“If you are really going to pare down your technology projects to those that are absolutely vital to your company, you probably don’t want to hand those projects off to the lowest bidder. If you are going to embark on some cost-saving project based on hosted software or extra tight security, you might want to keep those under close watch. If your company is going to be either acquired or go out acquiring, you need to know where your costs are. If your remaining customers are the only barrier between you and the unemployment line, you want to make sure those customers are being treated with the utmost care.”

- Eric Lundquist, CIO Insight Editor at Large

Companies have outsourced since time began. Outsourcing simply means purchasing goods or services from an outside supplier or source. Once countries including Brazil, Russia, India, and China began to offer inexpensive services on a massive scale, another type of outsourcing – offshoring – picked up steam. The price divide between the U.S. and other countries used to be huge, making offshoring a great way to keep costs low. No longer. Prices of foreign-based services are going up and the dollar is down.

When I attended the Agile Development Practices conference last month, I spoke with a number of people whose companies had outsourced almost their entire IT management to an offshore provider. These were large companies mind you. What were the users’ reaction? I heard something about machines sitting under desks that were “off network” so they could get work done. That didn’t sound too secure. When pressed as to why this occurred, I was told that response time was too slow, and that the provider didn’t listen to their requests. The result was that they had to create these “workarounds” to get their jobs done. I was incredulous. Imagine, if they had a local provider working with them, these things might not have happened. I don’t even want to imagine the security holes that were opened up as a result.

Developing software is a different beast than network management. At ADS we successfully work with clients all over the world. We are successful due to our process, the core of which is transparency and communication. So I found it interesting when I saw a LinkedIn user asking about access to development staff. He said that he was working with an offshore provider, and that they wouldn’t let him speak directly with the development staff. Though he didn’t mention whether or not he had asked the provider why this is, he was asking the LinkedIn community if this was normal, and why it was the case. Responses ranged from language barriers to culture.

Frankly, if you are paying to have software developed for you, you should be able to talk directly with the people who are coding it. If not on a continuous basis, then on a planned, daily basis. After all, if developers are talking to clients, they aren’t coding. On the flip side, if developers don’t talk with clients, how do you know that the end result is what you wanted in the first place?

How do we break these language and culture barriers? How do we ensure transparency in the process? How do we keep things secure and flowing smoothly? How do we help bring back the U.S. economy? If you’re a U.S. company and you outsource, keep it close to home.

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