Who we are, How
we work for you
What makes us unique
OSC is an entirely independent US consulting company that was
founded in 1995 to help American firms locate and evaluate ideal offshore solutions for
software projects.
In our original job, the client desired to have someone
completely independent do on-site inspection and evaluations of several offshore
providers. This basic format has remained unchanged, and we are unique in this
respect. Every other service we have seen that offers "consulting" in
offshore software development is actually promoting a company they are affiliated with.
By not getting income or commissions from any offshore
provider we can be totally objective and work only you, our client, to find the best
possible solution. We even tie our fees to your satisfaction.
There are thousands of offshore
software companies to choose from
It is not an easy job to decide on the right offshore
company. The vast majority of companies are not represented or very poorly
represented by sales forces here in the US. The cost for them to send and support
just one salesperson is often far more than the cost of a dozen of their software
engineers.
Differences between excellent choices and poor ones are not
easy to see, especially when the provider is so far away. Software development is
highly dependent on having the correct team with real skills and experience in the area
YOU need, plus capable project managers that are able to interact well with your
personnel. Large companies that mostly cater to Fortune 500 clients often don't give
their best to smaller projects. Companies that have done great work in a specific
area may do poorly if all the people with that experience are involved in another
project. We look at current capabilities, resources and price, and also at
finding a provider that "fits" well with your personnel and business practices.
We also realize that a "pretty good" solution is
often commercially worthless; so is one that is delivered late.
How We Work
For medium and large projects we follow one
basic plan. We come to your site, meet your personnel and learn exactly what you are
looking for. We develop a series of questions to ask each prospect and find out the
format you want proposals done in. Based on this, we contact the best qualified
sources in our database, and make appointments with the best respondents. We then do
on-site inspections and e-mail you results daily. You are urged to be involved in
the process. We usually visit between 10 to 20 companies in a 2 or 3 week period,
and then re-evaluate the best few. By the end, the best choice is obvious.
For small projects we have a very
inexpensive service where we use our experience and database to research and get
proposals. Since we have visited many of these companies, we know a lot about
what they offer. We also know the questions to ask. If your project involves 8
or more developers, or is one that has possibilities of expanding or continuing for an
extended period, it will in general pay for you to have us do an on-site inspection.
We usually can find you a much better match and get a better price.
Why we like to go on-site
Early on, we found that nothing could beat on-site
inspection. Actually visiting the facilities, meeting the CEO, the project
managers and developers has kept us from making costly mistakes. (Some companies are
little more than a flashy web site and high hopes!) Going on-site has also saved our
clients a great deal of money because we dealt with the company directly instead of
through costly middlemen. We have been able to identify the best facilities and
personnel, and usually contracted significantly lower prices than those quoted by the same
company in the US.
Our Fees
Our fees are but a fraction of what most agencies
receive to find you personnel. We charge you reasonable actual expenses
plus a small fee while we are working for you. If, a year after you start your
project you are happy and decide to continue working with the development team we found
you, we receive a very small percentage of subsequent contracts you sign. This also
keeps us very interested in working to see that things work out well for you.
Even clients who were just looking for a short term or a one
project solution have been so happy with their results that they have continued to use
their offshore resource.
Copyright © 2000 Offshore Software
Consulting. All rights reserved.
Revised: January 27, 2000. |
