On Demand Blend Model

What ODBM does is allow a blend of on-shore and off-shore resources to maximize project success. Based on the following three main criterias, the right blend of off-shore and on-shore resources are chosen:
• Cost Sensitivity
• Access to Skilled Resources
• Degree of User Interaction

Also in the middle of a project if necessary on-shore resources are applied to ensure high-quality on-time delivery.

Cost sensitivity
Obviously all projects will have cost sensitivity - the need to deliver at the lowest cost possible. The key here is how the cost sensitivity relates to other factors in its importance to the project team. For example, is the project team willing to expose itself to higher risk in order to lower project costs? Is the project team willing to work with the time-difference and other logistical issues inherent in working with an offshore team. Are they used to calling a remote help desk? Are there language barriers? There are many factors to consider before just looking at inexpensive labor.

Availability of skilled resources
Sometimes cutting edge skills are in short supply among the off-shore resources. Attosoft takes care of this issue by its strong team of US-based developers. The offshore-onshore balance is found by asking the following type of relevant questions:
Does the technology require specialized resources that may be difficult to find?
Does the Attosoft on-shore team have the full-resource team with adequate skills?
If not and if still very low cost is desired, then is it possible to do the project in phases, as additional resources are hired and trained.

Degree of user interaction needed
Requirement gathering, Scope definition, etc tasks rquire heavy user interaction and has to be done....

What degree of user involvement is necessary? Those projects or segments of projects with a higher need for user interaction are best suited to be performed onsite. Those projects with high requirements for user interaction tend to increase the communication complexity on offshore projects, thus increasing your risk. In some cases, we have found that if the degree of user interaction is high, but cost pressures still remain, you can use a blended model of onshore resources to interact with the business and user community, and then send the back-end development and support to a lower-cost nearshore or offshore option.

Scope clarity and maturity
How clearly is the project scope defined? How mature and stable is your IT environment? The better defined the scope of the initiative, the easier it is to move it from the client’s location to a development center based either in the United States, nearshore, or offshore. Also, it is critical that your IT environment be in a stable and optimized mode before considering any move to one of the three options.

All Applications Are Not Created Equal–Sourcing Criteria must align with the right drivers.

Quick project start-up/speed to deployment
How quickly does the first iteration of the product or support need to be delivered? Remember, you will incur a significant ramp-up time in order to transfer your firm’s knowledge to an outsourcing provider. This transfer phase is considered to be the most critical phase by outsourcing professionals because this is where all the knowledge is passed to the service provider. If you don’t implement this transfer correctly, you could jeopardize your entire outsourcing contract.

Other questions you need to answer center on deployment: Do you need a provider that can develop and deploy your application? Do you have regionalization issues? If so, you may find that a provider with a network of centers in multiple countries or locations is better equipped to handle speedy development and deployments. Again, look for providers that have a network of centers with an existing infrastructure to ensure a quick project start up.

Overall project duration
Offshore development and support is better suited for projects with a longer duration, as it will provide better economies of scale. For example, if you are looking to outsource a
back-end support process with a three- to five-year window of coverage, you will find the pricing model for this type of work to be much more competitive than if you are looking to send nine months of work out of house.

In some cases, it is better to take a nine-month development project and simply send the work to an outsourced center based in the United States. This U.S.-based center will make the decision during the development cycle if all project tasks are staying on U.S. soil or if some of the activities (24-hour shift-testing tasks, for example) can move to nearshore or offshore.

Strategic nature of the work
What is the strategic nature of the project? Both strategic and tactical projects can be performed using an onshore, nearshore, or offshore model. However, the best nearshore or offshore candidates for development projects are those that are more tactical in nature. For example, in developing and supporting back-end batch processing, some elements of testing and minor bug-fixing can be done outside the United States fairly easily. However, if I were in the initial stages of scoping and developing a single, corporate-wide instance of a direct procurement tool that was going to link into all my suppliers, I would want to run the project onsite wherever the client’s headquarters and business users existed.

Top management sponsorship
One of the key factors in successfully using an outsourcing model is to make sure that this is a top-down management decision in your company. You will have a lot of pushback from internal organizations that will spend their time explaining that your outsourcing strategy will not work. You must communicate clearly in your organization that the decision has been made and that people should spend their energy making this decision work.

Reversibility and User Training
The single most critical element that I find overlooked is the consideration of reversibility: What if you decide to bring the application, development, or process that you outsourced back in-house? Does your outsourcing provider have a process for reversing the knowledge back to your company, and more important, has the provider done this in the past for other clients?

Service level agreement....

Summary
Transition and ongoing support of applications using an onshore, nearshore, or offshore model requires a business-aligned approach to balance the ensuing benefits with their risks. The size of your application, its complexity, business criticality, and other factors require you to consider a number of different parameters when you are exploring the suitability of a sourcing channel.