Why are companies afraid of choosing outsourced IT partners, and how to get over these concerns?
It is a common problem that companies hesitate to work with outsourced IT partners. This blog will discuss why so many companies are afraid of selecting an outsourced IT partner and some of the ways they can overcome this problem.
Bad Experience with Outsourcing
Many companies have a bad experience with outsourcing, which makes them reluctant to work with an outsourcing partner again. Bad experiences include losing money because they outsourced to a company that was not qualified or did not do their job well.
You have to ensure that your projects will be taken care of properly by professional teams who understand their business needs and will deliver what's promised within budget constraints.
Choose carefully your outsourcing partner and talk about all the crucial business points. Without these, your partnership can fail. But if you put enough time into finding the perfect partner and know exactly what you want, you will have a good experience.
Take a look at our checklist, which can help you!
Losing Control and Trust Issues
The first step is to trust your partner. You can't change what you don't know about, so the most important thing is to get to know your partner.
You have to make clear your business goal, deadlines, expectations, all of the crucial details and those which might be straightforward. If you’re sure you can trust your partner with these, you can easily let them do their best! Last, that’s why you chose them…they are the experts, this is not their first dance, and they know what they’re able to do for you.
When you’re outsourcing a piece of work, you must be willing to be flexible with your plans and ideas. It’s not always going to be easy or convenient—you might even have some disagreements along the way—but if everyone involved has an open mind and is willing to adapt, any issues can be resolved productively.
If you don’t trust your partner, working together will be complicated and full of difficult-to-resolve conflicts, which will be detrimental to the goal.
Security Risks
Security risks are a common concern for companies that choose to outsource. Data breaches, loss of intellectual property, and other risks are all things to consider when selecting an outsourcing partner. To avoid any issues, you can:
• Set clear terms around the transfer of sensitive data and make sure your partner has robust security in place to protect it.
• Always ask your partner how they handle security issues and what they can do if you have special requests.
Every outsourcing company knows how important handling sensitive data is. You have to check that they take the question seriously and are prepared.
Ban the potential new partners who hesitate to cooperate with you with this question.
Things Get Lost in Translation
When choosing to outsource IT, it's essential to be aware of the following situations:
• Cultural context
• Language skills
• Communication
Things can get lost in translation if you don't clearly communicate. Checking the language skills of your future hired developer and giving clear orders and tasks is just halfway to success.
Working with outsourced teams allows you to build relationships with those people and understand their cultural norms better, making it easier for them to communicate effectively with other employees at your company.
If you have a common cultural background or values, you will better understand each other. If you don't, you have to put extra energy into getting to know your partner better to avoid misunderstanding.
Sharing Financial Burden
When we talk about financial burden, it’s important to remember that we are not talking about the financial risks that you take as an individual. Rather, we are talking about sharing those risks with someone else. This is particularly problematic when dealing with suppliers: if they fail to deliver products or services on time or in quantity, or if they deliver something atypical or of substandard quality, then your company will be left without the goods it needs to continue operating smoothly.
In an ideal world where everyone was honest and upfront with each other, this wouldn't be much of a concern—but unfortunately things aren't always so straightforward when it comes to business relationships! You might not realize just how much money could be lost by trusting a supplier who doesn't have your best interests at heart until after disaster strikes; which means that outsourcing carries inherent risks for any company seeking expansion abroad (or even within one's own country).
As with sensitive data, always speak openly and clearly with your partner when discussing financial risks. It is important that your partner also understands that the responsibility lies with them and that they do not want to escape from it. Never forget to spell out these responsibilities in a contract.
Contractual and Legal Processes
It's important to remember that your company is not a one-man show. The success of your business depends on the people working for you, and if you choose a partner for outsourcing, it's vital to have legal processes in place.
Contracts are an integral part of any business relationship, and while outsourcing, they become even more critical. If something goes wrong with their services or products, it may be difficult or impossible to recover your losses due to lack of jurisdiction.
It's essential to find out from potential partners what kind of legal protection they offer against risks such as fraud and theft (such as intellectual property rights infringement). You should also ensure that the outsourcing companies' staff possess appropriate qualifications.
Poor Team Management and Communication
This is one of the main reasons why companies hesitate to outsource their projects. You will not get the same level of commitment from a remote team or team member as your in-house employees, so you have to make sure that they are motivated enough to make them work hard on your project. Also, communication is a must when it comes to outsourcing projects because you will only be able to check up on them regularly if there's proper communication between both parties involved.
Try to put energy into engaging your outsourcing developers and handle them as team members, like someone who works in-house, and this won't be a problem. But if they feel left out, that can lead to commitment issues.
Conclusion
We put many potential risks in the spotlight, details you should consider while choosing the right company. But also, we gave you a lot of answers and solutions, so we hope you will be much more confident next time you choose your outsourcing partner!
Most importantly, choose the right project. It should be in line with your business goals and objectives. Then, after that, you can select your fitting partner. If you choose them wisely, fewer of these problems will be an issue for you, and you can take full advantage of outsourcing.
