There has been a wave of articles that state China’s up and coming dominance in the information technology offshore outsourcing industry even in comparison to big players like India. China, like India has a large labor supply of developers and other technology workers. Despite the quick and steady rise of China as an outsourcing leader, there are many concerns when outsourcing critical technology work to any firm. Some of the main concerns related to China outsourcing are:
1) Language and cultural barriers
When dealing with foreign firms, getting the specifications at a level where it is easily understood and effortlessly translated to good quality code can be a wearisome process. Even if language barriers don’t pose much of an issue, overcoming cultural barriers can be difficult.
2) Project Management
Despite China’s reputation in having very hard working and dedicated developers that produce quality code, the lack of project management proficiency can hinder the outsourced task at hand.
3) Seemingly marginal issues like Chinese characters or references in code and time zone issues.
Without clearly understandable and defined specifications on coding practices and project schedules, these issues could pose as non trivial predicaments down the road.
4) Intellectual property
With so many stories of China’s pirated software and technology industry out there, concerns of intellectual property are always a concern. Who wants their website stolen, rewritten and sold for millions? It does happen.
I’ve worked on various projects in the past where we contemplated outsourcing to China, the Philippines or India and these were some of the issues that came up. When I joined Startech Global, I had many questions about their teams in China and how communication between our U.S. offices took place. I was please to find out the effort we took to minimize and address many of these potential problems.
With a team of dedicated and experienced bilingual technical project management staff located at the Startech Global headquarters in the U.S., many of the cultural and language barriers are reduced. The U.S. staff is also adept in preparing specifications and technical documentation for China’s development process as well as reviewing and evaluating code for production and delivery.
As far as time zone differences, due to years of working with the Startech Global administrative staff and engineers in China, coordinating schedules have been fine tuned to an efficient process.
Although Startech has collaborated with many of the engineers in China for many years and have known them to be exceptionally trustworthy and reliable, we also know that the procedures and precautions taken for security and integrity of intellectual property can not be taken lightly. The engineering done in China are executed in a secure environment, located at the development facility in the heart of China’s own Silicon Valley. While managing clients in the U.S., project managers pass on only the necessary and required technical specifications and documentation for China’s local implementation. This reduces concerns of losing the integrity of intellectual property.
I’m excited to see what the future of outsourcing holds for technology firms, small businesses as well as large corporations. If you have any innovative ideas tips in the field of outsourcing or China or any other countries, please write to us and let us know.
Tags: Outsourcing
Category: News, Outsourcing Tips, Technology