Criteria for Evaluating Outsourcers

1. Commitment to Outsourcing: outsourcing is distinctive and in many ways requires expertise beyond your typical system integration services. It requires specific methods and experience.

* How long has the company been involved in the outsourcing industry?

* How is the company organization when it comes to staffing, commitment to specific customers and industries, and dedication to resolving specific problems and needs? How much is the revenue and profit percentage coming from outsourcing?

2. A Flexible and Proven Methodology/Function: There will be little time to explore your way to the paradigm of technical and management issues due to the short transition period given to the outsourcer taking over your IT business. A flexible and proven methodology will provide your outsourcer with a benchmark and the tools for them to be able to meet your specific needs.

* Do you/they have a standard methodology? Is it fully documented? To what extent is it used? * Has it been used successfully in the past? Where has it proved unsuccessful? Why?

3. A Pathway and Access to Talent: The key to any solution is the Executive management, project management, programming and testing talent. The capability of pooling in talents and experts is very crucial. Especially if you may need off-shore designers, programmers, and testers who are usually less expensive than your conventional labor force and which are more familiar with older technologies.

* How big is the outsourcer staff in terms of: consulting staff? Analysis staff? Design staff? Programming staff? Testing staff? Documentation staff? Implementation staff? Help desk? Knowledge in terms of mainframes, customer server, telecommunications, etc.? * Does the outsourcer have a relationship with off shore or domestic programming "factories"? * How does the outsourcer go about with training and integration of staff?

4. Industry Knowledge and Superiority (Intellectual Capital): It is a must that the outsourcer possesses special industry knowledge especially in regulated industries or those undergoing legislative changes. For other industries, this may not really be important. As you relegate your manpower to the outsourcers, you are likely to rely on the knowledge of outsourcers as to your industry and more.

* How comprehensive is the industry knowledge and superiority of your outsourcer in terms of your current and future industry needs? * What connections, positions do they hold with key industry organizations?

5. International Scope and Presence: Your organization should be looking for an outsourcer that will be able to handle your current and future needs and be able to coordinate in correcting problems on a global perspective. This will be particularly needed in testing interfaces on different platforms, in different languages, and between different systems world-wide.

Page 1 of 3 :: First | Last :: Prev | 1 2 3 | Next