Key Imperatives of Global Sourcing Arrangement

Relationship… Respect… Competence… Attitude… Agility…
During the selection process while building up any global outsourcing relationship put respect, competence and leadership attitude on top of the list. Usually while offshoring, companies expect and ultimately end up getting in the shape of offshore partner – a bunch of low-IQ people with limited intelligence levels and leadership skills – who’re made to just follow the directions.
Search for a Leadership Team in your Global Partner
Now, as is prevalent in today’s highly volatile market, mere software coders or operators without leadership skills are irrelevant to success either they’re seated in-house, onshore or offshore. You need a leadership team in your offshore partner… need to communicate in an alluring yet objective manner the project goals which they need to buy in and lead towards. Especially search out those who can say a bold NO and logically reject some of the specification you’ve laid out in the RFP, and can suggest better alternatives. Almost always this kind of leadership attitude stems from superior competence, sense of ownership and commitment to the engagement in question.
Agility: Common-sense Approach and a Leadership Attitude
After the leadership skill and competence look out for the common-sense approach in their delivery models like Agile/SCRUM – Stringent processes are usually made for those who can’t be expected to make right decisions. Build stronger two-way decision framework as the corner-stone for the service delivery model to replace a sluggish top-down (= west-offshore) process framework.
Communicate <-> Argue <-> Communicate and Win Together!
Communication and single-point project management from both partners should keep the iterative decisions, changes, conflicts and deliveries on track to meet the project objectives. With this model, you’ll no longer need to write lengthy project specification documents for offshore follwers – rather the leaders on both sides can agree on the project objectives – and leave specifications, plans and delivery for mutual argument, settlement and fulfillment throughout the project till the success is achieved.