India's Calling - Five Outsourcing Tips

We have all heard that India is a great place to find incredibly reasonable programmers and web services, but do you really get the bang for your buck?

The short answer is “yes,” if you know exactly what you are looking for. If you don't, you could be walking down a road to confusion. However, this is the rule when working with any web house, whether it is in the U.S. or abroad. The people I have met so far in my experience with teams in India are bright, hospitable people who go through many of the struggles and triumphs that business people go through here. The only caveat is that they have to endure more in terms of work conditions and they actually seem far more eager to do the work in many cases.

Yes, sometimes I do feel like a Benedict Arnold for serving as a liaison for outsourcing programming. After all, our programmers over here do a fine job. However, India has positioned itself to be the premier provider of web services to the world at a rate that most start ups just can't pass up. If I am to be a proper capitalist, I have to admit this – and accept it.

So, here it is. Five things I have learned from working with teams in India so far. Who knows what I will think in a year?

1. Be Polite Many of us in the U.S. business world are used to just getting to the point. We avoid the small talk and jump right in. This doesn’t go over well there. Being polite and saying ‘good morning” and “good evening” and asking them how their day is going will lead to a better relationship. Come to think of it, it would lead to better relationships on this side of the world as well.


2. Strive for Clarity People in India are taught the English language in grade school. However, keep in mind that they may not understand the plethora of slang that permeates our daily language. Make sure that they understand you and that you understand them. Lists are key.


3. Be a Broken Record You may not get an answer the first time you ask a question. I haven't figured out why this is yet. Keep asking until you do – and be firm without being rude.


4. Think Pictures Be incredibly clear about what you need. If you are outsourcing programming, have a designer create mock ups (wire frames, whatever you choose to call it) of exactly what needs to be done with each screen in the process. Then hire a project manager to manage the project and serve as a liaison with the team in India. This will save you tons of time and effort. Your absolute dream project manager for many projects will be the very U.S. programmers who losing work to the Indian programmers.


5. Don't Put All of Your Eggs in One Basket They will want you to host with them, to do everything with them and they offer attractive packages. However, just to be on the safe side, don't do everything with one company. Remember, you haven't seen their operation. Losing your site would be a disaster and litigation with another country is a giant headache.

So, there it is, my tips for working with teams in India. If you have any other insights, please share them with me in comments or by emailing me at vdravneek@monarchcontent.com.

Well, subh ratri everyone. Until next time.