The idea of Geo-arbitrage is great… “Earn Dollars by selling locally… outsource your labour offshore… pay in Rupees… keep the difference”…
It’s practically a licence to print money!
WRONG!
The idea is great IN THEORY…
But IN THEORY, Communism works too.
Face the facts - (you’ll never read this in the “Four Hour Work Week”) - Geo-arbitrage is a con.
FACT: There is no “global labour market imbalance”. Economic imbalances correct themselves quickly.
FACT: You get what you pay for.
FACT: When pay you peanuts, you get monkeys.
FACT: In almost any situation - if you live in a western country, you can get the same result CHEAPER and BETTER when you hire locally.
That’s why a growing number of companies who previously outsourced are now nursing their pride, and bringing their operations back on-shore.
Why Hiring Offshore Outsourcing Providers Sucks:
1 - Lower Quality Output
Let’s face it, the vast majority of people you’ll find bidding on sites like Guru, Elance etc - they just aren’t from countries KNOWN for producing quality outputs.
Take Japan, for example.
The culture in Japan is one where mistakes are seen as a dual-edged sword. On the one hand, they’re not tollerated - but on the other, they’re embraced as learning experiences.
Companies like Toyota have built empires on this philosophy - battle-hardening and systemising the most minute details of their business, to a point where their products now out-perform, out-sell, and out-last just about about of their competitors.
As an example, compare this type of efficiency and effectiveness you experienced with your last experience with an Indian telemarketer.
Why is this?
Is it caused by culture? Capability? Lack of industry experience (caused by massive growth)? Poor management (not enough “wise and time-proven” managers leading the pack)? Lack of effective training? Are the only companies looking for work online the crappy ones nobody else will employ?
Maybe it’s all of the above.
2 - Difficulty Handling Complex Tasks
Sure, it takes time for someone to be brought “up to speed” - but if I’m hiring a company that specialises in X (X = PHP development, Virtual Assistance, whatever), shouldn’t they be able to handle something slightly more complicated than the average project?
If you haven’t outsourced before, it’s really simple.
You read about Tim Ferriss’s Four Hour Work Week, and decide to hire a virtual assistant.
Let’s say you manage to find a company that actually has some experienced VA’s (not one that’s just hiring as a result of the post-4HWW-boom… ha, good luck!)
You read the introduction letter, and find out about your new VA…
“Degree in Science, Masters in Microbiology - she’s great! She should be running a laboratory, not doing my dirty-work!”
You set her a reasonably easy task to begin…
You get questions. Then more questions. Simple questions, not hard ones. Questions with obvious answers - things you don’t need to answer. Questions that show a lack of attention to detail.
Suddenly, you come to the realisation…
“Yes, my Virtual Assistant has a university degree - but she JUST CAN’T THINK!”
Did you get a bad apple?
You try again… With other Virtual Assistants… Programmers… Article Writers… Whatever.
You hire more expensive providers, cheaper ones, give them different tasks.
The problem remains the same.
For some reason, your “paid monkeys” just can’t work this one out.
3 - Constant Mistakes and Misunderstandings
Re-doing work is a killer of profitability and productiveness.
Screw-ups need to be paid for by someone.
Surely your systems should be improved with every screw up… But you still need to fix the problem in the immediate term.
Suddenly, you get drawn into “managing” the people/company who is supposed to be “managing” the task for you - telling them what went wrong, and what they need to do to fix it.
Once you’ve nailed them down on the problem, someone needs to pay to fix it.
Will your outsourcing company pay the costs? Will they expect you to pay them to fix the mistake? Or will you end up back at square one, looking for a NEW company to use?
Hang on - wasn’t this outsourcing thing meant to improve your efficiency?
4 - You Spend More Time Doing Their Job
This is another issue that comes down to “ability to think independently”.
Every minute detail has to be specified - or when you get the output back, the things you didn’t specifically ask for are simply “missing”.
“Yes, I asked for an email enquiry form on my website… But why is there no ‘SUBMIT’ button?!”
In my experience, this is particularly true for programming and development projects.
Every detail needs to be spelled out.
Every… mundane… tedious… painstaking… eye-popping detail…
Augh!
And even then, something gets missed!
You have to spend time completing review… Spend time bug testing… Spend time chasing up outputs that aren’t delivered… Spend time kicking people’s butts…
It all takes time…
How much is this time really worth to you?
5 - It Takes Longer
OK - so you’re paying $5 per hour… That’s heaps cheaper than the $20 per hour you could pay if you hired your next door neighbour, right?
WRONG… If it takes 4 times longer to generate the same output, it’s the exact same price.
In my humble experience, even “high quality” outsourcing companies have invariably delivered less output, to a lower quality, with more time spent - than similar tasks completed on-shore.
6 - You Pay The Cultural Costs
Finally - and this might be an obvious one - you lose a sense of cultural understanding when you don’t hire locally.
Think logically about what you expect from outsourcing providers…
- Getting your Virtual Assistant to organise a child’s birthday party in Melbourne… When she’s never lived in Melbourne.
- Getting a telemarketer to “sell” phone plans to Australians, when she’s never even spoken to an Australian in-person.
- Getting a writer to write an article for you in English, when they’re not a native English speaker.
It just doesn’t work.
The more time I spend outsourcing offshore, the less value I see in it, and the less I’m coming to expect from providers.
Sure, when you have a “point and click” task that can be completed by a well-trained monkey, that’s when paying peanuts offshore is OK.
But when you have “Important”, “Critical” or “High Value” tasks, you’re just wasting your time, and frustrating your guys.
It’s cheaper, more effective, and more efficient to exclusively hire from first-world countries.
Popularity: 15%
StumbleUpon
Digg
del.icio.us
Technorati
RSS
Email This
32 responses so far ↓
1 Gavin Allinson // Apr 9, 2008 at 9:27 pm
Hi Brent,
I agree a lot with what you said in your post.
I particulalry agree that your experience is the case when you are wanting people to write content for you. You can’t get people that are any good from overseas to write blog posts for you and even do any decent blog commenting. It’s a waste of time trying.
If there english is that good they are intelligent enough to get a better job than that.
If you want to get people to write junky articles that you are going to use just to get rankings or people to click on a link then you can get articles that no one is really going to read for $5 to $10 a pop.
Telemarketing I’d leave that to the big boys even with their resources they don’t do a great job we’ve all had the calls.
So if you think you are going to find some body on a budget to sell your widget for you or set up appointments. You’re going to be pushing sh*t up hill.
A western person who knows enough about internet marketing to write posts for a blog should be doing that for themselves rather than for you. Thats where you may get an intern to do ti for you but trying to find someone to do it as their part time job is going to be hard too.
I think we’re outsourcing to developing countries comes into it’s own is when you have developed a process and a system that you want to leverage and expand.
Or where you have the same time consuming task that you need to do every day e.g adding your new friends to face book, sending birthday cards to clients, cleaning out your spam, adding a video to your site, posting it in other areas, keyword research etc.
I have to say that employing ‘local’ people is not the panacea you are looking for. I’ve paid the local market rate and burned through loads of cash because they thought they knew best and constructed something I did not want. The mistake was over just as quick but it cost more in terms of cash.
There’s the balance between the indian va asking too many questions and the western person being gung ho!
let me know how you get on
Gavin Allinson
Outsource Success
2 Brent Hodgson // Apr 10, 2008 at 12:10 am
G’day Gavin,
The types of projects I’ve outsourced to date have been VA work, application and web development, design, writing (junky articles as placeholder text), writing genuine articles (hiring native English speakers), data gathering and data processing.
Development (programming) is where most of my outsourcing goes right now.
For the record (anyone reading) I’ve used Gavin’s company for data-gathering tasks - I’d use them again, and I know that Gavin’s guys are ranked as some of James Brausch’s top ranked outsourcing providers.
Gavin understands outsourcing, and does the management for you.
(Love your work, Gavin! ;))
Brent
3 Danielle Keister // Apr 10, 2008 at 2:22 am
I agree with much of your post, but there are a few misconceptions I want to clear up…
Virtual Assistance originated in the United States, and the primary countries with practicing, true Virtual Assistants are the United States, Canada, Australia and the UK.
Virtual Assistance is not “anyone doing anything virtually.” It is a profession and a specific brand of administrative support based on an ongoing, systemic, collaborative relationship with clients.
Industry outsiders and offshoring companies who haven’t done their homework have coopted our industry’s terminology. Now we have huge segments of the market who are miseducated to think that Virtual Assistants are programmers, web designers, copywriters, bookkeepers, accountants, etc.
Those things are not Virtual Assistance. Those are professions in and of themselves that require special skillsets, training, knowledge and expertise that don’t have anything to do with Virtual Assistance.
For a history of our profession, as well as a glossary of terminology to better understand the different administrative industries out there, see these pages:
http://www.virtualassistantnetworking.com/history.htm
http://www.virtualassistantnetworking.com/glossary.htm
4 Brent Hodgson // Apr 10, 2008 at 2:51 am
Hi Danielle,
Good clarifying points.
For what it’s worth - I think Tim Ferriss stays true to the definition of Virtual Assistance in his books, as do the companies he mentions (although they do employ designers, programmers etc - and manage the process of having VA’s outsource to them in-house…)
Brent
5 Danielle Keister // Apr 10, 2008 at 3:07 am
No, in fact, he doesn’t.
A large part of the Virtual Assistant industry let out a collective groan when his book was published. It’s been a bane to our industry’s marketing because it gives a lot of people the impression to outsource their “flunky” work and expect business owners to operate at cheap, $5/hr rates. Very frustrating.
He did our industry–and people who are in business for themselves in all kinds of industries–a huge disservice. The work I do for clients isn’t “flunky” work, and it’s not beneath them. It’s just not a good use of their time, nor can they do it as well as I can. By hiring someone like me or any other competent, qualified Virtual Assistant, they instill efficiency and profitability in their business.
Administration is the backbone and foundation of every single business. It’s important and not everyone has the skill to do that work, do it well and beyond well–which is why they hire a Virtual Assistant. And the value and results I bring to clients, as do many of my colleagues, is going to cost something. Plain and simple.
At any rate, if you ever want real support from real Virtual Assistants, my organization is a fantastic resource. Of particular interest:
Client’s Guide to Virtual Assistants:
http://www.virtualassistantnetworking.com/client-guide.htm
How to Hire a Virtual Assistant:
http://www.virtualassistantnetworking.com/how-to-hire-a-virtual-assistant.htm
Virtual Assistant Directory:
http://www.virtualassistantnetworking.com/directory/
RFP Center:
http://www.virtualassistantnetworking.com/rfp-center.htm
Get to Know Our Virtual Assistants:
http://www.virtualassistantnetworking.com/subscribe.htm
6 SoftwareSweatshop // Apr 10, 2008 at 7:27 am
Brent,
Outsourcing does suck… I own a Chicago-based offshore software development firm and I know one thing, you get what you pay for.
You’ve probably been called by 100’s of “Bob’s from Bangalore” but many offshore firms are little more than ’software sweatshops’ that over-promise and under-deliver. Most companies we talk to have gotten burned when going offshore, or are disgruntled to say the least. But it serves them right… that’s what happens to cheapskates and penny pinchers.
We’re not for everyone and we only work with clients that demand high quality and are willing to pay for it. I created a silly blog making fun of the entire outsourcing industry (SoftwareSweatshop.com) Finding good developers isn’t hard, but finding reliable developers is.
Outsourcing is about high value, not low cost. Communication and reliability are the most important factors in outsourcing. You can work around technical limitations, but you can’t work around incompetence.
Raza Imam
7 Your page is now on StumbleUpon! // Apr 10, 2008 at 9:30 am
8 Burton Kent - Acupuncture Marketing // Apr 10, 2008 at 9:52 am
Brent,
My experience is much like yours. I can’t tell you how many coding projects I’ve had that fell through on Rentacoder and Elance. I’ve got two projects that fell through 3x each. That not only wasted my time — they’re STILL not done.
On the other hand, I’ve found some good coders and good workers that I can use again and again. They do the work ON TIME, ask intelligent questions, and clarify where needed (I don’t think it’s possible not to need clarification, unless the task is simple and repeatable).
Send the good people bonuses and treat them like gold. They’re worth it.
Burton
P.S. I’m still looking for a good PHP programmer at geo-arbitraged prices. Know any?
9 Brent Hodgson // Apr 10, 2008 at 1:03 pm
@ Danielle - I disagree. Although he conditioned people to expect low prices ($5 per hour) - which I disagree with also, the type of work he wrote about was literally managing his business.
Other examples he gave (such as the editor friend he case studied) used their VA for tasks similar to what you would expect a personal assistant to do.
Danielle, I don’t think VA’s in your industry (in western countries) really sell their value very well. $35-$70 for administration tasks - although you may be competing with “flunkies” at $5-10 per hour, the value proposition isn’t a no-brainer.
What can a VA earning the equivalent of $70-$140,000 per year do that other local providers can’t? - Secretaries hired on a casual basis, work at home Mum’s with a background in your industry who want a day’s work, even other employees in the same company.
Can a VA deliver x2-x3 the value of these providers? (Or 3.5-14 times the value of an Indian “flunkie”.)
@Burton - I wrote another post on outsourcing PHP Development recently (”Don’t make this costly outsourcing mistake”).
My conclusion was that it was likely cheaper and better to have the work completed locally at $44-50 per hour (@Danielle - this is a point of comparison - here’s the mid-range of what Western VA’s want, for a University Qualified and skilled programmer, with a more rare skill that requires constant skills-updates…)
@Raza - I also don’t take on small projects in my work. Small projects are how I trial providers - if they can’t handle small projects, how can I trust them with the big stuff.
Brent
10 Brent Hodgson // Apr 10, 2008 at 1:08 pm
@Danielle - I found this on Raza’s blog:
http://www.softwaresweatshop.com/storage/Outsourcing%20Poster.jpg
11 Brent Hodgson // Apr 10, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Got a laugh out of it - it’s tongue in cheek - not sure if you’ll appreciate it though.
If only it weren’t true :\
12 Danielle Keister // Apr 10, 2008 at 3:38 pm
But Brent, that’s the thing… programmers are programmers–not Virtual Assistants. Wrong terminology.
I agree with you that our industry doesn’t know how to sell its value–that’s something we’re helping with in my organization.
Personally, I have no problem helping clients understand my value. I work with retained clients who pay a fee upfront each month for a package of support that covers a scope of administrative support that takes care of their needs. That package boils down to roughly $75 to $85/hr and I’m turning clients away. My clients see very quickly what a bargain that simple monthly fee is after just a month or two of working together.
But again, you are absolutely correct that overall my industry sucks at selling it’s value; most don’t really understand what their true value is and they keep trying to compare themselves to employees.
Hmmmm, perhaps we need a bit of consulting with you.
13 Danielle Keister // Apr 10, 2008 at 3:39 pm
The link isn’t coming up for me…
14 Brent Hodgson // Apr 10, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Hi Danielle,
Yes, understood - programmers aren’t VA’s - the example I gave as a price comparison.
Perhaps a better price comparison - what could I get from a $75-85 VA that I couldn’t get from a $15 per hour administration assistant hired on a casual basis? How would I receive a measurable 5x more value?
Would love to have you do a bit of consulting for me - but I don’t understand the price justification. What is it about your services that makes you 5 times more valuable than hiring an administrative assistant on a casual basis?
I do believe that in most cases, more expensive western providers are more profitable than cheaper offshore outsourcers (for programming, VA and even simple “monkey” tasks).
This is able to be measured and compared, but it’s only true up to a certain price point.
Brent
15 Danielle Keister // Apr 10, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Not to be flip, but let me turn that around… Why do clients hire you? Why not just get a cheap college student (hey, they know how to read and write, right?)? What value do you deliver that they can’t? What makes you worth your rate? Your answers are very similar to what makes Virtual Assistants (truly competent, qualified ones, that is) worth every dime to our market.
But there’s also this… Virtual Assistants aren’t valuable to everyone. Our service isn’t intended to replace employees. Sometimes, a business simply does need employees… or can get buy with flunky labor or a casual secretary or temp.
But those clients in those situations aren’t our market.
Our solution is designed to help business owners (mainly solo/small/business business owners), who don’t want to manage employees, don’t want to have to train or deal with the administrative burdens of employees, who don’t have the space for employees or temps (which is typically the case when they run a home-based business or are some sort of road-warrier type professional), or don’t have a large enough workload to justify the expense of an employee, much less attract one, even a casual one.
But that market still needs administrative support, and they have demonstrated a huge demand for highly skilled support.
Our solution fits that bill. But… it’s not task-based. And I agree with you… the value isn’t readily apparent, which is why it does take an intentional and systematic approach in pre-educating the client and then getting them into consultation where the value can be better and further articulated… but I digress…
Getting back to subject, what this market learns one way or another is that transactional, task-based project work just doesn’t cut it for them. A provider doesn’t get to know a client’s business that way, which is necessary if they are to deliver the kind of right-hand support that yields more far-reaching results that only comes with working together in an ongoing relationship, but which they can’t get in the traditional way (employees, temps, etc.) Again, this is what the concept of our profession is based on, and it is the only way our market receives that greater value and the kind of results that really help them move forward in their business.
16 Brent Crouch // Apr 11, 2008 at 12:47 am
Hi Brent,
I was lucky to learn this lesson quickly. I paid for 10 articles on elance relating to purchasing wholesale products. The articles I received read like a dictionary. “Wholesale products means to buy products at wholesale prices.” The content was terrible.
What added insult to injury was finding the writer had posted the articles to every article directory she could find and linked back to her site.
I’ve now found a local writer that is a law professor that decided she wanted to be a stay at home mom. At $15 - $20 a pop, her articles are slightly more expensive but 100 times better.
Brent
(the other one)
17 Brent Hodgson // Apr 11, 2008 at 3:56 am
@Danielle - I’m not too far off a college student
Still a young pup - just I have some runs on the board (like a $570,000 in 37 minutes marketing campaign, plus great results in Adwords etc) so I’m bankable.
It’s an easy price justification - people pay me more because I make them more.
I see it as a more difficult proposition if you’re on the “Expense” side of the balance sheet rather than the “Income” side though.
For the most part, I wonder how VA’s justify their $35-70
Re: Task based relationships - they’re a necessary part of business. If you’re not running a task-based business, time gets wasted. What else is there to do when the task isn’t being completed?
In marketing or web development, the client pays you to understand their business then complete a task. If you deliver, there’s usually more work.
I’m glad you’re making money.
Though I see that your frustrations with the market are coming from a mismatch of needs and offerings. What you’re offering, and what my segment of the market is looking for, are two different things.
If there’s a smart VA could make a lot of money using their skills to simply give the market what they want rather than complaining that the market won’t meet their needs as a VA.
There’s plenty of money to be made and a huge volume of work targeting these people.
Maybe I’m just some dumb marketer who doesn’t understand your industry, but when I’m growing businesses, I don’t educate customers. I just take customers’ money, and give them what they want… which is why I scratch my head and wonder why VA’s are complaining that the market’s changed, and they’re dealing with customers who are offering to pay to do business a slightly different way.
@Brent (the other one) - this is exactly what I’m wanting to hire more of…
The ex-professional work-at-home Mum who is aptly overqualified for admin and tasks that involve the day-to-day running of my business, but she wants an extra income from home.
These are the people who I see as the best candidates to take over the day-to-day running of my business.
18 Raza Imam // Apr 11, 2008 at 3:59 am
$570k in a 37 minute marketing campaign? Please ping me, I think I need your help!
Best,
Raza
19 Danielle Keister // Apr 11, 2008 at 7:12 am
And that’s exactly why clients pay us Virtual Assistants (true Virtual Assistants) what we charge–because we make them more money. In fact, if you view my website, you’ll see that is part of my conversation with visitors, and how I do that: http://www.therelief.com).
You see, we aren’t selling administrative tasks. Yes, that’s what we do, but what we’re really selling is convenience, and more time and “space” to be, think and create. That just doesn’t happen on an occasional, transactional basis. That comes by working in ongoing, intimate, if you will, collaboration. That’s the concept.
But I understand where you’re coming. You aren’t part of our market. And from the sounds of it, you’re pretty invested in not buying what I’m selling.
What we’re frustrated with is that those who aren’t Virtual Assistants and who don’t understand the concept have coopted our terminology and therefore educated people like yourself to think that occasional, one-off, sporadic transactional tasks is Virtual Assistance. It’s not. That’s merely secretarial services. And if that’s all a business owner needs, that’s okay. But I see many of them after they’ve tried things that way and end up with exactly the kind of frustrations you’ve voiced in here in this blog post.
20 Danielle Keister // Apr 11, 2008 at 7:28 am
Oh, a bit more to add…
There is something to be said for giving customers what they want. And I think that’s especially true when the product/service is commoditized and project/transaction oriented.
But see, the things our clients and our marketplace are trying to accomplish aren’t accomplished in the ways they think they want them done (transactionally).
Personally, I don’t care about just taking people’s money. That’s just so boring. I could do that all day long. What I am interested is providing something of value that yields far greater results for clients. It’s just more interesting and professionally gratifying and challenging. Purpose is a huge part of why solo professionals do what they do. Might not be understandable to some, but there you have it.
With regard to the ex-professional-work-at-home-Mum-who-is-aptly-overqualified-for-admin-and-tasks-that-involve-the-day-to-day-running-of-my-business-but-wants-an-extra-income-from-home, get it while you can because eventually they realize their worth or move on to other things one their interests or priorities change.
21 Danielle Keister // Apr 11, 2008 at 7:45 am
But as far as bottomlines go, it’s also not profitable for me to “give clients what they want” in the manner you suggest. So if you think we should be going where the money is, that’s exactly what we do right now–we make far more with retained clients and work less hard marketing and chasing down new clients and work by delivering our brand of solution in the manner we do it, without having to create a bigger business or different model (which is usually not our intention).
22 gavin allinson // Apr 12, 2008 at 8:46 am
i’m struggling to believe that danielle is turning away Clients and still finds the time to post at so much length here.
it must be costing you a fortune
the western world does not own the term virtual assistant, there are enough people out there who will pay $75 an hour.
Tim FerrIss did you a favour because if more people ge disillusioned with indian va’s then you’ll be able to mop up the disillusioned.
Gavin
23 Danielle Keister // Apr 12, 2008 at 9:04 am
Hmmm, why so hard to believe?
I have four monthly retained clients who pay 20-hour a month administrative support retainers, and who also pay separate retainers for the separate divisions in my business for bookkeeping, web design and desktop publishing. Those separate divisions also generate additional project income, and I have several passive income streams.
I also run my business like a business. I’m not the one doing all the work. I have my own assistants who take care of my admin work as well as working on parts of my client work.
I’ve intentionally set up my business like a business and in a manner that allows me a great deal of flexibility to spend my time as I see fit. And I did all that before Tim Ferriss ever thought about regurgitating principles that have been around for ages before his book.
But I’m not knocking it… Much of what in the book is excellent information for setting up a business that allows freedom for quality of life and having time for things beyond just work (like living life). And he does say it in a new, fresher way that folks are obviously receptive to. He just didn’t portray us Virtual Assistants in a manner we appreciate.
But why such animosity simply for participating in the conversation?
24 Gavin Allinson // Apr 13, 2008 at 5:06 am
no animosity intended Danielle.
I’m just surprised how passionate you are that the only virtual assistants that you seem to recognise charge $35 to $75 an hour and are based in the western world
and how disrespectful you are of Tim Ferriss and what he has achieved ‘ regurgitate principles? ‘
No he just went out there and organised his life and his business using VA’s that cost in the $5 to $10 region.
25 Guest // Apr 16, 2008 at 3:55 pm
hi.. i agree on some facts you have posted but not all are cheap. there are also people who has the capability to write and give what you have desired too. sometimes we committed mistakes but don’t generalize. someday you can hire somebody that will satisfy your needs.
26 Allen Salem // Jan 26, 2009 at 7:47 am
You nailed the crux of the problem right in the bullseye. I have done around 30 projects with overseas “providers” and I must say I am getting real tired of their laziness, outright lying and major lack of detail. You have to spell every detail and it still doesn’t get done even to 50% correct.
They are only good for very cheap and easy tasks like that you could do with your left testicle, but are too lazy to do, so you outsource it.
For anything more advanced stay away. Hire locally with people you can oversee in person.
Great honest article.
27 4HWW Around the Web | fivehourworkweek.net // Feb 26, 2009 at 1:44 pm
28 Rajendra Shekhawat // May 2, 2009 at 9:01 am
Hi … Being part of multiple offshore projects, i kind of agree and disagree on the reasons.
I have been part of very successful and failure projects.
Managing Offshore Projects is also a skill, which lot of project managers don’t possess.
Some of the important points to remember -
- Understanding different cultures and views
- Focus on documentation of spec for global teams
- Understanding skill sets and assigning tasks accordingly
- Devoting extra hours to compensate for time difference
- Utilizing different tracking and managing softwares for global teams
Point No 1 - Lower Quality Output - Don’t agree. Quality is dependent on the cost factor. Cheap resources will result in low quality. Finding and associating resources skill-set with respect to tasks, is the important aspect.
Point No. 2 - Difficulty Handling complex tasks - Partially Agree - It may be due to global teams or not enough documentation
Point 3 - Constant Mistakes and Misunderstandings - Partially Agree
It may happen due to both the parties. It is bound to happen due to global teams.
Point 4 - You spend more time doing your job - Disagree - If you are into managing offshore projects, it is a full time job. You cannot expect teams sitting across the world to magically understand and develop projects, without active involvement of client teams
Point 5 : It Takes Longer - Disagree. Ideally, it should take less time as team are working in different time zones. May be due to bad management or expectations mismatch.
Better understanding on managing offshore projects would help.
29 laurie // Jul 22, 2009 at 4:26 pm
I am so sick of calling tech support and getting someone whose English is so garbled I spend half the phone conversation saying.. ” excuse me can you repeat that”
I grew up in a multilingual household and I am used to thick accents but really the tech support nowadays is just unbearable. I have, on most occasions, received such poor service from untrained staff that in most cases I have to find a friend who can assist. The companies believe they are saving money but in actuality they are getting ripped off because the outsourced employee is worthless and you end up with a negative feeling toward the company that is using them.
I needed to rant on why outsourcing sucks. I wish I could name ONE incident in which through outsourcing I received superior service but it hasn’t happened yet.
Tip for Companies…want cheap American labor? Do what 411 does. Their outsourcing to FEDERAL Prisons and AMERICAN inmates who are trained work the call center for less that $1 per day. Now thats cheap labor
30 Chris Johns // Sep 25, 2009 at 8:30 am
The problem is, when you get someone really good that you are happy with, you wouldnt know they are in another country. So you negative impression is based on negative experiences and excluding positive ones. I have hired 100’s of Western folks in western countries and most suck, its very hard to find good people anywhere in the world. You are just as likely to find a crappy VA for $25 an hour and be dissatisfied. Many small business owners don’t have a good benchmark for comparison, meaning they havent hired a lot of local employees.
Hiring on Elance or Odesk is aweful, I agree. Hire a real compan, hire a dedicated person that works full time for you and you will be happy like most of our clients. We are a US Publicly listed company (Ticker: SSVE) with hugely satisfied clients that have teams of one to 100 dedicated employees handling VA, Customer service, tech support and back office support and more.
We manage much of the process, HR, supervision, technology and do it for the same $5 per hour rate.
31 Daniel // Oct 4, 2009 at 6:01 pm
Very Interesting. I see people complaining all the time about the standard of work that they receive when hiring on places like oDesk. At present I am living in Philippines but originally hail from UK and doing work online is the only way that I can make a decent living here.
Why do people get shoddy work, have any of you had a look at what companies are wanting to pay for anything. Take your @ Brent Crouch crappy articles that you paid for and ended up paying $15-20 dollars a pop(slightly more expensive). Are you honestly telling me that you offered someone on elance at least $10 an article, if that is the case please let me know when you are going to post another project and I’ll be the first to bid. Last time I looked people are wanting articles written for $1(must be fluent in English with excellent grammar and spelling-OH yeah and it must be done yesterday)
The standard of living is a lot less in countries like Philippines and if any of you actually stopped trying to get quality work for peanuts and paid a decent rate then the providers wouldn’t abandon your project when a better offer came along. Getting $1-$2/hr is in nobody’s best interest and you have only yourself to blame when you are let down. Please feel free to spam my email with offers of $10 articles. daniel_lindsay@rocketmail.com
32 supportsave.com - Sites Linking in - from Alexa // Dec 26, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Leave a Comment