Off Shore development, is it really worth the savings?
Tags: General
A little while ago I had watched a program that reflected the change towards outsourcing, and how sites like www.freelancer.com.au and www.freelancer.com are becoming increasingly ever so popular. It got me thinking that the industry that I grew up in, and love so much, just might be over charging our clients.
I had then come across another article that shifted my views, and had got me believing back to what I had always thought. It does cost us a lot of time and effort as professionals to keep up with the likes of Search Engine Optimisation, marketing a website and the technology that we use to deliver the best results for our clients.
Now when I started to see the shift by this television programme, that our potential clients and / or customers are taking, it was like can we as a professional really compete with this type of trend for cheaper development?
On the surface one would think no. And in reality you probably shouldn't either.
So as professionals we all know about these type of sites, and we are also probably already aware that off shore programming, with the likes of India and Sri Lanka all offering very cheap services, and we are also aware that a lot of the competiveness that we as a professional have to compete with.
But the question is are the clients we don't pick up, or switch to these cheaper alternatives, really getting what they pay for?
The reality is no they don't.
From experience one of the things I know I do is think about the project, the pitfalls that it currently has, and how it can be improved over time to either ultimately improve the performance, or even eventually reduce the cost of future development.
However when a small business or even a medium business, even begins looking at the work to be done, they are more interested in the cost.The reality that I have seen in all the years I have been in the industry, is that not only do you get what you pay for, but in time the cost of the web site or application, ends up costing more during the maintenance and up keep.
I have even seen potential clients come back and say, sorry but my nephew or son has been dabbling in that stuff and can do it far cheaper than what you are charging. I do feel sorry for these type of people, and whether it is a case of me or us as professionals, not communicating other on going costs, or just that these people are just ignorant to the fact that there is more than what their nephew or son might even know.
And you know what if this is the attitude of these businesses or companies that wish to go on the cheap, then they are potentially the sort of customer that you really don't want or need. Because these are the type of people that will walk away from you to try to get the best deal, and don't care about the other things that we as professionals, already take into consideration.
With the advent of security, hacking and other scams around. I sometimes think that they either don't care, are not educated enough or just plain ignorant in thinking it just won't happen to them. Do these companies really do checks to research into these off shore companies, or do they just think that I am getting it cheaper, that's all they need or want.
In my travels of reading and watching Video Casts I did come across something very interesting, and I wonder if these business actually think about these sort of things or not, but during one Video Cast something did grab my attention.
Microsoft had once hired this off shore company to handle their call centre, and eventually had to let these people go. The reason was that this same company had been hired by criminals, to get your personal details so that they can scam money from you.
What I found interesting was that this company was not prosecuted, well at least not to my knowledge anyway. Now in this same Video Cast, a caller had mentioned that this company rings you up claiming to work or act on behalf of Microsoft and that you have a virus, I know that we have all heard about these calls and how they try to get access to our computers. However the caller on this Video Cast had gone into how he started to feel sorry for this scammer, to the point he got the scammer to eventually break down and say that he was just trying to earn a living.
The thing that scares me the most with this, is that customers that we may loose are potentially giving these people further access to more personal information, depending on the type of business.
And this is a risk as a consumer, that makes me not give a great deal of information, or even give false information to websites now. Which I know over time is going to back fire on the customers we loose, as the potential to loose visitors to the ever so cheap website that you are being asked to give your credit card details too, could be landing in the hands of criminals.
In closing I just want to say that the last couple of paragraphs is me thinking out loud, and is maybe not as much of a problem than I am describing, but the reality is that it is something that could be happening, or could eventually happen.
Off Shore development, is it really worth the savings? - http://t.co/rZfumhY1
Dec 13, 2011
Off Shore development, is it really worth the savings? http://t.co/5LR3PNts
Dec 13, 2011
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There is risk when you hire anyone abroad or local-remote or even local. However, the lack of prosecution and difficulty in bringing repercussions against these individuals makes it ripe for criminals to prosper, or at least get away with it. I knew a client who hired a cheaper developer from a small island nation and after he let him go his server was attacked and hacked several times from IP addresses from that country.
# Posted By Ben | 12/13/11 9:10 AM -
Ben, now that would not surprise me at all....
# Posted By Andrew Scott | 12/13/11 9:16 AM -
Good post Andrew I tend to agree,
However I was toying with the idea of throwing a set of clearly defined piece work the way of one of these bidding type sites and see how it goes, more as an experiment.
I was wondering however if the time invested in writing up all the requirements detailed enough that you can you hand them over would end up more expensive than just using a local developer.
Might still give it a try at some point, I know people who think this works and think they are getting developers really cheap, just not sure if they really added up all the hidden costs.# Posted By Dale Fraser | 12/13/11 4:01 PM -
@Dale, thanks. In what I have seen first hand, it does cost more over time than one might think. I guess there is nothing stopping anyone from testing the waters, just that most of us have these days have defined routines, procedures that can be expensive for these people to get up and running with.
Don't get me wrong here, it has worked for Adobe very well.
But for the average small business company I have seen and heard of many horror stories, that has blown their budget and expectations out the window. Most times I have seen the small business not even aware that it is actually costing them more money.# Posted By Andrew Scott | 12/13/11 8:33 PM -
As a developer I've given freelancer a go to pick up a bit of extra work. Unfortunately some people expect less than what you get at McDonalds as the hourly rate - not worth putting my time and effort into.
I have found and won other jobs at a reasonable price. I think it's a mixed bag you just need to choose who you work for carefully and look out for people wanting a very cheap price.# Posted By Kate | 1/10/12 11:19 PM -
Kate, nice to hear about the other side of the equation on this. However it does highlight how as you put it, you have to pick and choose what will satisfy you.
But it also goes to show how the trend is to get it next to nothing, by expecting it to be done next to nothing as well.
I have seen some jobs as you may have too, where the work required is just not worth the effort, for such little reward.
No the thing is that after you have done your job, and the client goes off, what happens to bugs and other things that they never thought about needing. My experience is that in the long run, the off shore developer is much slower and can sometimes take up to 10 times as long to get the same job done. Which is where I was heading with this post, so with that in mind do they really get the same cheapness that they though they were getting?
I have seen a developer off shore quote 8 hours to do something, that would normally take us professionals an hour to do.
So thanks, I appreciate a view from the other side of the fence.# Posted By Andrew Scott | 1/11/12 2:33 AM
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