Collaboration and Outsourcing

Recently I came across a very heated discussion about outsourcing and observed a lot of professionals who support both collaboration and outsourcing or support collaboration but not outsourcing. Majority of the participants involved in this discussion had a personal take on most of the outsourcing issue and I see no harm in that. But somehow we were missing the point?

It was supposed to be a debate on collaboration and somehow it crossed the line (which is very blurred) to outsourcing.

The boundaries of countries and continents have blurred, what we attach ourselves to are cities rather than countries. I am sure all of us are patriots and want to put our country first but when we talk contextually, we mention the city we belong to rather than a country. The point here is that the world is now a global platform. If an architect has an office in Chicago he would be more than willing to work in Shanghai and an architect in Mumbai would definitely be more than welcome to do a project in Dubai. Similarly he needs to collaborate with the local expert or the expert in the particular discipline to deliver efficiently.

The profession is changing, the technologies are changing, everyone can no longer do everything attached to the profession. It is best left to a person who does it best. So if a firm's core focus is design and that is what they do best, they have a partner come in who can give them BIM or CAD support. The geographical location then becomes secondary as is the location of the project . Costs maybe a critical issue in today's time but it is no longer a primary issue to partner/ collaborate or outsource on projects.

'Offshoring' has lost meaning says Nasscom

Business Standard reports neither companies in India nor their clients keen on using the word 'offshoring' given the politics associated with the word in the world market, according to software body Nasscom.

"The word offshoring has lost its meaning and is getting off the vocabulary of our members and customers. This is getting replaced by 'global sourcing' which is already happening; they want to get things done wherever it makes sense for them," Nasscom President Som Mittal told the media here today. Clients come to India not because of the cost arbitrage in terms of salary but to enjoy the 'resource arbitrage' in terms of getting quality manpower, he added.

Read more

Source: Business Standard

Outsourcing firms - You MUST be world class in quality, lowest in international cost and faster than Speedy Gonzales in a Mexican bordello bedroom.

This contribution is an extension from the discussion "What country would you recommend to outsource an IT project to?" from our Linkedin group CAD Outsourcing.

This piece has been contributed by Mr. Charles Traylor who is a registered architect in Texas (formerly a holder of 21 state registrations), holder of an NCARB certificate, and a member of the AIA. He currently resides in Dallas, Texas. His take on the question asked above is as follows,

I would like to make a contribution to this discussion. Briefly stated, outsourcing works-with brass knobs on. It is a killer cutting edge 21st century resource, and anyone, who ignores or bypasses using outsourcing is as upside down, inside out and backwards as a latter day 19th century blacksmith, trying to compete with a horse and a surrey with the fringe on top at last year's Indianapolis 500.

I am a US Citizen, a registered architect in Texas (formerly a holder of 21 state registrations), holder of an NCARB certificate, and a member of the AIA. I work and live in Dallas, Texas, and in a month I will be relocating to Princeville, Hawaii, where I will be expanding our company's services to Guam and the Orient. I just returned from spending 5 months in West Palm Beach Florida, where my wife and I sat out the winter months to dodge the cold weather in Texas.

My company has been outsourcing CAD work product successfully for over 17 years. We have been outsourcing BIM work product for the last 2 years. During all that time I have worked from a personal computer station in my home or out on the road. I coordinate a wide area network of CAD and BIM architect collaborators, who are located in countries all over the world.

I WILL say this. Most companies in the outsourcing business, who are competing for work in the United States don't have a clue. It is axiomatic in this business. You MUST be world class in quality, lowest in international cost and faster than Speedy Gonzales in a Mexican bordello bedroom.

Big multinational companies would have you believe that there is this huge consolidation of business into the oligarchial hands of the tew. Nothing could be further from the truth. The fact of the matter is that outsourcing makes potential Daddy Warbucks out of every person on the planet. We all are equipped with basically the same body parts and brains. The winners in this global ever increasingly outsourcing and international collaborating and trading economy are the ones, who like Johnathan Livingston Seagull, have the guts and the vision to get out there and to do aggressive wing overs, nose dives and smack down on the deck flat out full throttled flying.

Carpe diem, baby!

Outsourcing BIM - The Process & Mr. SPOC

What country would you recommend to outsource an IT project to?

An interesting discussion on our group CAD Outsourcing on Linkedin. I am posting the discussion here for people who are not members.

Question
Nowadays outsourcing IT projects to a remote company is a very popular tendency. You can find a lot of companies from all over the world providing programming services for a much lower cost, than in the US market. Developing countries offer the lowest rates. But will it be a quality and bug-free work at last?

What is the best country for outsourcing IT projects in a ratio of price to quality? Do you have such experience?


Trey Werner
CAD Designer / Technician

From what I have read, there will be a BIG tax on outsourcing any work from the USA. With the way the economy currently is, let’s keep the work here and get America back to work.
Posted 8 days ago | Reply Privately | Delete comment

Jimmy Roa
CEO/Entrepreneur/Sr. Consultant at Staffingforce

The decision to outsource often is made with the goal of lowering the firm’s costs, redirecting or conserving energy on the competencies of your business, and to make more efficient use of labor, capital, technology and resources.

Financial reasons for outsourcing is to immediately generate cost savings. Cost efficiency is created from the savings in manpower costs, ownership costs of computer hardware and software, and other related overhead
expenses.

Although, a lot of times it’s a matter of economics, quality and timely delivery are just as important. When choosing an offshore provider , it’s best to check out track records, references, sample projects and staff resumes. Do not merely base your decision on costs.

My company does Cad outsourcing from the Philippines and we go by the One-team Concept. The idea is to develop a partnership between us and the client that will foster a true alliance. We are partners in achieving the overall goals of cost savings, process improvement, and greater time for your core business. To accomplish this, there should be commitment, constant communication and continuous alignment.
Posted 8 days ago | Reply Privately | Delete comment

Krishan Sharma
Independent GIS Professional

India off-course is the best choice, it is reliable and reasonable in price and have some of the best technicals experts in this line, please contact us. www. kksgroup.in
Posted 8 days ago | Reply Privately | Delete comment

Dale Price
Civil Engineering Professional

Well lets see. You get what you pay for. If you want it cheaply done then it will be. India is and will always undercut us as long as their wages stay so low. I think that if a U.S. company has to outsource to another nation just to keep its costs low then they just need to leave the U.S. It is this kind of business move that alot of companies here are going to and it makes me sick. We have people already laid off and have lost their homes. The cost of goods are on the rise due to our bad economy and all they (companies) want to do is protect their bottom line by going out of the U.S. There used to be a time when we kept all of it in our nation. It wouldn't be such a crime if they, other nations would bring their standards to ours and could create a true competition. We cannot compete with India or other poor countries like that. Their wages and ours are not the same. If there was some way to shore up that country so that their wages were equal to ours then they would have to compete with us on quality and the price issue would be gone. I am in not way saying that India cannot produce quality goods. I am just stating a fact of problems we are facing with already ongoing outsourcing.

Here is an example of what has been going on:

Dell computers started outsourcing their quality assurance and technical troubleshooting to India around 5 or more years ago. For us in the U.S. it is hard to talk to people from India because of their dialect. I know they try to get English tutors to help them sound English but their language and ours do not mix well and when you have been on the phone with technical support for almost 1 hour because you have to repeat everything you say 3 times and you have to have them repeat what they say because you dont really understand the broken up english they are speaking when it should have only taken about 20 minutes to finish up the trouble call. Another thing is I have been on the phone with numerous Indian technical professionals and they repeatedly read from a script and reading straight out of a technical manual. I could teach my six year old son to do the same thing. Just because they can read english out of a technical book does not mean they know what they are talking about. To me that is not quality of work that I used to get from Dell technical support. It is this kind of low standard that makes me cringe at calling any technical support for any company because they have outsourced their stuff to India.

Their are plenty of laid off people in the U.S. to do the same thing that India can do and do it alot better. Like I said before it is the wage thing and we know that that technical person on the other end of the phone line is probably working a 12 hour shift and only getting paid 7 dollars a day that would cost Dell. Hey India get a back bone and start charging more for your services because the U.S. companies are making huge fortunes on your backs.

I am exhausted with all of this but I am saying what is on every Americans mind because I am not alone on this one. U.S.A. all the way Baby. Yeah I am an American and I am proud of it.
Posted 8 days ago | Reply Privately | Delete comment

Vitaliy Larkin
SEO Specialist at Conkurent LLC

Thanks to all.
Outsourcing part of IT work to an offshore team is quite normal IMHO. Information technologies require great knowledge and resources, so it can be reasonable if you assign something to the people with a better knowledge and experience in it. Let us think globally.
Posted 7 days ago | Reply Privately | Delete comment

Vitaliy Larkin
SEO Specialist at Conkurent LLC

Actually we already have a team of developers on board, and now working on few big projects outsourced to us from Germany, Switzerland, and the US. We want to expand this branch of business. So I am trying to outline the situation on the world's IT market. We have started from selling own software products (see http://phpforms.net/ , http://needsecure.com/ ). They are a success, and now this is the main branch of the company's business.
Posted 6 days ago | Reply Privately | Delete comment

Maneck Khanna
CEO, Obelisk - Architecture Knowledge Partner

Interesting discussion, and congrats Vitaliy for starting such an intelligent discussion.

I have read most of the comments and have seen a lot of them based on individual experience or personal bias for one's own business or one's region.
I also read that a lot of people in the discussion think that a major reason to outsource is the Cost benefit.

However, I would like state that outsourcing or partnering for a specific service (the term we like to use) is not only cost dependent now but also depends on the expertise of the service provider.

So rather than asking which is the best country to outsource, we should be asking, who has better expertise and a good track record in context to the nature of job you looking to outsource?

So if both companies working involved in the deal look at a long term partnership, irrespective of the geographical locations of the outsourcer and the outsourcing company, it has always been a fruitful partnership.
Posted 1 day ago | Delete comment

Kabir Luthra
Owner at a Construction Documentation Company - K-Pro

india has the best price/ quality trade-off amongst the outsourced economies. though this largely depends on what it is you are looking to outsource. i've heard that its better to go to the guys in the philippines or even the Caribbean for construction design otsourcing.
India is positioned very well when it comes to the more mundane tasks like quantity take-off - the criteria is well defined and you dot want/ need a lot of creativity.
We are based out of the UAE with an office in India that does all our quantity take-off. the Dubai offce is focused on the design/drawing detail aspect and is staffed with Philipinos.
have a look at www.kpro.ae for more information
Posted 6 hours ago | Reply Privately | Delete comment

Jimmy Roa
CEO/Entrepreneur/Sr. Consultant at Staffingforce

Kabir, I do not consider quantity take-offs and cost estimation as being mundane tasks. In fact, it takes a lot of attention to detail and engineering knowledge to do. Aside from Cad, we have been doing a lot of quantity take-offs for a general contractor in the US that focuses on water systems. it's not easy at all to determine all the fittings that are required for piping systems. Our process requires two estimates are done and are later compared. Any discrepancies will have to be addressed accordingly.

Source: Linkedin discussion on the group CAD Outsourcing. The views expressed here in the discussion are the views of the authors resepctively.

Obelisk Bytes - Monthly Newsletter

Happy to announce the launch of our monthly newsletter starting this month. Please email us to subscribe to the email list.

Navisworks Tutorial - Clash Detection

Part 3 of the Clash Detection Tutorial,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqyBeaUQNKg

Navisworks Tutorial - Clash Detection

This a Navisworks tutorial for using the Clash Detective tool developed by the BIM team @ OBELISK

Part I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ0PcEt-o08

Part II

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdeCcOzuWcI

Part III

Coming Soon.

Power of BIM

This video showcases an example of how drawings can be converted to an Intelligent 3-d (BIM) model and Obelisk's capabilties as a BIM support firm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqX8_JYRa_M

What you sell and how you sell is important.

Understanding your market and segmenting it always helps you to focus better on “who to sell” and “how to sell”.

A more recent example is cars- Honda Jazz (Honda known for its efficiency) and Fiat Grande Punto (The Punto engine known for its innovation and uniqueness). Both these are launched for the Indian Roads and for Indian conditions, yet they are not the cars for everyone and anyone. The price range for these cars is also in a certain bracket and carry with them their respective values and company legacy.
This is a simple example of how two companies, when competing for market share in a country, project and offer their value to prospective customers.

When I decided to jump into entrepreneurship and started Obelisk with my Partners, we too were faced with this challenge- we knew the space and the service, but had to work on our positioning, segmentation (though I would admit this is still Work-in-progress) and creating the “Wow Factor” for the prospective partners. What one needs is a long-term thinking process, keeping one’s eye on the future, innovating and most importantly “Partnering”.
Partnering has its pros and cons but the overall experiential value and steep learning curve can be very exciting and challenging.

I have always been very perplexed (coming from a non AEC/ Design background) about why is it (and based on my limited understanding of this industry) that anyone would want to outsource their drafting/ drawing production, be it CAD or Revit. We spent days on research and weeks in discussions, to finally understand- “No sane business person, now or in future, would like invest heavily in personnel and infrastructure and would not mind/ look forward to, outsourcing to earn more value from the money spent there on and focus their attention in areas of creativity and designing, leading to more money for their businesses. As far as the routine drafting and drawing production is concerned, they can leave it with the specialists and experienced, trained resources, which just focus and do that. This made sense to me and I started selling it. I would admit- it has been no mean task, but the daunting realisation of the necessity to keep a lean structure, boot strapping, outsourcing any non-core but essential activities, is finally settling in their visionary business minds.

My mentor tells me- Entrepreneurial aspirations and projects are not based on what you were or on what you are, but on “What you want to become”. This always guides us in stormy nights. I would love to hear back from you- the reader on your comments, thoughts, ideas, suggestions or any reaction- good or not so good. Reaction is important and confirms life. Cheers.

BIM CAPABILITY & BIM MATURITY

An interesting read on BIM Capability v/s BIM Maturity. This article describes that even though after achieving BIM capability organizations are still not ready to take on projects.

Paste the link below in your browser

http://changeagents.blogs.com/thinkspace/2009/06/bim-episode-11-the-difference-between-bim-capability-and-bim-maturity.html

(Source: The source of this information is the changeagents.blogs.com posted on June 03, 2009)

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