Find the right Offshore Application Development Partner

Offshore application development offers many benefits like access to high-level programming talent, reduced time to market, strengthened competitive positioning, increased innovation, lower costs without hiring hassles, and more time to focus on core competencies. But you can get all these benefits only if you choose the right outsourcing partner.

Selecting the right offshore application development partner requires a proper methodology, one that ensures that no important factor is overlooked, that the vendor chosen matches your needs and can deliver on time and in budget. So, decide which vendors you'll interview to create your short list, then get more details to narrow your choices down to three or four vendors and then work with your short list to specify business needs, deliverables, and other details to get the information you need to make a final choice.

In the first phase, you may have to rely mostly on public sources of information or even conduct a preliminary survey online to make a selection pool of vendor. You can also refer your network of contacts in and outside of your industry as their experience may save you a lot of time. A good reference can promote a vendor to the short list right away, although your own due diligence should never be neglected. Select a vendor based on the following criteria:

· Specialization and vendor size

· Industry Knowledge

· General Company Background

· Business Models

· Expertise

· Methodologies

Now, having done your survey, the next phase is to investigate more deeply to develop a short list of three to four vendors with whom you may want to work to develop the project overview document. Choose as many companies (not fewer than three) for your short list based on these parameters:

· Two-way Communication

· Transparency

· Facilities

· Employees

· References

· Security

The last phase is to narrow down the number of vendors selected based on right capabilities. To help you take a final decision, make a realistic bid instead of a Request for Proposal (RFP). A realistic bid can only be developed through an interactive process that basically comprises a two-way interview between client and potential outsourcing partner. This relies on a Project Overview Document (POD), developed interactively with each of them, to help make the final decision. This document, and your experience developing it, will tell you a lot more about the vendor than any RFP. The Project Overview document should include the following:

· High-level descriptions of the business need and how the vendor's solution meets it

· Project timeline and milestones

· Clearly-defined acceptance criteria and procedures

· Price

· Legal and contractual issues

Considering price only doesn’t help you find the right outsourcing partner for application development. You need to execute a preliminary survey, develop a short list, and then interactively create a project overview document (POD) with each vendor to avoid unpleasant surprises, ensuring that your outsource project goes smoothly and delivers the benefits you expect!