PCA vs. Offshore Development
In the early 90's, outsourcing critical software projects to places like India, Russia, etc. were
all the rage. Today, it is well understood that "off-shoring" is appropriate and
can offer significant cost-advantages for certain types of projects — but for many others,
off-shoring turns out to be good from afar, yet far from good! In making this determination,
some of the key issues that you want to explore include:
- Engineering Quality — The quality of most off-shore engineering practices is hit-and-miss.
Expect to receive what they know how to do, not best practices that are developed and applied through years of
experience and
project management rigor.
- Project Communication — Effective communication is the most critical factor to the success of custom
development initiatives, yet this is where most off-shore efforts fail. Does it take ten (or more) attempts
to get something right, due to disconnects in communication?
- Business Continuity — Where is that small team half way around the globe going to be in six months or
a year from now?
- Critical Thinking — Most foreign cultures simply do not challenge the status quo or offer the
critical thinking that is necessary for most projects to succeed (they do what you
ask for, not what you need!
If you have very well-defined
need, with super-clear, detailed requirements, and you have a project manager who is
dedicated to riding herd on the off-shore development effort, then you may have a
project that is a good candidate for off-shore engineering. If on the other hand
any of these conditions are not true, you will very likely end of paying more in the long
run, and/or result in a solution that misses the mark. And if you are lucky enough to find a high quality off-shore team, say
Good-Bye to them at any point during your project you like, because jumping around
from job to job is the norm, with little loyalty to your business.
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Off-Shore |
PCA |
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Application "Fit" |
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Exactly what you ask for |
Exactly what you Need |
|
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Project Communication |
|
Poor |
Excellent |
|
|
Licensing Fees |
|
None |
None |
|
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Service Fees |
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Foreign rates |
US rates |
|
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Maintenance & Support |
|
20% Project Fee |
20% Project Fee |
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Time-to-Market |
|
6-18 Months |
6-18 Months |
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Solution Risk |
|
High |
Low |
PCA believes there is a better way. PCA provides experienced engineering, coupled with
transparent project communication, and Smart Client solutions that provide an ASP-like approach to
centralized, repeatable application deployment and security, with ZERO ongoing Licensing
fees. End-Users get a highly-functional, high performance, easy-to-use and reliable
application powered by industry standard MS SQL Servers.