For the record, this example is not intended to highlight efficiencies and/or deficiencies in outsourced article writing. Also, it is not my intention to focus on India and the Philippines. I have friends from both countries.

Instead, it is provided as an example of an article written by an offshore outsourced provider. Outsourcing article writing seems to be hyped lately as a way to add original content to your website. But I haven’t seen any examples of what you can expect. Keep in mind, this is just one example. It might help you determine if offshore article writing is something that might work for you. Let me know if you want me to post some more examples.

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Human Resource Outsourcing in India

Human resource is the latest kind of outsourcing in India. The process of human resource outsourcing is for an Indian company to locally recruit talents and managed them for you
as if you are the owner of a particular business set up for you by this company in India.
If for example you are an IT company in the US, this company set up for you will of course be a mixture of web developers, and other IT professionals. You can run this IT
company from the US with the local company who set it up for you as your manager. They will run this company for you, from payroll to talent recruiting and everything else.

This human resource that you have outsourced in India can very well compliment your IT
company in the US. They can address any production deficiency of your company and can also provide you the needed manpower backup during peak season. What is more important is that you will be paying your Indian personnel very low salaries compared to your US employees. Outsourcing in India of human resource will prove a very valuable
investments. This new trend in outsourcing in India is getting a lot of interest not only in the US but in Europe as well.

The good thing about this kind of outsourcing in India is you can avail yourself of talented Indian IT engineers and website professionals who can give your business a lot of added value at very low cost to you. And since the Indian government is supportive of this kind of undertaking, you can be sure of no red tape and other government hassles that are attendant to other Asian countries. Besides, you will be able to communicate with all your Indian personnel in fluent English, enabling you to share and discuss all things that pertains to the operation of your outsourced human resourced undertaking..

The groundwork for outsourcing in India has been made many years ago when the Indian government decided to use the English language as their second language and use English as the medium of instruction in all schools. This made the Indians proficient in the use of the language which is helping them now in the outsourcing business. Their most notable accomplishment in the human resource outsourcing business because of their English proficiency is in the proliferation of call centers in many cities of India. If you are in the US and you call a company to inquire a particular product or service that they are offering, chances are an Indian call center representative will be the one answering your inquiry. Most companies in the US are outsourcing their incoming and even their out going calls from countries in Asia, most notably the Philippines and India.

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1. Accounting Outsourcing in India
2. Effective Outsourcing
3. Offshore – Outsourcing

This outsourcing of accounting to India is most beneficial to firms in the US because of time differential. Night time in the US is day time in India. Thus, if parts of an accounting project are outsourced to India, the continuity of accounting work is maintained night and day, resulting to a faster turn around time for project completion.

Many firms who are outsourcing accounting services to India save 30 to 50% in terms of salaries and wages expenses because of the low cost of labor in India. Aside from this, the fact that Indians speak fluent English, the firms outsourcing accounting to India can communicate easily with their Indian counterparts to discuss differing aspects related to their project. The political environment of India augurs well with outsourcing.

Talented economist and accounting professionals abounds in India. Because of outsourcing, their talents are now harnessed to assist in the preparation of various accounting works.

Peak season tax preparations are now outsourced to Indian accounting professionals. This will unclog the tables of US accounting firms and will enable them to concentrate more on high-end accounting activities. Firms who are saving on manpower cost are now outsourcing most of their accounting services to India. Even large corporations have their back offices not at their head office in the US but in India. Simple accounting works like payroll, accounts receivable and payables and other general bookkeeping jobs are now outsourced to India. This new procedure of outsourcing in India has made the processing effort for most companies easier and faster.

The success of accounting outsourcing in India is due to 3 basic reasons. The first is government assistance. The Indian government aggressively promotes their country as a haven for outsourcing. Companies are encouraged to put up their branches to serve as their back office for their world wide operations. Tax holidays for several years are given to these companies including other benefits. The second reason is the low cost of labor in India. Compared to other countries in Asia, India has one of the cheapest labors. And finally, the third reason will be their proficiency in their use of the English language.

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Agile methodologies such as XP, Scrum and DSDM have been adapted by the extended teams of successful global organizations, thus improving their customer needs and time to market. In the process, the organizations gain faster experience of transfer, training, transition planning, goal setting, governance, including the method of reviews which are necessary to achieve results. Deployment of Agile development methodologies in multi offshore environment can be challenging, and research has shown that with the required modifications, the adaptation of the development process in multi-locations and time zones, offshore engineering has been able to deliver quality and productivity compared to the established Agile teams in the US, and that too in just three months. This achievement includes reduced calendar time in incorporating new features, feedback from the early stage of development, along with the ability to make critical course corrections.

Agile methodologies are a new process adapted in today’s software development processes and practices, which introduce the changes in requirements by delivering the software in small releases. This has kept high the customers’ confidence, who can now relate their business requirement changes much faster. Agile methodologies have introduced a new set of software development processes and practices, which provide requirements change through delivery of the software in multiple modular releases. This increases the confidence of the client and enables them to relate any of their requirements of business changes much faster. The global economic situation has changed software development strategies, and the larger IT organizations are changing over to offshore development at a much faster rate.

In an offshore development process it is not necessary for the offshore and onshore developers to be in constant touch and communicate regarding the progress of the development of the project, and its specific feature or function. To give you an example, it is a waste of time for the onshore and offshore developers to check the same codes in the same section of the code repository, and eventually affect the work by checking each other’s code. With the offshore team having competent self-sufficient business analysts, programmers, QA staff, and technical writers the work can be conducted indecently by them without the necessity of much communication between the offshore on onshore developers.

The important thing in any team work is the interpersonal relationships within that team. With the Scrum teams distributed throughout the US, and the offshore locations, there are few interpersonal working understandings between the teams with few or none live contacts between them. This can invariably affect the software development progress in the quality of its production, and there could be questionable deliverables. To solve this situation, basic team building exercises need to be taken up. In doing this, the offshore Scrum team could be sent to the US for few weeks, where they can observe the dynamics and other typical working characteristics of the US teams situated at different places, and this could help in building the much wanted working relationship between the Scrum teams. In practice, it is found that a US based engineer visiting India every two months, and inter-acting with the offshore team in India. There-after, a tram of Indian engineers is lead to visit the US every six months to interact with the team members in the US. This brings about an understanding between the two teams, in working relationship and from a cultural and morale-building perspective as well.

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1. What is Agile Software Development?
2. Using an Agile Software Process with Offshore Development
3. Three Ideas to Consider When Implementing Agile with Distributed Development Teams

True Benefits of outsourcing software development :

B2B & B2C’s growing momentum has quickened the pace for more powerful world class, streamlined comprehensive, off shore software outsourcing. Benefits of out sourcing software development:

• Customer-centric approach of delivery.
• World class professional skills and expertise to suit your process-centric requirements.
• Establishment of both or either a technical or call centre.
• Internet promotion and advertisement with SEO services at cost effective prices.
• Feature-rich one stop process-centric service centre.
• Variety of domains of highly skilled personnel with quicker time to market innovative techniques.
• Flexible websites with free periodical updates using only the latest technology.

Why India?

An annual Asia-Pacific survey of more than 500 companies, according to Hewitt Associates, reported that India had gains of 12.8% & 13.7% last year for positions labeled IT solutions provider & software development. It has also been proved that around 80% of the offshore outsourcing work is done in India.

Why do many of the American & UK companies come to India than its competitors China & Romania?

• India has a larger English speaking population.
• India also has a lot of historical ties to the western countries, which ensures better interactive and prompt technical delivery to suit your customer-centric needs.
• Labor costs are relatively lower.
• Due to the economic vitality, the standard as well as the cost of living was on the increase with the new offshore software outsourcing projects.
• It has also helped in the rapid creation of a technological market.
• The demand for more IT Professionals was meet in a streamlined approach.

India is currently considered the hub when it comes to offshore outsourcing in all the various spheres of a growing as well as a developed economy. Its feature-rich innovative techniques ensure credibility and a definite boost for their company profile in the market.

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1. Offshore – Outsourcing
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3. Challenges in Offshore Software Development

Once you get past the more obvious mutual adjustment issues of time zones, logistics, work and holiday schedules, accents, names and language (American vs. Indian English), there are five elements of American business culture that pose special challenges for Indian teams interacting with their American counterparts – whether in the ITO, BPO or call center environment.

1. Mindset about Management Hierarchy In American business culture, rank and title aren’t as important as they are in India. Hierarchical forms of behavior are frowned upon. The expectation is that subordinates will speak up, offer suggestions, push back and take initiative rather than just do what they’re told. Decisions tend to be less top-down, authority is more delegated, and managers expect team members to take responsibility and assume ownership of results.

2. Attitudes Towards Appointments and Deadlines For Americans, strict adherence to time commitments is seen as a basic principle of professionalism and courteous behavior. Because everything tends to be strictly scheduled, delays in one appointment or deadline can have a serious ripple effect on a colleague or customer’s other work commitments. The more flexible and open-ended approach to time of Indian business culture can create tensions and unfavorable impressions on American counterparts.

3. Meaning of Agreements and Commitments Americans have a preference for clear, detailed agreements and are uneasy with vague expressions of general commitment. In business interactions, commitments are taken literally and seriously. Failure to follow through on them precisely is viewed as a sign that a person isn’t trustworthy. Indian business culture tends to view agreements more flexibly as intentions and guidelines for future action.

4. Results vs. Process Orientation In Indian business culture, following the rules and implementing correct processes is highly valued, but in American business culture, it’s all about results. There is impatience with individuals who come across as more concerned with following established processes correctly than with achieving the desired goal. Americans don’t like to be told all the procedural reasons why something can’t be or hasn’t been done.

5. Directness — Especially in Addressing Disagreements The American style of communication is characteristically direct, candid and relatively unconcerned with face-saving or the avoidance of conflict. The expectation is that questions will get answered with a clear “yes” or “no,” and that disagreements will be dealt with openly and straightforwardly, in a “tell it like it is” manner. Indians and people from other cultures that tend to avoid conflict and loss of face often find it hard to say “no” or raise problematic issues effectively with their American counterparts.

Cultural awareness and the ability to adapt effectively to another culture’s way of doing things are complex skills – whether you’re a programmer in Bangalore or a project leader in Sunnyvale. Everyone tends to take their own cultural ways of doing things for granted and to assume they are self-evident to others.

In recent years, American companies offshoring or outsourcing to India have shown growing awareness of the hidden costs of cross-cultural mismatches in work-related behaviors. They have been willing to invest in general and region-specific cross-cultural training for their onshore employees and those who are asked to travel to India. They have also learned to devise process accommodations to circumvent the negative effects of certain cultural tendencies in their offshore teams.

What these companies seldom undertake to address directly is the need to seriously educate their offshore teams in the fundamentals of American business culture – the attitudes, thought patterns and behavior norms that Americans expect. They’re missing a golden opportunity to improve the productivity and experience of their onshore-offshore teams.

Dr. Karine Schomer is President of Change Management Consulting & Training, LLC, and leads the CMCT India Practice specializing in cross-cultural training and management consulting for doing business with India. For more learning resources check the CMCT Articles Archive.

About the Author

Karine Schomer of CMCT

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Though business relationships are more economic in nature, their moral and ethical dimensions have an equal impact on profitability. When it comes to the ethics of outsourcing, matters become more complicated, as parities involved are continents away. A judicious choice between the right and the wrong person to do business with will determine the future of your outsourcing venture. Why is it important to do business with organizations that are ethical?

Ethical compliance presents a strong public image and upholds the integrity and character of an organization. Whether personal or professional, not many of us will want to associate with unethical individuals. It makes a lot more sense to do business with ethical organizations as it has a direct influence on the overall functioning of a business.

When things go wrong!

This is the acid test. The way your outsourcing partner reacts during a crisis is the best indicator of whether it is ethical or unethical. When there is mutual trust and responsibility towards each other, a crisis management mechanism will automatically evolve. Ethics creates a space for itself and in ensuring the smooth running of businesses.

Legal aspects

Legal perceptions may differ from one nation to the other and ambiguity could arise when a dispute occurs, leaving both parties in a fix. The association becomes easier when the parties have a legal, moral and ethical obligation to comply with the agreement, with due respect to international law.

Information Security

The core concern of outsourcing ethics is confidential information security. Privacy and security fall under the ‘no compromise zone’. Sujoy Chohan, a consultant at IT research specialists, Gartner Company, says, “If there is any industry which is investing in security tremendously, it is the offshore industry, whether it is India or elsewhere”.

Chief Privacy Officers are highly concerned about proper information security practices. If your outsourcing partner does not have adequate information security measures, it might be wise to stay clear of them.

How does an outsourcer identify organizations which are doing ethical business?

Everyone claims to be ethical. Though a clear definition of the parameters for identifying organizations with ethical conscience will be a difficulty, some factors are vivid.

Vendor reliability

It is nothing but trust that makes someone want to outsource. Weigh the dependability and reliability of the organizations to which you want to outsource.

A clear definition and practice of the ethical rules and privacy policies of the organization like non-disclosure of trade secrets, secrecy and non-disclosure contracts with staff, third party service providers and visitors is a prerequisite. This will reassure the outsourcer that it is safe to do business with a partner who is miles away. Employee Credibility

Information security will largely depend on the people who handle the information. Organizations that implement tough employee credibility measures have a direct implication on its outsourcing ethics.

Communication

Clear and open communication channels are another sign of an ethical company. When a project does not go the right way, an ethical partner will always keep you informed of the problem and possible solutions and time needed.

Inquiry

A thorough enquiry should be made about the organization and their nature of work management. Talking to the employees and references will give a clear idea about the professional approach of an organization. Check if the following requirements are met by your outsourcing partner:

•Proper information security systems

•Appropriate quality certifications such as ISO 9000 or SEI CMM

•Appropriate programs to protect the trade secrets of its clients, partners and their customers

•Infrastructure

•Training and upgrading the security skills and awareness of employees.

•Safety of electronic data storage

•Presence of a whistleblower

•Proper arrangement with third party service providers

How does being ethical help in reducing the risks of offshore outsourcing?

You can always find companies that offer services at very low costs. An ethical concern might seem to be a costlier choice. However, the price difference could be deceptive as the variation will only be in the initial cost. In the long run, the overall cost will prove to be much lower when you are working with an ethical partner.

Ethical vs. Unethical partnership

Unethical partnership:

•The cost of maintaining the project and the relationship will be high

•Lack of trust

•Strained relationship

•Non disclosure of facts

•Lack of transparency

Ethical Partnership:

•Reduced costs

•Reduced risk

•Common focus

•Relationship equilibrium

•Knowing the risks and managing them together

•Proper management systems

Client responsibilities

Before making an outsourcing decision, the outsourcer should also be clear about the responsibilities that he should share. This will help in building a healthy relationship base.

•willingness to discuss

•manage expectations

•last agreed document should be the basis

•build flexibility to contracts

•openness to intermediate scope and price review

Make sure that all the loop holes which can disrupt the outsourcing process are dealt with. The benefits of outsourcing are sure to show up with safe outsourcing practices.

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Offshore software development is a kind of outsourcing in which the jobs of software development are transferred to offshore countries. Mainly companies in USA transfer software development job to India or other south Asian countries. In India there are many offshore development companies. In India offshore software development have some advantages and also some disadvantages.

Outsourcing is a one of the remarkable medium to let the services and technology move overseas without any hurdles to stop it. It is the outsourcing that can give wings to the creation as we can very well see that by the use of latest technologies and methods India today is serving a large amount of companies placed at various places in the world.

Outsourcing may be a way for a company to lay roots in a foreign country where they may be thinking of expanding. Hence, a company may outsource its business to a company in India in order to understand the prevailing Indian market and to adjudge the Indian customer. This may be a ploy to sooner or later open a branch in India. Huge conglomerates that are perpetually expanding opt for outsourcing as a survey method rather than as a method for garnering more business.

one advantage is that the portion of the business outsourced (which may be sales, telemarketing, research, etc.) no longer remains the concern of the outsourcing company. The offshore company hires its own experts and professionals. This creates a constructive division of labor that becomes fruitful to both the outsourcing company and the offshore company.

Like every coin has two sides the outsouscing too has its own disadvantage – One of the most prominent is the exposure of sensitive data to foreign countries. It may not just be the question of data – even secret organizational tactics and managerial strategies may be exposed that could prove to be detrimental to the parent company. There may also be dangers relating to restrictions and dissimilar legislations in the Offshore country that sometimes require changes in business policies. Outsourcing is also responsible for the distance it creates between the employer company and the employees. This deters the employers from building good rapport with their employees.

But none of us can deny the fact that it is the Outsourcing that can let us meet the unfulfilled requirements and needs of an individual or company whether that very technology is being used at ones place or not. India has proved as a number one destination for Outsourcing for more than 500 fortunate companies.

The big names corporate places like United States, Europe and Japan are looking towards India in respect of the cost effectiveness and high quality Software solutions available here. Studies confirm that vendors rate India as their number one choice for Outsourcing. It really feels proud to say that India is being looked at for providing state-of-the-art technology and timely deliveries. India holds nearly twice as many technical graduates as the US, resulting in the ability to give the best quality with timely submission.

Innovation remains the Technology industry’s most crucial competitive factor, yet most technology companies still lack effective processes to manage innovation investments that drive there success. It is seen that 80% of respondents say technology innovation is more important than ever to their companies’ success. 60 percent say their companies have a process to assess the strategic, financial and operational risks associated with innovation investments; however, only 47 percent grade their ability to manage these investments as above average.

74 percent of respondents say their company’s CFO and finance organization are now more involved in the innovation investment process; however, only 57 percent say the finance organization adds significant value to the process, and only 53 percent say the role of the CFO is clearly defined. Just 31 percent say that their companies use leading analytical tools to make and track innovation investments. Half of survey respondents are spending more than 10 percent of their revenue on research and development (R&D) spending. Respondents indicate about 30 percent of their innovation investments are ineffective.

It is hence expected that if the need of Outsourcing its benefits and innovation involved in it keeps on rising with the same pace outsourcing will soon be managed as an investment portfolio whereby cost is reduced, & risks are mitigated. The efficiency & performance of an IT department will be measured by the benefits that accrue out Outsourcing in a timely manner

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Fortune 1000 companies (F1000) have flocked in droves to outsource their software development as a way of increasing efficiencies and saving millions of dollars. More than 70% of the F1000 outsource some portion of their information technology today, making this activity completely mainstream. India alone attracts $18 billion of this spending at present and this number is growing at almost 40% year over year. Far less common has been the move by Independent Software Vendors (ISV’s) and Application Service Providers (ASP’s) to outsource their own core software product development. For obvious reasons, ISV’s have been reluctant to outsource something as core as their product research and development, but an increasing number are doing so – more are viewing this as way to increase revenues and reduce time to market.

This market for Outsourced Product Development (OPD) is currently pegged at $1 billion but is expected to grow to almost $4 billion by 2008. According to analysts, global sourcing of product development will no longer be an optional business strategy by 2007-2008. It will become standard operating procedure. With offshore outsourcing increasingly accepted as a key competitive strategy in the global economy, the production cycle for technology-centered products will require global resources and global delivery.

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India is creating a regulatory body to improve the level of security in companies providing offshore IT services and business process outsourcing.

The initiative has been spearheaded by the National Association of Software and Service Companies, or Nasscom, to assuage fears about Indian data security in the wake of incidents of call center data theft. The technology trade association also aims to promote the region as the safest place for IT and BPO amid rising competition from other offshoring locations.

“The key objective of creating the SRO (self-regulatory organization) is to raise the floor in security and safety standards in Indian outsourcing across the IT industry,” Sunil Mehta, a vice president of Nasscom, told Silicon.com.

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Duke wasn’t the only U.S. school to be skunked at the prestigious computing contest. Of the home teams, only Massachusetts Institute of Technology ranked among the 12 highest finishers. Most top spots were seized by teams from Eastern Europe and Asia. Until the late 1990s, U.S. teams dominated these contests. But the tide has turned. Last year not one was in the top dozen.

WAKE-UP CALL
The poor showings should serve as a wake-up call for government, industry, and educators. The output of American computer science programs is plummeting, even while that of Eastern European and Asian schools is rising. China and India, the new global tech powerhouses, are fueled by 900,000 engineering graduates of all types each year, more than triple the number of U.S. grads. Computer science is a key subset of engineering. “If our talent base weakens, our lead in technology, business, and economics will fade faster than any of us can imagine,” warns Richard Florida, a professor at George Mason University and author of The Flight of the Creative Class.

Software programmers are the seed corn of the Information Economy, yet America isn’t producing enough. The Labor Dept. forecasts that “computer/math scientist” jobs, which include programming, will increase by 40%, from 2.5 million in 2002 to 3.5 million in 2012. Colleges aren’t keeping up with demand. A 2005 survey of freshmen showed that just 1.1% planned to major in computer science, down from 3.7% in 2000.

This really isn’t news is it? I mean, we all see this coming, right? We all clearly see the pros and cons in the leveling of the playing field. We know anyone can access global software programming talent at sites like oDesk, RentACoder, Elance, etc. (For more complete list, see list of Outsource Marketplace Providers on this site).

Have you read the “The World is Flat” yet? (Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk) I know some people think this book is a bit far fetched; I’d love to hear some kind of rebuttal to the points presented in the book.

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