Outsourcing Guide

The World is Your Outsourcing Oyster

People outsource all sorts; from software development, graphic design, website design and internet research, to administration, help desk, accounting, animation and that funny video messages as a gift for a friend. Outsourcing can actually be a whole lot cheaper and better than most people would think possible.

In fact you could pretty much outsource your whole life, and some people do, using a competent and Uber efficient remote personal assistant that does everything from booking dinner reservations and ordering flowers to corresponding with suppliers, answering emails, and more. All done cheaper, faster and better than they would have done themselves, freeing them up to focus on important decision making or business critical activities, or just reclaiming more down time with their loved ones.

To the uninitiated, outsourcing may just seem to be a fancy way of saying getting someone else to do stuff, and on a basic level it is. And it can certainly free you up to focus on other things that are more important or fun. But there are a whole bunch of issues that you may have to address before you commit to outsourcing something important, particularly things that are technical or business critical. For example; are there any security issues involving the personal data of customers or staff? Are there legitimate concerns about protecting special business knowledge from falling into a competitor’s hands? Is the proposed task mission critical in some way or is their a deadline for the task that might crucially affect your business?

Of course there are plenty of situations where all of those concerns might be irrelevant or at least acceptably managed without much trouble. But you certainly need to stop and ask yourself to what degree that is true before jumping in with both feet.

It’s worth mentioning that there is no guarantee that those issues wouldn’t be present if you did things yourself or if you use a directly employed staff member in house. We should always try to be appropriately diligent in identifying, mitigating, managing and consciously accepting risk anyway.

Outsourcing does pose specific challenges though, because by definition you probably don’t have the same long term relationship or knowledge of the people who might be doing the work. So how can you approach the outsourcing option sensibly? The following basic guide is designed to get you thinking along the right lines and hopefully build your courage and enthusiasm for outsourcing. Of course you’ll need to ramp up or tone down the detail as appropriate for your own proposed project;

A Basic Outsourcing Guide;

1. Feasibility; This is where you try to form an opinion as to whether there is a reasonable expectation that you can get what you need to get done at level you need to get it done in the time you need to get it done at the price you want to pay, all with the safeguards and backup plan B that ensures you are not over exposed to bad consequence.
2. Draw up a brief; this is usually the basis for initial dialogues with a prospective freelancer or outsourcing team. In reality this often tends to be an iterative process and the right freelancer may be able to refine this with you and give you options you hadn’t thought of. But the clearer you can be at least in your own mind about what you are trying to accomplish the better. You need to initially focus not on technical aspects but on the goals you need to achieve. This is sometimes described in terms of focusing on the ‘business case’ so that the technical aspects don’t end up being the tail wagging the dog.
3. Find prospective outsourcers that are up to the task and establish in detail how they would technically go about fulfilling the brief. Different outsourcers may be able to offer different options that each represent value for you in their own way; for example speed of delivery, particular software language implementation, additional features or services, materials produced to a higher level of written language, an expectation of a superior quality result in other ways, or just plain cheaper.
4. Thrash out sufficiently detailed technical specifications with your chosen outsourcer. It’s no good both sides politely nodding at each other. There is usually a need to establish appropriate interim deadlines for signing off on work at agreed levels of quality and staggered payments. The difference between core deliverables that cannot be missed out and other items that are desirable to include as time-scales and budget permit should be made clear. There may be a well meaning expectation on all sides that all sorts of things will be possible at the start of a project, but stuff happens and it needs to be clear what can slip and end up on your list of ‘future work’ and what absolutely needs to be in the current version within the currently agreed timetable. It may seem overly detailed and almost unfriendly to go to such lengths but any freelancer worth their salt will practically insist on these things anyway because they’ll know that unspoken expectations and assumptions are no good for anyone. Unnecessary disagreements, misunderstandings and disappointments can and should be avoided from the start by such clear and professional communication and, you never know, you may be forging a truly priceless partnership that lasts for many projects in the future based on mutual respect and trust.

Various templates and guides for setting up briefs and technical specifications and guidance on how to navigate through the whole outsourcing process are available. Of course you can always outsource management of your outsourcing needs to an appropriately capable freelancer or agency, which can be a less stressful way of getting your feet wet with outsourcing and can actually save you time and money while getting you a better quality result.

Established sites that provide a transparent environment for customers and freelancers of all sorts include peopleperhour, elance and fiverr.