Finding Reliable Providers of Outsourcing, BPO Services, IT Services, BPO Outsourcing Services

Finding Providers of Outsourcing, BPO Services, IT Services, BPO Outsourcing Services

The article is highly recommended by uFathom Outsourcing, Offshoring & Freelance BPO Network: uFathom BPO is a online marketplace solution for finding providers of small & medium business outsourcing solutions

TOOLS AND PRINCIPLES TO HELP YOU GET STARTED
by Kevin Thompson on Scribd

In his book, The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman says, "We are taking apart each task, standardizing it, and sending it around the world to whoever can do it best...this is not a trivial revolution. This is a major one." We've all seen the effects of outsourcing in the manufacturing industry. China, with its enormous pool of labor, seems to be making everything from toys to cars. When was the last time you bought a product that didn't say "Made in China"? The idea of breaking up tasks and sending them around the world is not a novel idea. In manufacturing, it's always made sense to ship work to people willing to bang steel and make stuff at lower costs. But now, something fundamental changing. The benefits of outsourcing are no longer exclusive to large companies with big and expensive products. With the diffusion of technology and the evolution of Web 2.0, it's easier today than ever for two people (or two organizations) to connect and collaborate on knowledge-based projects. Over the past year, I've benefited tremendously by working with web developers in India, China, and Armenia. I also work with a virtual assistant, Neeti, in Mumbai to handle all my of travel arrangements, data entry, product ordering, market research, and, my wife's favorite, the occasional reminder of upcoming birthdays and anniversaries. The purpose of this article is to inform you of some of the tools I've leveraged to help launch my own business, Advanced Advocates.

REDUCED BARRIER TO ENTRY
It used to be expensive to start a business! People had to hit up friends and family for money, raise venture capital, or bet their life savings on high-risk ventures. They had to hire people, buy computers, programs, office furniture, and lease office space before a single dollar was earned. With such high initial investments, the playing field was limited to people with easy access to cash. Now, companies can leverage open source solutions to cut down on the start-up costs. If you haven't already, it would be worth your time to check out Google apps. For a mere $10, a person can buy a domain name and set up email accounts for 50 people in under five minutes. The service includes free word processing, email, calendaring, IM, and all the other cool Google applications...for free! So now you really don't need to buy servers and set up local networks and buy the Microsoft suite for each employee. With google apps, you can easily plug-in people overseas and pay them on an hourly basis. For example, all of my customer service inquires are handled by Neeti. Less overhead, less office space (if any), fewer barriers and more effective.

BUT WITH A REDUCED BARRIER TO ENTRY...
...there's more competition. Outsourcing is great at allowing people to build innovative businesses without much financing. However, since the opportunities are available for everyone, there's vigorous competition brewing across the globe for dollars, yen, euros, rands, and rupees. Back when we were all kids, our parents had to compete with other people in their individual communities. If they were big shots, they competed against others in the country.


Now, if your job consists of working on a computer, you're competing against people across the globe willing to work hard for much less. And that great idea you've got, the one that can be implemented at low cost. You better move fast, because it's just as easy for someone else to implement. Today, one's ability to competently execute on ideas is the fundamental difference maker.

LOWER MANAGERIAL COSTS
Get rid of the administrative headaches. In his book, Here Comes Everybody , Clay Shirky says that the more people get involved, the managerial costs go up exponentially, not linearly. More people, more costs. There's payroll taxes, office expenses, equipment maintenance, bonuses, higher wages, unemployment insurance, workers compensation insurance, insurance on your insurance, etc. When you outsource tasks, you typically pay a low hourly fee and get to skip the headaches of the administrative details.

But be careful. It's not always sunshine and rainbows. There are some challenges associated with outsourcing tasks. In my personal experience, Indian programmers are not as intuitive as domestic programmers. I would say something like "make this feature similar to what's on Facebook..." and the Indian programmers had no clue. I had to incessantly communicate each feature of the site. It required a lot of time and a lot of patience. So with outsourcing, you're not really getting an equivalent service at a lower cost. If your time is valuable, and you've got money to throw away, then stick with domestic programmers. I did not have this luxury. I've chosen to build a base model with Indian programmers, scale the business up, and professionally rebuild the site with venture funds once the site has been validated in the marketplace. Anybody can do this, including you. Also, it's hard to validate if people overseas are legitimate. With elance.com, there's a userreview process that helps. But still, am I paying a firm with over 50 employees or just some high school kid working from his mom's basement? It's really impossible to tell. Be careful, speak with them on skype, and trust your instincts.

DO WHAT YOU DO BEST, OUTSOURCE THE REST
Cost is not the only factor to consider when outsourcing tasks. If you outsource tasks and the quality of your offering is crap, the rules of logic still apply. Focus on what you do best and outsource other pieces to experts. Whether you outsource across the globe or down the street, be an expert in your field at one thing and leverage the expertise of others to manage the other facets of your business. In the past, companies had to own and control all the processes behind their products. Now, there's a greater emphasis on horizontal collaboration. The companies that win are able to orchestrate horizontally with other vendors to create world class offerings. As Seth Godin says, "Small is the new Big ." Instead of getting too big with too many employees with institutional baggage, stay lean and agile. If your business sells an innovative juice product, and it's now a commodity, then switch vendors and get a new product. It's that simple. In the past, Boeing used to own each stage of production for its airplanes. It literally employed everyone that touched its product. Now, independent contractors in Russia design the wing, people in China design the cockpit, and the plane gets assembled in the United States. Boeing got smaller but they're thinking bigger.

LAWYERS ARE FEELING THE HEAT…
…and so should everyone else. As a lawyer, I'm very interested in this topic and feel strongly about it. I've written about this on my blog, Next Generation Law. Lawyers in the United States have lived comfortably in a bubble safe from foreign competition. However, times are rapidly changing as the legal process outsourcing industry is gaining traction. Instead of paying associates fresh out of law school $250 per hour for easy work, there are seasoned lawyers in India that can do the same types of task at $30 per hour. Granted, the work is limited to basic research, writing, and fact finding. But still, it gives the solo practitioner or the small firm the ability to outsource various tasks and accomplish more for clients at lower costs. I've included a snippet of an email below as an indicator of things to come. Russel Smith, founder of international law firm SDD Global and resident of India, sent this message to his friends. Attached is our brief in the Los Angeles case, in which SDD Global was instrumental and is credited on the signature page. . . I especially like the way we are making it possible for our corporate clients to resist frivolous lawsuits, which in the past would have been settled only to avoid exorbitant fees from the mega law firms, while at the same time helping to "level the playing field" for plaintiff's law firms. These are powerful words that represent significant changes. Lawyers today can be "armies of one" and offer low cost solutions for clients to help them take on big companies. If lawyers have to compete against outsourcing, odds are you do too.

HOW DO YOU GET STARTED?
As the great Mary Kay Ash would always say, "Never spend dollar time doing penny chores." I recommend you read the book, The 4 Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. In his book, you'll discover all sorts of ways to outsource tasks. There are some basic tools to help you connect with qualified people across the globe. I've included a short list below to help you get started. Of course, the relevancy of the suggestions below depend on your individual business models. 1. Skype : With Skype, you can communicate for free with anyone in the world. I've never met a service provider that lacked a skype account. It's free and easy to use. It also offers a desktop sharing feature that allows you to show the provider what you're looking at on your screen. It's great for walking programmers through screenshots and telling them what you like. 2. Google Apps : If you want to easily tie-in people from overseas into your work flow at the office, then google apps makes this super easy. It's easy to create the extra email addresses (with free hosting) and it makes it easy for multiple people to collaborate on documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. It's a powerful tool. If you've already got the servers and the IT infrastructure, then you might be able to accomplish the same thing with virtual networks. But if you're starting from scratch, forget about the expensive IT equipment that requires maintenance and upgrades. 3. Elance : Thank goodness for elance! Elance is a project management site that connects project managers (you) with talent across the world. It's safe and very intuitive. At no charge, you can post your project on the site and review the bids as they come in. When you post the project, you select the categories, give a few details about the work, and state your budget. They have a great reputation management program that helps you select qualified people.

4. uFathom.com: I've honestly never used this service, but I've heard from credible sources it's just as good if not better than elance. It's a similar platform where people can connect and find the best talent.

5. Paypal: It's a must. If you don't have a paypal account and you're thinking about outsourcing, it's time to sign up. Paypal is a safe and secure way to transfer funds between paypal users. It's the only way to pay the service providers when they live overseas. Mailing checks is a thing of the past.

6. Zoho: Zoho is an Indian based company specializing in productivity applications like email, word processing, calendaring, instant messaging, accounting, CRM, etc. Although they have a more robust offering than google apps, the volume of applications makes the whole thing a bit confusing. However, if you're interested in running your entire business from the net, Zoho is a good place to start. I use them for accounting and invoicing, which saves me around $500 per year. Their base offerings are free.

7. GetFriday : Get Friday is a service that specializes in providing virtual assistants. If you're uncomfortable with outsourcing, I highly recommend you start out with a virtual assistant (VA). VAs are great for alleviating headaches. They can book travel arrangements, book restaurant reservations, shop the net for the best deals, make appointments, manage your calendar, and do market research. With Get Friday, I took them for a test run for a week and I was disappointed. I could have worked with a bad assistant. Also, I think they're a little on the expensive side at $10 per hour..

8. Brickworks : Brickwords is the premium version of Get Friday. The assistants are more expensive at $20-$40 per hour, but they're "better." In addition to offering VAs, they offer legal assistants, investment research, and other types of professional tasks. I've worked with Brickworks and thought the price exceeded the benefits. Plus, I got the feeling the assistants were stretched too thin amongst too many people like me.

CONCLUSION
If outsourcing were as easy as buying a pair of shoes, we'd all be doing it. But despite the challenges, the benefits greatly exceed the costs. The best way to learn about the benefits is to start...right now! What's stopping you? Unfortunately, there's no instructional course or "Outsourcing for Dummies!" book. The only way to learn is to do it. In my experience, the practice of outsourcing has opened up several new opportunities for me that were originally unavailable. Now, I can leverage my limited resources and build companies that can compete with the juggernauts of the past. We live in very exciting times where our opportunities are only limited by our imaginations. Even during this time of global economic uncertainty, now is the time to seize on these opportunities and compete. Dream, innovate, and dare to be remarkable!

About the Author
Kevin Thompson is founder and president of Advanced Advocates, an exclusive platform for law students across the globe. He is a lawyer, entrepreneur, and agent of change. His ideas about the changing legal landscape was featured on the notorious blog, Buzzmachine. He started his own law practice, The Advocate Group, where he specializes in regulatory issues surrounding the network marketing industry. For more information or to set up an appointment for consultation, please contact Kevin directly. You can read Kevin’s commentary at his blog, Next Generation Law. He enjoys connecting with people and sharing ideas on various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. He graduated law school from the University of Tennessee College of Law where he also achieved all‐American honors in track and field.