Not at all. There is a still huge demand for the services but, in my opinion, it is changing directions. Outsourcing starts being very boring. Many people I meet complain about it. The quality of work is getting lower and also the way it’s being promoted annoys more and more people.
In many cases, software companies that offer IT outsourcing services are almost like HR agencies (when they offer body leasing) with the difference of having contracts signed directly with developers and having them in one place.
1 out of 10 software development companies does it right – they deliver content, valuable information from the industry, they run webinars – simply inspire people and get easily in touch. They organize events, invite their ideal potential clients and listen. Pure B2B approach with the client in the center.
The others on send for example their online leaflets and most IT guys receive 10-30 similar emails per day. Insane! Just have a look (even software agencies receive such emails from other software agencies):
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t perceive cold emailing or cold calling to be bad. It’s about how you deliver value and if the message is relevant.
I receive many cold emails that trigger me because they offer some tools, knowledge, solutions for my problem, etc. That’s something I want to click, selling will come anyway. After a few interactions, they start being more direct and tell me about their offer. If I agree (by replying or clicking the ad) they will continue. If I ignore them, they should stop after a while (no more ads and no more contact).
What makes IT Directors and CTOs angry?
In September I had a chance to chat with 50 CTOs, whom I asked the question: “What is your biggest challenge in IT?”. I’ve received quite interesting responses. Many of them applied to outsourcing and cooperation with external partners. People complained that some companies are selling junior developers as they were senior which is a nightmare. Others said that people become “greedy” quite fast, so they make a good first impression, then quality goes down and they demand higher hourly rates.
Let’s be honest. Why should you hire guys from another country with a different culture, who don’t understand your vision and are not passionate about it? For lower cost only? Trust me, you will pay the price in the long term. You might lose the most valuable currency you have – time and energy on managing external resources.
So, if you are considering outsourcing your IT development look for people who:
- Have experience in your industry
- Hopefully have references from your country
- Seem to be very competent and can prove it
- Communicate professionally and effectively (in IT 50 – 70 % of the success stands for communication)
Tech Partnership (a reasonable one)
At LECOCODE we believe that if you don’t deliver certain expertise of value to the client you shouldn’t steal his time. We proof our competences by running a 1 or 2 days workshop where we are analyzing the problem of the client and we try to find a solution (not only the product but we incorporate elements like selling or marketing into the workshop). We call it the F1 experience – within 6 hours you have access to a few experts from different domains and you get the documentation with ideas and parts of the work directly after the workshop (it’s created real-time during the event).
For us being a Tech Partner, means being a part of the Family and making sure we spend our time and effort wisely and we are able to calculate the ROI of it. We open the excel spreadsheet and calculate it. We are like a startup and you are our investor, so our goal is to convince you that spending time and money with us is worth every single penny.
There are a few keys elements that make Tech Partnership beneficial for the client:
- The client has his own team, where they can make some decisions (have flexibility)
- The client doesn’t have to check every single task, he sees the big picture and the outcome of work
- The client can reply to the Tech Partner and trust that they do their best
- Management, hiring, motivational stuff – it all goes to the Tech Partner
- and many others we can talk about
I encourage you to try this approach. Don’t be just another software development company selling developers. Sell solutions, consultants, smart heads, ROI. Speak the client’s language and make sure every action you take in this cooperation brings you closer to the business goal and bring value to the client.
If you would love to hear more about how we run the initial workshops and what are the benefits of the technological partnership with us, let me know.
