As per business wires report:
“The global IT outsourcing market was valued at USD 318.5 billion in 2020, and it is expected to reach USD 425.19 billion by 2026, registering a CAGR of 4.5%, during the forecast period (2021 – 2026). – Source: https://www.researchandmarkets.com/
With the increasing demand of cloud migrations and options of cloud services, IT outsourcing has become more than a simple cost reduction technique.
This new form of business is driven by organizational motivations in terms of business growth, customer experience, and competitive disruption.”
- 82% of the Indian outsourcing companies plan to increase their tech headcount in the coming years as per the 2017 Asia Pacific Occupier Survey Report.
- The cost of outsourcing to India is far less when compared to developed countries. One can get developers at an average of $25 in India.
- India ranks first in the list of countries with the highest ISO-9000 certified software companies and even houses over 75% of the world’s CMM Level 5 certified companies.
- India is second only to the US in the list of largest English-speaking countries, eliminating any communication barriers.
Source: https://fortunly.com/statistics/outsourcing-statistics#gref
A large chunk of these is into either offshoring, insourcing & moving the internal operations to a Insource vendor in India like INSOURCEINDIA. Foreign SMB companies too have been quick to seize such offshoring opportunities.
Once you have taken the decision to outsource activities, then the question that naturally arises is: How do you get the best results & productivity from an offshore remote team? & How to manage the team?
Here are a few proven ways to work with offshore teams smoothly:
- Share Your Vision & Goals from the Start
You should treat your remote partners as key allies who will help you meet your final goals. Build long term goals and objectives. Once the team understands your goals and objectives you need to share the full vision before they start working on the project. Tell them why you want to build, what functions you want, what specifications you want, and when you are expecting it to be developed and delivered. Define the expectations, assign tasks & track performances by benchmarks & measuring standards.
Create project milestones to manage team performance. This allows them to think and work creatively with innovation and efficiency to provide their best.
- Keep Communication Simple and Communicate Frequently
Communication is the key to get things done when it comes to offshoring. When you are working with internal stake holders and your team, it is often easy to discuss and have face to face talks. But for communication & collaboration with your offshore team, you must rely a lot on technology which are available to facilitate communication and collaboration.
Some of them are:
- Slack
- Basecamp
- Skype
- Zoom
- Microsoft Teams
Also, tools like Jira help simplify project management. Jira provides both planning and analytical features which allows you to set goals & track progress. Best way to understand if the offshore team gets a clear communication is to double check with them if they have understood and have them explain it back to you.
Differences in time-zones pose as a great challenge for an offshore development team. Identifying the ideal time where there are overlapping hours when you are working and the offshore team would help overcome time zone challenges. The end of the shift in India may overlap with the start of the shift in the USA. Well, if you think in the other way, time-zone differences provide an advantage of continuous productivity. With shared calendars, specific requirements, and priority on tasks, you can overcome the time difference. Having a regularly scheduled time for all members of the team to chat through video also helps build a sense of belonging.
- Understand each other’s Culture
It is important for you to understand the offshore team’s culture & it is always good to research about them, understand the heritage, history & Customs. The internet has a plethora of knowledge on this subject. Learn about the offshore teams work culture and also try to make your offshore team aware about your own culture. This will reduce the chances of conflict between the two teams and will help avoid business missteps.
- Avoid Micromanaging your offshore team
If you try to micromanage the work of your offshore team while sitting in your office, this will directly lead to annoyance among the employees.
Micromanagement is considered a negative practice which eventually results in the breakdown of trust between the employees and the employer. This loss of trust can have negative impact to productivity. Micromanaged employees think that they lack freedom and autonomy. This prevents them from thinking creatively and innovatively.
Appoint a project manager or a Lead who could coordinate between both teams and make best use of his / her team handling and management practices to achieve fruitful results.
- Annually visit offshore locations.
One challenge of managing remote teams is helping them feel connected to your company. Making an appearance and visiting the offshore facility atleast once a year or half yearly strengthens the connection and brings team members together. Visiting your offshore location periodically is a very good idea & preparing a get together for your team would definitely boost up their morale. Your Monthly, Quarterly, or annual visits could help strengthen the relationship between you & your offshore staff. It is also a great opportunity to do strategic planning, Breakouts, Brain storming sessions & Ideation with your team and get to know more about your people.
Your offshore team are not different from your onshore team as all want to learn & grow, to have a sense of purpose & belonging, to feel that they are contributing to something big, and to write great code. We hope these proven ways to work help you work with offshore teams smoothly.
If you are looking to BUILD YOUR OFFSHORE TEAM:
InsourceIndia will help build your own dedicated offshore team in India so that you can focus on your core business. We take care of everything – Setting up your team, workspace, payroll, compliance, hardware, software etc. You will have direct control on what your team works on every day, everything else is managed by us.
