Software Sweatshop

This is an excerpt from a white paper I wrote about mistakes companies make when they go offshore called "Offshore Outsourcing: 5 Lessons Your Peers Learned the Hard Way"

Lesson #1: Look for Someone You Can Grow With 

“I’m looking for someone I can grow with.”

You’re a small company with a killer idea that’s going to change the world. You’ve decided to work with an offshore vendor but don’t know where to start. One client we worked with found an excellent vendor to do his core product development in India. Things were great for a while until the Indian vendor started growing. All of a sudden, the client became a small fish in a big pond; quality slipped, he didn’t get the attention he needed to keep his company thriving... and the rest was history.

When looking for an offshore vendor, look for someone you can grow with. With an insatiable appetite for “mega-deals”, most of the large vendors will shy away from SMB’s seeking to outsource. Work with a firm for whom you represent a significant portion of business. This will ensure that your project doesn’t fall through the cracks in favor of bigger clients. Make sure that their growth strategy falls in line with your own as well. For example, with the incredible growth of the Indian IT market, companies are growing organically and via acquisitions. A vendor with a growth strategy focused on acquisition might lose track of the subtleties of your particular projects.

Your best bet is to look for a company that matches your corporate culture and is looking to grow with you. The real value in offshore software development is nurturing a team that can handle your core development challenges, allowing you to focus on gaining market share and coming out with great new products.