Friday, February 01, 2008
Why Outsourcing Firms cannot provide you with Top Talent...
Awhile back, I had an interesting conversation with a senior employee of an outsourcing firm and will share with you what he told me...
In India, there are lots of IT professionals. The key issue is in separating the wheat from the chaff. Many resumes are littered with the latest buzzwords where folks have done enterprise class projects from end to end in only one week! Have you ever noticed that everyone has been an architect or team lead even though they have been in IT for only a couple of years?
As far as the onshore component of outsourcing firms, the story is even more horrific. I remember pinging a couple of firms asking for a handful of knowledgeable security resources only to find out that they existed but I wouldn't have the opportunity to hire them. The person told me that I could not hire them unless I only figured out ways to make my projects bigger!
The funny thing is that the conversation eschewed any value proposition of efficiency and focused solely on utilization. The key issue at hand is that every consulting firm has a star or two and needs to heavily leverage their experiences at least across multiple accounts and minimally across multiple resources. I need a star but only needed one resource and therefore didn't fall into the model.
Outsourcing especially to India relies more on quantity than quality. If you do quick calculations a cheaper bill rate on an individual basis may not be cheap if you have to carry additional bodies on your projects. On large projects, some levels of inefficiency are expected and therefore tolerated but are otherwise difficult in projects where efficiency and speed to market are key...
| | View blog reactionsIn India, there are lots of IT professionals. The key issue is in separating the wheat from the chaff. Many resumes are littered with the latest buzzwords where folks have done enterprise class projects from end to end in only one week! Have you ever noticed that everyone has been an architect or team lead even though they have been in IT for only a couple of years?
As far as the onshore component of outsourcing firms, the story is even more horrific. I remember pinging a couple of firms asking for a handful of knowledgeable security resources only to find out that they existed but I wouldn't have the opportunity to hire them. The person told me that I could not hire them unless I only figured out ways to make my projects bigger!
The funny thing is that the conversation eschewed any value proposition of efficiency and focused solely on utilization. The key issue at hand is that every consulting firm has a star or two and needs to heavily leverage their experiences at least across multiple accounts and minimally across multiple resources. I need a star but only needed one resource and therefore didn't fall into the model.
Outsourcing especially to India relies more on quantity than quality. If you do quick calculations a cheaper bill rate on an individual basis may not be cheap if you have to carry additional bodies on your projects. On large projects, some levels of inefficiency are expected and therefore tolerated but are otherwise difficult in projects where efficiency and speed to market are key...
