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Feature
Article
Does
Size Really Matter?
“Can
a
small company take advantage of offshore outsourcing?” This is
a question that comes up more and more often as small business owners
look to keep a competitive advantage over larger organizations. Most
small companies rely on providing efficient service and exceptional
value to their
customers as a way of differentiating themselves. The 
nimbleness of a
small business is achieved by running
extremely
lean and highly efficient.
Too many
people equate lean with doing without. The explosion in our global
economy allows small businesses the opportunity to deliver services
without incurring overhead costs of previous decades. Supply chain
management, e-commerce, HR and accounting are all becoming areas
where small businesses can benefit from offshore outsourcing. To
continue, click
here (feature_article_59.html)
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Scheduling takes
a holiday
 A
feature of
project scheduling tools such as MS Project or Primavera
Project
Planner is their ability to support multiple calendars. Incorporating
multiple calendars allows more accurate scheduling and
management of offshore projects.
To improve
scheduling, create separate calendars, each with holidays appropriate
for the resources and their location. When scheduling tasks, pay
close attention to the expected work output over all holidays. For
example, if your offshore team is working on tasks over the
Thanksgiving holiday, consider who is available locally to answer
their queries and clarify requirements. Similarly, during the Diwali
festival, your Indian staff will be on holiday and change requests
will start piling up from their US colleagues.
Schedules
built on a solid foundation are much more accurate. Adjust the
workdays of all calendars to account for the slowdown or loss of
productivity that may occur when one of the teams is unavailable. Take
advantage of holidays by scheduling team-centric activities for
those working the holiday.
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Tool Talk
Speaking of VoIP
Voice over IP
(VoIP) has been hyped for a long time. In the past, people have
experienced the frustration of poor quality and frequent drops. Today,
increased bandwidth and improved technology are making VoIP a
viable solution to be considered. As with any solution, VoIP has its
strengths and weaknesses.
VoIP uses
private LAN and WAN infrastructure to send and receive phone calls. The
value of VoIP becomes quickly apparent when a significant number
of calls can be placed over the network without incurring any long
distance charges. Each remote location on the network can have the
same features available to local PBX extensions. For example, three
digit extension dialing, voice mail sharing, conference calls and
call transfers can be done between any VoIP phone on the network.
The cost of
this feature-rich platform is bandwidth. To be effective, voice
delivery requires larger data packets and special network routing
capabilities. T-1 lines with high-speed routers and switches are
the
norm for VoIP. Additionally, quality of service (QoS) software is
often placed on the network to improve data delivery. QoS products
place a higher priority on voice data and maintain a dedicated
portion of the network's bandwidth for VoIP.
If conference
calling between remote teams is a part of your communication plan,
consider VoIP as a means of reducing long distance costs. Lower
costs and increased availability will encourage use and may provide a
tool for other activities including team building.
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Questions...
Dear
Outsourcing Expert:
I'm
an
individual on a project where some of the team is local and some are
offshore. The project manager spends so much time and energy running
around gathering information for reports that she does not have time
to lead the project or resolve day-to-day issues. As a result the
project is going sideways. How do you fix this situation?
Diane
Dear Diane:
You are a
victim of what I call “process wonks”. This occurs when someone
is so focused on the administrative process that they forget the goal
of the project. First of all, have your project manager relax, take
a breath and count to ten. Now have her decide: What information is
she after? What does the data provide her? Is there a better way to
capture and organize it? Can an offshore resource be assigned to the
preparation of these reports?
The best
project managers have learned to trust their team but verify its
progress. That verification should be achieved through simple
measures that match the project risk. If you are spending more time
gathering data than learning from it, your process is broken and
needs to be adjusted. When repairing the problem remember not to
over engineer the fix, most of the time the simple, elegant solution
is the appropriate one.
Dear
Outsourcing Expert :
I
read
about all the various offshore activities and it sounds like
everything is being outsourced. What activities can be outsourced
effectively today?
Roy
Dear
Roy:
You
are
correct in your assumption that any activity can be outsourced. The
more interesting question is: Should a company outsource an activity?
To make an effective decision on outsourcing, management should
examine how its operations provide a unique value to its customers.
They should look at which activities encourage customers to buy.
Companies should then channel their staff and resources into
achieving operational excellence in these key areas that
differentiate them from the competition. The remaining,
less-critical activities should be considered for outsourcing.
Successful
outsourcing does not occur by accident. It occurs through knowledge,
planning and an understanding of the company's strategic goals and
customer behavior.
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Questions
about offshore outsourcing? Get Answers!
email
us
at outsourcingexpert@metagyre.com
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The key is not to
prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities. ~ Stephen
R. Covey
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