towards project management expenditure. This is to pay for the skilled executives you will necessarily have to deploy at your end for managing the outsourcing project.
With this fundamental preparation done, invoke the omnipresent, all-knowing Internet. Put in the keywords "India", "service provider" and the name of the service you're looking for. Don't be knocked off your feet when you get hit by 200,000 results (as in the case of "CRM").
From the first 75 results, sift out the ones that are not relevant and email 50 of the remaining companies with a three-line description of your requirements. Most importantly, include an idea of the volume of work you plan to send out.
(I mention volume, because just like in any other economy, there are service providers of varying size in India. The large ones look for large customers, the mid-size for mid-size and so on. Rest assured that there will be several providers who want to deal with customers the same size as you.)
When the replies come in, eliminate prospective vendors who:
* Did not reply in 24 hours
* Did not communicate well in English
* Did not answer to the point
Now ask the survivors the following:
* How many full-time employees do they have?
* What quality control measures do they have in place?
* Do they have any certifications?
* Which application platforms do they use?
* Could they describe the largest project they have done?
Some of the addressees won't reply... good, more filtered out. To the rest, apply the same criteria as you did for the first round of replies... there go additional ones out the window!
Make firm appointments by emailing all the remaining providers and schedule your trip accordingly. This is quite easily achieved, seeing that the major cities in India (Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad) have international airports and major hotel chains operating in them.
Right, you're all set... by the way, it always helps to know someone in India well enough to ask for friendly advice before you leave and when you're there... it shouldn't be too difficult to network and find such an individual.
Now pack your bags, skedaddle over to the airport and do that international airline thang...
But before that, be sure to read Part II of this article, which you will most likely find in the same place as this part.
Meet you again in Part II, which should be available from the same place you got this part!
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