While considering the outsourcing of your business processes, there are some key elements that you should be aware of about your prospective service provider. The key is to choose a service provider with integrity, honesty, efficiency, and most importantly communication skills. Beyond the communication skills, make sure their skills match what you're looking to outsource. Are you looking for IT outsourcing solutions? Are you looking for website application development services? Although this seems like a formidable challenge, it is pretty easy if you ask the right questions.

Much like hiring a contractor for your home, asking the right questions and being as knowledgeable in your requirements will minimize any problems or delays you might experience.

Reliability
Ask the vendor for details on the company. How long have they been in business? How many offices? How many employees? What is their history and experience in the business? Who and where are the employees located if they have multiple offices?

Experience
What kind of project have they worked on in the past? When was the last time they had someone working on a project similar to yours? If it was fairly recent, will at least part of that team be working on your project? Are they capable of fulfilling your custom software development service requirements?

References
Is your vendor able to produce several client references? Were the clients happy with the result? Do the clients still use them? Have the clients ever referred someone else to use them? If your vendor is a good one, they will have a list of references detailing different and varied clients with up-to-date contact information including: company, name, title, email/phone number and a briefing on the project of what was done.

Quality Products / Services
Beyond solid references, vendors need to provide and emphasize the processes that are followed within their organization to ensure quality products and services. Certifications such as ISO 9001:2000 from independent agencies go a long way in providing customers with this assurance.

Life Cycle Costs
As obvious as the costs are for consulting and development, make sure there are no hidden costs in implementation, testing, training, connectivity, infrastructure, transition, etc… Ask if they ever work on fixed cost engagements (providing there are no unexpected problems on the client side), and what is needed to get a fixed cost pricing on a project. Most companies that have experience in large and small projects are willing to take on fixed cost projects, particularly for smaller projects like website application development.

Delivery Times
Make sure your vendor provides realistic deadlines and goals. If they say they can finish a 200 hour project in a week, find out the number of resources that will be working on it, and what is their fall back. Make sure that their resources aren’t working on a timeline that may affect the outcome or quality of the project. If your instincts are bothering you, ask more questions, if their answers cannot satisfy you, then they probably aren’t the right company for you.

Terms
It is always a good idea to put down on paper what the terms of the project, payment, project assumptions, guidelines will be for any sized projects. It doesn’t matter if it’s a 40 hour project or a 5000 hour project; a successful project requires guidelines to ensure customer satisfaction.

Data Security
It's great that they are more than capable of completing your custom software development requirements, but what kind of security measures does the vendor take to ensure that your data will be safe? Are they willing to sign a confidentiality statement before any details are released? Does your team member have the proper authority and security clearance to witness the signing? Make sure they fulfill all your internal security requirements with firewalls, access points, data control, data encryption, etc… Is your vendor willing to give permission for background checks on the team working on your project?

Limitations
What kind of limitations does the pricing, the documents, guidelines, inclusions have? Does the vendor have some flexibility in when information is required by? Or on their working hours, and the outcome? What kind of limitations do you have to create? Can they complete the project successfully with these limitations? Will they have a backup resource should the project take an unfortunate turn? Will you be billed additionally to what you have agreed for this? Whose fault is it that this extra time/resource is required?

Risks
What kind of risks are you going to be undertaking in outsourcing this project? Is the vendor insured? What is their insurance coverage? What kind of data loss prevention and back up have they implemented for development cycles?

Communication
Speaking is speaking right? Reading and writing in any language is the same internationally right? Wrong. The level of communication can make or break a project’s success. How well do the team members interact and how well the team leads interact with you and your team play have huge effect on the outcome of the project. We have all heard and played broken telephone, why would it be any different for a large project? Make sure that you get to speak to and possibly interview the team lead so you are sure that the teams will be able to work together successfully.

Culture
What beliefs does the company have? Do you feel that things will work when talking to them? The initial conversations and communication between the companies will be a strong indication if your companies will work well together, follow your instincts, don’t try to make things work for the sake of making it work. Follow your requirements and your instinct.

"Is your outsourcing partner prepared to tackle the challenges of your expanding business? JSCGroup is!"