We've all heard how outsourcing and augmenting staff with experts is an avenue for meeting business needs where the technology, skills, knowledge, staff or time is not internally available. In theory outsourcing provides the ability to develop products and services that are not easily achieved through the organization's existing structure, by providing operational and strategic benefit. Outsourcing has been hailed as a route for getting results, without the expense and commitment of hiring full-time staff, allowing the internal organization to focus on core competencies. But, does it really work? On the surface the idea seems viable; however, depending on the type of solution and service being outsourced, these relationships may actually increase the demands on the organization that is outsourcing its work.

Considerations for Deciding to Outsource The following are some of the key considerations when making outsourcing-related decisions:

1. Do our in-house resources have the needed capabilities?First the organization must identify whether or not its employees have the specialties and technical skills necessary to manage and build the desired product or service offering. (If you don't, of course outsourcing looks like the obvious choice. If you do have the right capabilities, some of the following questions will take on increased importance in deciding whether outsourcing is really the right call after all.)
2. Should in-house capable people be used for this next effort? Assuming the desired skills do exist on staff, the organization must determine if pulling them from their current duties is worth the risk to previously defined roles and committed projects. Where does the new project fall in the priority scheme, and how critical is it to the company's business goals? High enough to consider pulling people from other endeavors to keep the work close?
3. Is this work something the company should even consider outsourcing? Generally, outsourcing should not be considered for projects that require significant domain knowledge, i.e. knowledge related to industry specific technology, business processes, or organizational culture that would be either difficult or inadvisable to transfer to another company. If the domain knowledge is specifically a key part of the company's or particular product's competitive advantage and differentiation, then the company may not want to transfer that unique knowledge to another organization. The ability to sign intellectual property protection agreements does not necessarily mean it's a good idea to let an outside organization do such sensitive work. In addition, the level of understanding necessary for adequate comprehension and outsourcing success may be too deep to make it worthwhile financially.
4. If you outsource the work, what management oversight will it require, and by whom, and will you even come out ahead in terms of true additional resource hours? In my experience, the employees who have the know-how to properly manage an outsourced project are usually the ones already involved in other core activities. While it may initially look like an easy decision to outsource and thereby gain additional resources with no load on your busy internal experts, be sure to look at the strain the new effort will put on existing responsibilities. Will your critical experts have to spend so much time managing the outside resources, writing specs, reviewing their work, attending team meetings, that you haven't gained nearly as much resource for your extra dollars as you thought? You could even lose two-fold in that not only are your internal resources losing hours to outsourcing oversight; they're also compromising their own project work due to increased task-switching and reduced concentration. The additional oversight demands often add unplanned costs to the project, while also taking the resource away from previously assigned duties and organizational objectives.
5. What is the true cost of the implementation plus management work, including internal review and oversight work? Obviously the cost of contracting the effort versus managing the project in-house should be considered. When looking at the costs of the fully outsourced project, look beyond the total cost on the proposal and make sure internal costs are not being forgotten. In a perfect world, when a project is outsourced, we'd be able to sign the proposal for the defined requirements and walk away until the point of testing and internal sign-off. Unfortunately, all too often this isn't the case. The business needs and internal pains the project is trying to solve may have been communicated and the desired outcome visually depicted; however, many outsourcing outfits view themselves as implementers with a heavy reliance on the outsourcing organization for oversight and general project management and may not have bid all the work really necessary to perform their own reviews and internal management, up to the oversight and quality requirements your company expects.
6. What can we depend upon our vendor to take full responsibility for and true ownership of? This is where things get interesting as outsourcing arrangements are considered and bid. We all know how the sales cycle works. We identify a few possible suitors, communicate our high level business needs, and then the vendor's sales force tells us how they plan to exceed our expectations, delivering the world on a silver platter. In the best case we want the selected vendor to be fully versed in what is being outsourced, and expect them to serve as a trusted advisor and advocate to our organization and take
   Franchise Opportunity Tips (Part 2)
   1. Question the franchisor: The decisions that you make about your potential business will need to be based upon information from very pointed questions to the franchisors. Questions such as, what is the initial franchising fee. These fees vary from franchise to franchise and could run as high as several hundred thousand dollars.More than likely you will also be required to pay an advertising fee to help promote the franchise. You will need to know the amount of that fee, or how it is figured (sometimes figured on a percentage of sales) and how much of that is used for local advertising and how much for national exposure.Royalty payments are payments to the franchisor for the use of the franchise name. These are usually figured as a percentage of weekly or monthly gross sales. Again this number can vary from franchise to franchise and should be well understood before proceeding.Find out the terms of the franchise agreement, including the period of time that the agreement will last (usually 5 years), how can you terminate that agreement and what the guidelines are around the franchisor terminating it.Finally, some franchises will require you to do financial reporting each and every day along with upholding the uniformity of their system in each franchise. Inquiring if there is some flexibility will assist you in making a better decision about the franchise that suits your needs. You will als
   ork.

   Considerations for Deciding to Outsource The following are some of the key considerations when making outsourcing-related decisions:

   1. Do our in-house resources have the needed capabilities?First the organization must identify whether or not its employees have the specialties and technical skills necessary to manage and build the desired product or service offering. (If you don't, of course outsourcing looks like the obvious choice. If you do have the right capabilities, some of the following questions will take on increased importance in deciding whether outsourcing is really the right call after all.)
   2. Should in-house capable people be used for this next effort? Assuming the desired skills do exist on staff, the organization must determine if pulling them from their current duties is worth the risk to previously defined roles and committed projects. Where does the new project fall in the priority scheme, and how critical is it to the company's business goals? High enough to consider pulling people from other endeavors to keep the work close?
   3. Is this work something the company should even consider outsourcing? Generally, outsourcing should not be considered for projects that require significant domain knowledge, i.e. knowledge related to industry specific technology, business processes, or organizational culture that would be either difficult or inadvisable to transfer to another company. If the domain knowledge is specifically a key part of the company's or particular product's competitive advantage and differentiation, then the company may not want to transfer that unique knowledge to another organization. The ability to sign intellectual property protection agreements does not necessarily mean it's a good idea to let an outside organization do such sensitive work. In addition, the level of understanding necessary for adequate comprehension and outsourcing success may be too deep to make it worthwhile financially.
   4. If you outsource the work, what management oversight will it require, and by whom, and will you even come out ahead in terms of true additional resource hours? In my experience, the employees who have the know-how to properly manage an outsourced project are usually the ones already involved in other core activities. While it may initially look like an easy decision to outsource and thereby gain additional resources with no load on your busy internal experts, be sure to look at the strain the new effort will put on existing responsibilities. Will your critical experts have to spend so much time managing the outside resources, writing specs, reviewing their work, attending team meetings, that you haven't gained nearly as much resource for your extra dollars as you thought? You could even lose two-fold in that not only are your internal resources losing hours to outsourcing oversight; they're also compromising their own project work due to increased task-switching and reduced concentration. The additional oversight demands often add unplanned costs to the project, while also taking the resource away from previously assigned duties and organizational objectives.
   5. What is the true cost of the implementation plus management work, including internal review and oversight work? Obviously the cost of contracting the effort versus managing the project in-house should be considered. When looking at the costs of the fully outsourced project, look beyond the total cost on the proposal and make sure internal costs are not being forgotten. In a perfect world, when a project is outsourced, we'd be able to sign the proposal for the defined requirements and walk away until the point of testing and internal sign-off. Unfortunately, all too often this isn't the case. The business needs and internal pains the project is trying to solve may have been communicated and the desired outcome visually depicted; however, many outsourcing outfits view themselves as implementers with a heavy reliance on the outsourcing organization for oversight and general project management and may not have bid all the work really necessary to perform their own reviews and internal management, up to the oversight and quality requirements your company expects.
   6. What can we depend upon our vendor to take full responsibility for and true ownership of? This is where things get interesting as outsourcing arrangements are considered and bid. We all know how the sales cycle works. We identify a few possible suitors, communicate our high level business needs, and then the vendor's sales force tells us how they plan to exceed our expectations, delivering the world on a silver platter. In the best case we want the selected vendor to be fully versed in what is being outsourced, and expect them to serve as a trusted advisor and advocate to our organization and tak
      Five Facts You Must Know When Changing Careers
      Too often in life, we fail. We fail not because we set our goals to high and miss achieving our aspirations. Instead, we fail because we set our dreams too low and we achieve them. If we achieve what we set out to do then how is this considered to be a failure? Failure occurs when we are not fulfilling our highest aspirations. Theresa Castro, executive career coach and author of The Dark Before the Dawn: 70 Secrets to Self-discovery, provides insight on what anyone can do while they are in the midst of wanting to change careers.ADOPT THE INNONENCE OF A CHILDWe begin our lives as children with lofty goals. For example, a child might decide that they would like to grow up and become an astronaut and travel to the moon. This child doesn’t have the ability to place any limitations on themselves. They don’t think about what degree they need to possess in order to be an astronaut. They don’t become worried about all of the details that are necessary to achieve this dream. Instead, the child just knows that they are passionate about space exploration. When you are in the midst of a career change, think and dream like a child. Let your passions lead you in a direction that is right for you.ELIMINATE ANY LIMITATIONSSociety, friends and/or family members can put a damper on your hopes and tell you that you are incapable of achieving your highest vision. You may be told that you are too old, not smar
      cing should not be considered for projects that require significant domain knowledge, i.e. knowledge related to industry specific technology, business processes, or organizational culture that would be either difficult or inadvisable to transfer to another company. If the domain knowledge is specifically a key part of the company's or particular product's competitive advantage and differentiation, then the company may not want to transfer that unique knowledge to another organization. The ability to sign intellectual property protection agreements does not necessarily mean it's a good idea to let an outside organization do such sensitive work. In addition, the level of understanding necessary for adequate comprehension and outsourcing success may be too deep to make it worthwhile financially.
   7. If you outsource the work, what management oversight will it require, and by whom, and will you even come out ahead in terms of true additional resource hours? In my experience, the employees who have the know-how to properly manage an outsourced project are usually the ones already involved in other core activities. While it may initially look like an easy decision to outsource and thereby gain additional resources with no load on your busy internal experts, be sure to look at the strain the new effort will put on existing responsibilities. Will your critical experts have to spend so much time managing the outside resources, writing specs, reviewing their work, attending team meetings, that you haven't gained nearly as much resource for your extra dollars as you thought? You could even lose two-fold in that not only are your internal resources losing hours to outsourcing oversight; they're also compromising their own project work due to increased task-switching and reduced concentration. The additional oversight demands often add unplanned costs to the project, while also taking the resource away from previously assigned duties and organizational objectives.
   8. What is the true cost of the implementation plus management work, including internal review and oversight work? Obviously the cost of contracting the effort versus managing the project in-house should be considered. When looking at the costs of the fully outsourced project, look beyond the total cost on the proposal and make sure internal costs are not being forgotten. In a perfect world, when a project is outsourced, we'd be able to sign the proposal for the defined requirements and walk away until the point of testing and internal sign-off. Unfortunately, all too often this isn't the case. The business needs and internal pains the project is trying to solve may have been communicated and the desired outcome visually depicted; however, many outsourcing outfits view themselves as implementers with a heavy reliance on the outsourcing organization for oversight and general project management and may not have bid all the work really necessary to perform their own reviews and internal management, up to the oversight and quality requirements your company expects.
   9. What can we depend upon our vendor to take full responsibility for and true ownership of? This is where things get interesting as outsourcing arrangements are considered and bid. We all know how the sales cycle works. We identify a few possible suitors, communicate our high level business needs, and then the vendor's sales force tells us how they plan to exceed our expectations, delivering the world on a silver platter. In the best case we want the selected vendor to be fully versed in what is being outsourced, and expect them to serve as a trusted advisor and advocate to our organization and tak
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      ces with no load on your busy internal experts, be sure to look at the strain the new effort will put on existing responsibilities. Will your critical experts have to spend so much time managing the outside resources, writing specs, reviewing their work, attending team meetings, that you haven't gained nearly as much resource for your extra dollars as you thought? You could even lose two-fold in that not only are your internal resources losing hours to outsourcing oversight; they're also compromising their own project work due to increased task-switching and reduced concentration. The additional oversight demands often add unplanned costs to the project, while also taking the resource away from previously assigned duties and organizational objectives.
   10. What is the true cost of the implementation plus management work, including internal review and oversight work? Obviously the cost of contracting the effort versus managing the project in-house should be considered. When looking at the costs of the fully outsourced project, look beyond the total cost on the proposal and make sure internal costs are not being forgotten. In a perfect world, when a project is outsourced, we'd be able to sign the proposal for the defined requirements and walk away until the point of testing and internal sign-off. Unfortunately, all too often this isn't the case. The business needs and internal pains the project is trying to solve may have been communicated and the desired outcome visually depicted; however, many outsourcing outfits view themselves as implementers with a heavy reliance on the outsourcing organization for oversight and general project management and may not have bid all the work really necessary to perform their own reviews and internal management, up to the oversight and quality requirements your company expects.
   11. What can we depend upon our vendor to take full responsibility for and true ownership of? This is where things get interesting as outsourcing arrangements are considered and bid. We all know how the sales cycle works. We identify a few possible suitors, communicate our high level business needs, and then the vendor's sales force tells us how they plan to exceed our expectations, delivering the world on a silver platter. In the best case we want the selected vendor to be fully versed in what is being outsourced, and expect them to serve as a trusted advisor and advocate to our organization and tak
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       Software companies are required to produce lots of software products for their clients. These software products being used for giant organizations such as airlines, banks, financial institutions, big corporate houses and various government bodies, where lots of data being stored and updated every day. IT (Information Technology) software companies in US, Canada and Europe who are taking up these projects require massive investment in infrastructure as well as huge manpower to work on them.This is competitive world and every industry wants to be very competitive in every business. So is IT software industry. To cut the labor costs, IT software companies are increasingly outsourcing their jobs to developing countries in Asia, Latin American, Africa and Middle East. Since “cost saving” is the prime objective of IT software firms, it is estimated nearly 50% of IT software jobs being outsourced to developing nations..Most of the jobs outsourced are creating software in .Net, Java/J2EE, database solutions, smartcard solution and wireless/mobile application developments. BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) are also helping their foreign clients in voice and non-voice solutions, customer care, data management and so on. Outsourcing firms hire well educated English speaking young staff, who are energetic and willing to work in shifts. These outsourcing companies charge very economical hourly rates and most of them are workin
       r the defined requirements and walk away until the point of testing and internal sign-off. Unfortunately, all too often this isn't the case. The business needs and internal pains the project is trying to solve may have been communicated and the desired outcome visually depicted; however, many outsourcing outfits view themselves as implementers with a heavy reliance on the outsourcing organization for oversight and general project management and may not have bid all the work really necessary to perform their own reviews and internal management, up to the oversight and quality requirements your company expects.
   12. What can we depend upon our vendor to take full responsibility for and true ownership of? This is where things get interesting as outsourcing arrangements are considered and bid. We all know how the sales cycle works. We identify a few possible suitors, communicate our high level business needs, and then the vendor's sales force tells us how they plan to exceed our expectations, delivering the world on a silver platter. In the best case we want the selected vendor to be fully versed in what is being outsourced, and expect them to serve as a trusted advisor and advocate to our organization and take responsibility for quality and completeness. In many cases our chosen vendor possesses this good intention and the expertise to deliver. However, good intentions by themselves don't make the grade. The company must be prepared to apply business management, intuition, and analytical skills to select the right vendor, ensuing the right expertise is available on both sides of the project and that the necessary project oversight will happen. For example, although it is almost contradictory to one of the key reasons for these agreements, in most cases, the contracting company will need to provide a resource fully versed in the service or technology being outsourced.

   Considerations for Managing Outsourced Engagements The last item above brings us to a key success factor of what I've learned about finding the right vendor. Paramount to the success of an outsourced engagement is expectation management - clearly defining who does what and what constitutes project success. There are areas of involvement and oversight that the outsourcing organization can offer to the vendor and project to help increase the likelihood of success. Below is my list of the top things to keep in mind for a technical outsourcing engagement.

   1. Internal resource to oversee the engagement. Ensure the outsourcing organization has a resource on staff with time dedicated to effectively oversee and manage the relationship. Ongoing negotiation and vendor management functions are inevitable. In the real world, the organization outsourcing a project must frequently step in and take charge of the entire engagement, all the way down to functional requirements.
   2. Overall functional requirements. In focusing on software development projects that require a strong understanding of business operations and strategy, the organization must dedicate significant time to ensuring requirements are detailed enough that vendors won't miss a specific business flow or mission critical requirement.
   3. Migration implications and supporting documentation. In cases where an organization is migrating from one product to another, it is equally important to analyze the features and functionality of the new system, identifying gaps between the two. This is a frequent point of failure. Many organizations believe the sub-contractor will thoroughly review the current system, documenting what will be migrated and what will not port over. Careful analysis of features and capabilities should be done by the outsourcing organization long before the contract is signed. Surprisingly, even for repeatable solutions, vendors often don't have comprehensive product documentation, which would definitely assist in this analysis.
   4. Cost of ownership and ongoing internal implications for an outsourced service arrangement. Carefully review the total cost of ownership to include anticipated internal support and worst case oversight demands. Be sure to also consider the cost savings realized through improving systems and automating operations as well as any increase in revenue realized from developing systems to better position and market your organization.
   5. Project management methodology. Ensure the chosen vendor has a mature project management methodology and has demonstrated experience in utilizing this methodology. This will be especially important during the requirements and design phases. Client references may be able to describe the day-to-day relationship and how projects are delivered.
   6. Understanding of business and project goals. Ensure the chosen vendor has a solid understanding of your organizational business and project goals, even if the presented solution appears to meet your needs. Don't assume that they don't need to know certain business rules and organizational nuances.
   7. Business process improvement recommendations. For strategic and transformational IT efforts, don't expect a development shop to be able to provide business process improvement recommendations. If this is what you desire, approach the selection process by identifying your needs as business process and application outsourcing.
   8. Future look ahead and scalability. For strategic development efforts, In addition to meeting imminent project deliverables, the ideal vendor should be highly skilled in futuristic planning, building a system that is scaleable while keeping the client informed at each bump in the road.

   With a carefully selected vendor and realistic expectations, outsourcing can result in a tremendous increase in efficiency and effectiveness. But remember the different potential requirements to make these projects a success. Commodity and tactical services are typically areas that require less oversight, whereas information technology projects often involve many variables, blue-sky ideas, and additional need for collaboration and mutual understanding. As a result,