The Critical Factors In Offshore Assessment

The critical factors in offshore assessment
Complexity: This is the one of the most important factors in assessing whether offshoring is possible. A project should be broken down by tasks. Each task and process should be evaluated. The ITPS must have the ability to replicate tasks and meet existing objectives. Each task is composed of subtasks, which need to be evaluated for volume andfeasibility. After the assessment has been completed managements needs to review project manager’s assertions and “level of confidence that their quality assessment will be accurate and reliable” (Ilan Oshri, 2011). During the complexity assessment, the ITPS should look for opportunities to simplify existing processes. Capitalizing these opportunities will result in cost saving that can be passed to theclient. There are different technical components that need to be taken into consideration as “complexity in processing logic, a high number of interfaces, multiple support platforms, etc.” (Syntel, 2009)
Code structure: According to the reading, code structure should be taken into consideration when performing offshore assessment. The way the application is coded will have an impact on the abilityof the ITPS to work with the code. For instance, “Code with goto statements, is both difficult to follow and to maintain” (Wikipedia, 2012). Ideally, the application has been coded and serviced using structured programming.
Current failure rate: It is important to assess the system failure’s rate. For both the client and the ITPS is important to have an understanding of current service ticketsopen or pending. If there is a large volume of tickets opened, this might reflect the application is not stable and ready for offshoring. This assessment should include significant tickets opened, or still under review. This is an important factor as it will set define a scope for the offshoring project. Most importantly, expectations can be set if there is a pending critical issue prior tooffshoring.

Skill level of current support personnel: The skill set required to support the application at the offshore facility should equivalent to the client’s personnel set of skills. The ITPS needs to be able to provide a work force capable of handling the same kind of issues as the client. If the client is a leading company in the industry, close attention needs to be taken for this factor.Cutting edge products are not good candidates for offshoring as support requires special training. In the case of a call center, the call center staff would need to be trained from the ground on the new product.
Amount of client interaction: There are two causes for client interactions to be higher. First, that the tasks and processes are complex and require more interaction. Second, the clientdoes not have a clear process defined, hence requiring more interaction for the transfer of knowledge. In either case, the client will see substantial savings when these tasks are offshored.

2.
Not all clients are looking for the same mix of resources when off-shoring a project. An ITPS should make a location decision by taking into consideration the client’s specifications for off-shoring inthe Request for Proposal (RFP). The critical factors for location offshore assessment are:
Time zone requirements: Not all tasks can be easily worked by a team distributed geographically in different time zones. Product design is a process where brainstorming and group critique is not rare. Having limited hours of work in common across a design team might interfere with the development of newideas and could add a constraint to the creative process.
Hours of support involved: The Information Technology Professional Services company needs to evaluate the labor market and gage whether there will be a stable supply of skilled workers willing to work the night shift. If there is not qualified labor or if there is not enough supply, the offshore facility should be established in a different...