10 Benefits of Outsourcing a Cheap Bookkeeper

Author: john stewart

There are many different aspects to sourcing a good bookkeeper at the right price, as discussed on www.yo2go.com

Over a cup of coffee recently we started looking at the benefits of a small business owner engaging a cheap bookkeeper to look after their bookeeping, and came up with ten benefits of a cheap bookkeeper.

We must stress that occasionally you’ll come across a very experienced bookkeeper who is charging out their services far too cheaply, in which case the following points will most likely not be applicable:

1) The first benefit of a cheap bookkeeper is that you’ll save money on bookkeeping fees

2) You’ll have a warm, fuzzy feeling, and the satisfaction of knowing that you’ll most likely be sponsoring a bookkeeper to learn how to do bookkeeping

3) You’ll enjoy the company of your bookkeeper for longer as s/he chats all day instead of getting the work done

4) You’ll have someone to answer the phones and do some admin work for you, as your bookkeeper hasn’t got (m)any other clients to rush to

5) You’ll not be surprised when your phone starts ringing with suppliers complaining that they haven’t been paid, or customers complaining that they’ve been billed twice

6) You may get some friendly phone calls from your accountant who’s generated a long list questions relating to your P & L and / or balance sheets

7) Many months down the track you’ll discover that what appear to be a perfect set of books have many hidden entries because the bookkeeper couldn’t make the figures balance without some creative bookkeeping

When the Taxation Office decide to undertake an audit, your bookkeeper will pass out because suddenly s/he will have been caught out

9) You can sit back satisfied that you’ve got yourself a bookkeeper at half the rate, so you’ve more money to pay your accountant or another bookkeeper to come in and fix up the mess made by the first bookkeeper

10) In a few more months you’ll have a new challenge of letting your bookkeeper go as you repeat the whole process of seeking a reputable bookkeeper

Ask yourself this question:

Are you willing to reduce the value of your goods / services you supply to pick up new business? The concept of undercutting your competitors to increase the market share can work short term, but is it sustainable over a medium or longer term?

You know too well, that if you buy cheap, you expect to receive cheap. Consider how much your business is worth for you to know where you are financially week by week and month by month.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/outsourcing-articles/10-benefits-of-outsourcing-a-cheap-bookkeeper-1169724.html

About the Author:

John Stewart has helped many bookkeepers get their business started. see www.startbookkeeping.com.au As the author of “How To Find Bookkeeping Clients”, he has years of experience in sourcing new clients, and marketing businesses both online and offline

Outsourcing- Small Business

Author: Rick

That the current economic recession is forcing everyone to cut corners is an understatement. For those who are not outsourcing work to push up their business’ profit margins is missing the financial boat by a wide boundary. With the world having moved on from ‘atoms to bytes’ it is now possible, as everybody knows, to acquire cheap labor from an English-speaking developing country in a time-efficient and cost-effective way. You can now save on overheads and infrastructure in a major way.

Watch your business grow as the profit margins swell (sounds good, doesn’t it?) while you get the same level of services at a much lower cost at quicker time speed (owing to the time difference with the offshore country).

Several companies have benefited for instance, by outsourcing call center services to English-speaking countries like India. Outsourcing these services has actually enabled companies to concentrate harder on their core competencies. In matters pertaining to support and security services most firms, both in the UK and the US, are relying more and more on offshore call centers.

In the current globalized climate consulting has become the preferred mantra of most major firms. Throw in some value additions like technical support, customer services, collections, data processing, sales and transactions, and the canvas stretches almost to a breaking point. But then in these recessive times revenue generation is becoming harder for most companies who have been turning to developing countries like India and the Philippines with large sections of English-speaking masses to work on these value additions for (relatively speaking) a fraction.

It is hardly surprising that increasingly large numbers of industries in various sectors like banking, finance, health, travel, telecommunications etc are falling into the outsourcing mode. And what about small businesses? The thing is, that even small businesses tend to grow and cannot handle all their customers’ calls on their own. The question now is this: why have a call center at all when hoardings, media blitz, and word of mouth can do your job along with a fairly skeletal customer services’ desk? The answer is simple. For a business to grow it needs to be accessible at all times. Most businesses find it a cheaper option compared to media coverage and bill boards and certainly more reliable than word of mouth advertising.

It might appear that cost-cutting is the major and perhaps only reason for companies to jump onto the outsourcing bandwagon. Well, that’s not entirely true. Outsourcing enables businesses to release their capital onto other, more lucrative, fields of investments. It also makes the outsourcing company more appealing to prospective investors. In addition, when you pass on the responsibility of your marketing, research and development segments to another company (or multiple companies) you don’t need to pass on the costs involved to your clients.

Another advantage is the speed with which you can start processing new projects which, if done in-house could take all the time in world with regard to hiring a team, training it, and making further investments to provide the correct support.

All things considered, outsourcing is not such a bad idea after all.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/outsourcing-articles/outsourcing-small-business-1171039.html

About the Author:

Rick Carsten is a self-made entrepreneur, a well known travel consultant and internet marketer. Over the years he has traveled across the world and has numerous writings credited to his name in many renowned publications. His areas of writing include travel experiences including reviews of best luxury hotels and he has also gained expertise in areas of resources, small businesses and outsourcing company.

Increasing Demand of Freelance Web Designers

Author: Alina

The online business is abuzz with the increasing demand of freelance web designers. The ongoing financial tsunami across the world has created a big space for freelancers to fill in. In fact, it’s a great time to hire them.

With dotcom boom at its peak, there has been witnessed an enormous rise in hourly rates charged by freelance web designers. Web designers from all around the globe are inclined today to earn full-time salaries by working for few hours a day as per their own convenience from anywhere on the living planet.

Skilled and technically proficient freelance web designers can easily find access to a huge multitude of design projects. It is a smart career choice supported with multiple rewards namely, creativity, flexibility and steady learning.

These designers follow specific guidelines and earn great money as there is no limit to it. Conglomerating their creativity and technical competence with marketing skills, web & design projects are the most extensively available jobs on online services marketplaces. As everyone wants an online presence today, more and more design projects keep getting posted on various online services marketplaces. So, there has been seen a great increase in the demand for web designers.

The services of these designers bear a great benefit to the businesses. There are millions of small and medium-sized businesses across the world, which face a lot of problems in affording permanent in-house employees to meet their project requirements. In this scenario, freelance web designers fit in exactly as their services are simply affordable and also hiring and firing can easily be done. Due to low overhead costs and exciting customer packages they prepare, companies find it more profitable and viable to hire them to address their creative project requirements.

In addition, buyers get ample opportunities to select the designer with preferred style, technique and reputation in online business. Unlike in-house employees, buyers don’t have to be satisfied with “what you have.” In fact, they have a huge number of skilled designers to choose from. In return, they maximize the profits of the buyers.

Today, freelance web designers market themselves like never before. They take help of newspapers, Internet and forums to promote their services effectively. These designers toil hard round the clock to come up with excellent outputs and leave their long-lasting impression on the minds of the buyers of their services.

So, it’s an intelligent move to hire freelance web designers to get creative design project requirements met in the current financial scenario. In fact with the arrival of varied online services marketplaces in the market such as LimeExchange, Elance, Rentacoder etc, it has become easy to get fast access to talent and experienced web designers from all across the world.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/outsourcing-articles/increasing-demand-of-freelance-web-designers-1171166.html

About the Author:

Alina, a competent result oriented freelance professional and consultant with more than 4 years of extensive experience in Content writing and website development. Write articles on varied topics such as freelancing, trends, market, jobs, resources etc

Uncovering the Soft Costs of Outsourcing Offshore

Author: Biplab Saha

Introduction

Offshore outsourcing has transformed the way U.S. companies do business and global consulting firm McKinsey predicts global offshore outsourcing spend to hit $110bn by 2010. The attraction to offshore outsourcing is primarily the resultant cost savings that happen due to it. However, many companies fail to recognize that there are additional soft costs that need to be incurred over and above the direct contract cost of the offshore outsourcing engagement and these costs can undermine the success of the engagement, if not factored in at the start of the offshoring process.

These soft costs include time involved in vendor selection, process transition, training and monitoring operations in offshore locations, and in overcoming the challenges of working in a foreign country including communication challenges, low-skilled workforce, unfamiliar laws and regulations, and infrastructure constraints. These factors directly affect the outcome of the offshoring process, and along with the direct contract cost constitute what can be termed as TCO – Total Cost of Offshoring. Investment in these needs to be made upfront, even before the actual work gets underway.

This article analyzes the soft costs mentioned above and recommends that companies budget for these in advance to make their offshore outsourcing endeavor truly successful. It also tries to bring up some reasons for failure or mid-way abandonment of offshoring engagements and suggests ways to overcome them. This article is of use to companies that plan to offshore work and also to offshore service providers (vendors) who can use the observations to educate prospective clients.

Cost of Vendor Evaluation & Selection

The first step in an offshoring endeavor is to determine which functions are best suited for offshoring. While some tasks can be performed efficiently even when done remotely, other tasks may necessarily need a face-to-face interaction. In their article “The Rise of Offshoring – It’s not wine for cloth anymore” Gene Grossman & Esteban Rossi-Hansberg of the Department Economics, Princeton University, share the paradigms set forth by various scholars to classify tasks on these lines. For example Edward Learner & Michael Storper distinguish between tasks that require codifiable information and those that require tacit information. The former can be done remotely because they can be expressed as a set of symbols, be they mathematical, linguistic or visual. The latter non-codifiable tasks require that both parties have a broad common background to “know” each other well enough; the doer needs to interact face-to-face with the receiver of the service to perform such tasks.

After determining whether the function in question are amenable to be offshored, the next step is to identify the vendors that can match your needs by defining the relevant skills and experience needed for the function being offshored. After this a first cut analysis of the shortlisted vendors will need to be made. All these steps can cost anywhere between 0.2% to 2% of the Direct Contract Cost (DCC) because of the additional time incurred on the following activities:

• Evaluation of the in-house functions to determine if they can be offshored
• Documenting the specifications, skill-sets required and the scope of work in the RFP
• Identifying potential vendors, sending out the RFP, and managing the responses
• Bids evaluation and negotiation
• Due diligence of the vendor capability
• Travel expenses to the overseas location

The vendor evaluation and selection process may need an in-house resource working full time on this, in addition to other resources chipping in with time & domain expertise. Travel is recommended to get the actual feel of the vendor’s staff capabilities, rather than evaluating just the paper bids or basing it on your interactions with a limited set of people on the vendor side (usually the sales team and the operations head), and is an essential part of the due diligence process.

Cost of Transition & Training

The process of transition & training can take between 3 months to a year before work can be completely handed over to the offshore team. Typically this is the most expensive stage in the offshoring process and can cost an additional 2% to 3% of the DCC.

The costs here will typically be those incurred due to travel & temporary relocation of the vendor’s project team to the client’s office(s) in the home country, so that they can learn the intricacy of the functions from the in-house staff that has been doing them for years.

Also there will be a cost of reduced productivity of the in-house staff because of their time spent in training the vendor’s team. To offset the costs at this stage it can be negotiated that the cost of travel and relocation be borne completely by the vendor.

Cost due to lower productivity of the offshore workers

Once the project or function is completely offshored, you will realize that the offshore team lags behind due to a variety of reasons that range from work culture, lack of good understanding of the business of the company, bad ergonomics at the place of work, lesser work experience (staff of most offshore companies are typically graduates or post-graduates with 5-7 years experience as opposed to an average of 10-15 years in the US), long commute times to the place of work, underdeveloped civic amenities, unstable political environment, and many more. Therefore though you may paying say $10 per hour for an offshore worker as against say $40 per hour for an in-house employee, you can end up incurring twice the cost due to his reduced productivity. Hank Zupnik, CIO of GE Real Estate, who has overseen numerous projects outsourced offshore for over a decade, observes that because of these differences you cannot assume that one offshore worker can simply replace all the work done by one American worker.

Another reason for low productivity is the high turn over at offshore vendors. With attrition rate as high as 30% in some industries, companies spend time re-training everytime critical resources leave the vendor to join another offshoring outfit.

Thus it needs to be understood that lower productivity of offshore workers can offset the assumed savings by a factor of 3% to 10% of the Direct Contract Cost.

Cost of lay-offs & reduced output of in-house staff

Companies should also be ready to factor in productivity dips of the in-house staff after the offshoring transition has been completed. This is because of the low morale of the employees due to their colleagues suddenly losing their job, and extra workload on the existing in-house staff. The severance package of the laid-off employees also needs to be factored in the cost of the offshoring endeavor. Also some ex-employees may also initiate legal action against the company, thereby adding a legal expense to the cost of lay-offs.

Communicating with your current staff on the impact of outsourcing and planning ahead for redundancies that are necessitated after the outsourcing transition can avoid some of these costs.

Cost of managing the ongoing project

An offshore project needs to be managed differently than a in-house processes, and you may need to invest the time to develop a project plan; something that may not have been required all this while when it was an in-house processes. Once fully offshored, one of the key people you will interface with are the first level leaders of the team offshore; they may be called by various titles – team lead, tech lead or project manager. These people tend to be more technical or operational and less “project management” oriented – you cannot assume that they know “project management” the way you may envision it just because of their titles. Someone from your in-house staff, say the functional head or the department head will need to take on the additional responsibility of resource planning & allocation and management of the offshore team.

Over and above the direct project management cost, there’s a significant amount of time taken up in handling invoicing & auditing of the offshore work – e.g. ensuring that cost centers are charged correctly and manhours are appropriately recorded without inflating the hours.

It is also observed that a 100% offshore model (all resources working from offshore) is very challenging for both the service provider and the client. Interactions and exchange opportunities are missing which often leads to functional, technical, and cultural misunderstandings. Frequent exchanges or a policy of maintaining 10-20% of the service providers team on your site is recommended.

Finally it will be realized that though vendors use certain standard baselines and assumptions when costing the project, there is a “scope creep” in most projects and the actual work varies from estimates initially provided to them. If the cost of the project is escalates due to this, the vendor will expect the client to bear the incremental cost.

Summarizing the above, the additional cost are those on account of (a) time invested in developing the project plan; (b) putting additional in-house manegerial resource to manage the offshore project; (c) accounting & auditing of the ongoing project; (d) having 10 – 20% vendor personnel onshore; (e) cost due to change (or addition) in scope of work during the project.

Cost due to upfront investment in infrastructure

Besides the manpower cost, there is a cost of infrastructure that may need to be installed or upgraded at both ends to facilitate seamless integration of the two work sites – the customers & the offshore vendor location. For example additional networking equipment may be needed to provide data connectivity between both sites. Or additional software tools or licenses may be needed the because, now there is an additional location (the vendor’s facility) and more often than not the same tools/licenses cannot be shared across two different locations. In some cases additional data communication costs may need to be incurred where companies have had to dedicate separate “communication pipes” in order to keep the offshore and local data bases synchronized. In addition, there is the cost of voice communication, video conferencing, e-mail and chat sessions. You need to measure the increase in communication cost to attribute the incremental additions to the total cost of offshoring (TCO).

While the vendor usually agrees to take care of the cost at their end, the company may need to absorb the cost of infrastructure at their end, unless the vendor agrees to invests in that too, and amortize its cost over the period of the contract.

Reasons for failure or mid-way abandonment of projects

Unrealistic assumptions on cost savings

You have to ensure that there are clearly defined goals and final expected outcomes from the project. Many companies that outsource work offshore, wrongly assume that labor arbitrage will yield savings on a person-to-person basis (i.e., Since a full-time equivalent employee in India cost 40% less, the savings will be in the same range!) without regard for the hidden costs and differences in operating model of the offshore vendor. In reality, most organizations save 15-25% during the first year; by the third year, cost savings often reach 35-40% as both the sides move up the learning-curve and the client modifies their internal operations to align to an offshore model.

Lack of well documented in-house processes

Documentation is a time intensive and often neglegted activity. It is observed that most internal processes are only about 30% documented. However, before offshoring a process the documentation level should be at around 90% and should include mapping of the current process, putting down the transition strategy, evaluation for all risks of failure and a documented contingency plan. High risk or exposure might deter the company from outsourcing offshore; or it might shift the outsourcing strategy (e.g., from a single vendor to multiple vendors); or it might actually give a greater thrust to offshoring if the vendor(s) seem better equipped to reduce risks while keeping the costs low. Though the results of risk analysis vary between companies, documenting the risks & preparing the contingency plan are important.

Poor Expectation Management

Outsourcing engagements have a supplier (vendor) and a recipient (client), and both will have different expectations from the relationship. That the service is delivered from offshore complicates it further, and expectations mismatch become problematic.

An expectation gap may arise when you are in doubt about the vendor’s capability and hesitant to offshore anything beyond a specific task, while the service provider expects greater chunk of “higher value” work and might feel unchallenged by dealing only with standard, unchallenging tasks. If this expectation gap continues, the vendor may over time, accord low importance to your project or may even want to get out of the relationship as soon as a higher value-add work comes their way.

Similarly, you may expect the vendor employees to come up to a level of understanding that matches that of your in-house staff, but they may not be able to think or perform beyond the task that has been outsourced, and may ask questions that may seem ‘silly’, resulting in frustration at your end and possibly an early termination of the contract.

You should chart out a growth plan for the outsourcing relationship so that the service provider have their eyes set on the next target in terms of new processes coming their way. Knowing this growth path, the vendor and their employees will try to gain deeper insights into your business, thus resulting in superior results during the initial ‘unchallenging’ stages of offshoring too, and a stronger sense of loyalty to their relationship with you.

Also ensuring continuous knowledge transfer to the vendor’s employees working on your project, make feel as a part of your extended organization and perform better.

Failure in Bridging the Cultural Gap

Most of the offshore workers will not have an exposure to the Western way of life and to the Western work culture. Therefore besides the training related directly to work, your in-house staff may need to spend time in acquainting the vendor’s employees with the cultural nuances of the organization and that of the your company’s home base, be it Europe or US. For example although English is an official language in India, pronunciation and accents can vary tremendously. Though many service providers put their employees through accent & language training and have cultural education programs, inherent differences due to culture, religion, social activities, way of dressing, and even the way a junior interacts with a senior colleague will not be easy to overcome. Something that’s common sense to the Western worker may be a completely foreign concept to an overseas worker.

Similarly your senior management & your in-house staff directly involved in the transition process need to acquaint themselves with the culture of the country where the vendor is located to communicate effectively with them and be able to understand the soft aspects of doing business with them. This avoids issues that can arise due to misunderstanding the ‘language’ at either side. Mutual visits to the other country are very helpful for effective working relationships as they help in drastic improvement of each others understanding and in the quality of work.

Some companies may try to save the travel cost by communicating over the phone or using video conferences, but in the long run this proves to be more expensive because of the delay related to transitioning the process overseas and the longer time taken to get the expected quality or performance from the offshore team.

Disaffection of in-house staff

Extensive knowledge transfer and training are required prior to and during the transition of work to the vendor, and this needs to be consistently supported by the in-house staff. However layoffs can cause major morale problems among the in-house “survivors,” leading to disaffection and work slowdowns. Internal people may refuse to transition to the offshore model because they have a certain comfort level, or they don’t want their co-worker to lose his job. Some of your staff may also start proclaiming, that offshore outsourcing is not saving money to the company after all and that it was a bad idea, which futher lowers morale of other employees. Sometimes your in-house project management team may need to work into the night and arrive at work in the early morning to manage the offshore team, and their perception about who is benefiting and who is hurting becomes personal.

You have to set aside management and employee time before, during and after the offshore transition to talk to your employees about the whole proposition of offshoring and how it will help the company to become more competitive in the long term. A consensus needs to be built among all employees favoring the company’s offshoring efforts. Without this kind of a mandate, offshore endeavors are doomed.

Backlash from customers as a result of poor quality control

The cost savings resulting from offshoring is the primary motivation for businesses to engage in the same. It is often realized late in the process that quality is an important factor for a successful offshore engagement. Poor quality of service delivery will have a negative impact on the performance and the reputation of the company may suffer in the eyes of their customers. A lack of adherence to the quality norms by the vendor and lack of monitoring of their output can result in considerable rework, and associated follow-up costs.

KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) of the offshore engagement should be defined in the beginning itself, so that the performance can be measured objectively during the tenure project and mid-course corrections are done wherever needed. It is also advisable to institutionalize regular satisfaction surveys that measure the “perception” of the engagement across several stakeholder levels.

Conclusion

Offshore outsourcing is a phenomenon that’s here to stay. Companies that are adopting this are learning operate in a global business environment, and will benefit in the long run as they gain insights into other countries and their way of conducting business. However a failed or abandoned offshore outsourcing venture may set back the company by both the money spent and the willingness to take up such opportunities in the future. It is therefore important to study and analyze all factors that will affect the offshore endeavor and ensure that steps are taken to overcome the pitfalls well ahead of the offshore transition.

References

Dean Davison; Top 10 Risks Of Offshore Outsourcing; http://janutcc.com/HTML/Teaching/Download/Global/Assignment/Risk/Risk 8.pdf

Fleming Parker; Key Success Factors for Offshore Outsourcing to India; http://www.articlesbase.com/outsourcing-articles/key-success-factors-for-offshore-outsourcing-to-india-392264.html

Gene M. Grossman & Esteban Rossi-Hansberg (Dept of Economics, Princeton University); The Rise Of Offshoring: It’s Not Wine For Cloth Anymore; http://www.kansascityfed.org/Publicat/sympos/2006/PDF/8GrossmanandRossi-Hansberg.pdf

Dr. Joe Greco; The Hidden Costs in Offshore Outsourcing – a Case Study;
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/the-hidden-costs-in-offshore-outsourcing-a-case-study-191103.html

M.M.Sathyanarayan; How to Determine True Business Value of Offshore Outsourcing; http://www.articlesbase.com/outsourcing-articles/how-to-determine-true-business-value-of-offshore-outsourcing-207683.html

Stephanie Overby; The Hidden Costs of Offshore Outsourcing; CIO Magazine; http://www.ibmemployee.com/PDFs/CIO_Hidden_Costs.pdf

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/outsourcing-articles/uncovering-the-soft-costs-of-outsourcing-offshore-1171858.html

About the Author:

Biplab Saha is Partner at Business Atom, a business development solutions firm that develops sales strategies and action plan for small and mid-sized exporters & service providers. Biplab also helps print & online media companies in the US identify and shortlist suitable offshore vendors in India. Biplab led the pioneering efforts in offshoring parts of the US mortgage origination business India and also ran a successful BPO company in that space. He was also associated with the offshore publishing services business as the Senior Vice President of CyberMedia’s services division.

Posting Featured projects on Freelance websites – Is it worth?

Author: Alina

Freelance marketplaces provide an online platform for Entrepreneurs & Small Medium Enterprises to connect with Freelancers, Professionals and part-timers from across the globe to execute projects instantly and effectively. Posting a project on freelance job websites will not only bring an opportunity to get experts to work on a project but also provide a broad range of collaboration tools and usability-driven workflows to ease business processes.

Posting a project can be done in varied categories as starting from free plans to get standard providers till paid plans to get premium and top-notch service providers. Many websites offer special plans in which a buyer can highlight his project as featured and get an edge over other buyers who have posted the same project.

Let’s take a look at some freelance job websites and their projects pricing and benefits:

1.LimeExchange.com- The featured project posting on this freelance marketplace offers multiple benefits for all the buyers. Only committed service providers on a paid membership plan or those otherwise entitled would be able to bid on the project. Minimum 5 quality bids guaranteed otherwise full fee will be refunded to the buyer. The project would be listed as a top project on search pages. The best part is that when a buyer awards a Featured Project, he will get his $5 back in his account. A buyer can withdraw money or post another Project absolutely free! It charges the lowest fee of $5 for every project.

2.Elance.com- As compared to their standard job posting, Elance featured post offers enhanced prominence on the site and also brings a chance to attract the highest quality proposals. This job post allows a buyer to receive a more proposals as compared to their basic job postings. They also provide a featured tab on the project to increase its visibility on the search page. They charge $15 for each post.

3.Getafreelancer.com- This freelance marketplace also provides a featured project posting option for buyers. Their projects are highlighted on the search pages attracting more quality bidders to the project, and are also randomly rotated as related projects on top of all other project pages. These projects get multiple bids and also bring a chance to hire more experienced and high quality freelancers. Posting such projects incur a fee of $19.

4.Scriptlance.com- As a recommended plan for buyers, Scriptlance featured project posting helps in attracting serious experts for work requirement. It also provides enhanced visibility; lowest rate bids and also ensures buyer’s seriousness about the project. There is a fee of $19 to post such project, but you will not be charged the regular $5 fee when closing your project.

Hope this article would help in choosing the best freelance marketplace to post a featured project and to hire a skilled provider to execute a freelance project seamlessly and efficiently. Please share your suggestions and views on the same.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/outsourcing-articles/posting-featured-projects-on-freelance-websites-is-it-worth-1162134.html

About the Author:

Alina, a competent result oriented freelance professional and consultant with more than 4 years of extensive experience in Content writing and website development. Write articles on varied topics such as freelancing, trends, market, jobs, resources etc.

Outsourcing Accounting Bookkeeping Services – A Wise Business Decision

Author: Akash Patel

In this fast growing business world, people are setting up their own business and want to run it successfully. To run business successfully is not an easy job. It needs lot of hard work and wise decisions. It also requires active participation of expert people to look out of the activities which are essential. And one of the crucial business activities includes accounting and bookkeeping operations. So it is very important to keep accounting department lively and accurate with financial professionals and experts.

It is business fact that focusing only on core business activities would never lead to more profits, it is essential to concentrate on your other low priority activities like accounting and bookkeeping. And it is advisable to hire team of experts to handle these tasks.

Outsource Accounting and Bookkeeping to Offshore Countries :

Many business experts believe that outsource accounting and bookkeeping services to expert offshore firms is always advisable and intelligent business decision. By outsourcing accounting and bookkeeping tasks will cut off your operational costs and save your precious time which can be utilized for your core business operations. Thus outsourcing accounting services will help you to boost your business activities and generate more profits.

There are many offshore firms which have well trained accounting staff with certified public accountants who can understand your requirements and can give you essential business advices. They give you the best possible accounting solutions with the use of latest accounting software and tools. For these offshore firms accounting and bookkeeping are the core and critical tasks. So they are enough capable of handling any complex accounting or bookkeeping tasks. And now days, it is easy to find reliable offshore accounting firms from the medium of internet which can provide you the list of reputed accounting firms.

Find your reliable offshore accounting partner as soon as possible and start boosting your core business activities by giving it more time and money.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/outsourcing-articles/outsourcing-accounting-bookkeeping-services-a-wise-business-decision-1162941.html

About the Author:

Author is related with reputed offshore online accounting services providing firm Aditech Accounting Services. Get detailed information about accounting and bookkeeping services at its official website aditechaccountingservices.com.

Offshore Outsourcing

Author: David

Executive Summary

“Do not learn from your mistakes; learn from the mistakes of others so that you do not make any.” Sean Karsten

No doubt, offshore software development has made its mark in the industry and it’s safe to say that it’s here to stay. It is estimated that nearly 85% of the worlds top companies have an offshore strategy; so you’re probably thinking, “Isn’t it time I went offshore?” If you’re already offshore, you’re probably thinking of ways to diversify and improve your offshore strategy.

Whether you make websites for non-profits or sell complex financial software, you’re faced with the critical decision of outsourcing parts of your software development. While outsourcing development will allow you to funnel precious time and money into sales and innovation, it’s important to make a sober decision before jumping on the offshore bandwagon. The large companies that paved the offshore trail haven’t done so without failed engagements, breached contracts, and a little bit of resentment on both sides. As small and medium sized businesses prepare to make the offshore leap, it will serve you well to learn from the mistakes of your less fortunate peers.

Lesson #1: Look for Someone You Can Grow With

“I’m looking for someone I can grow with.” CTO of Insurance Claims Software Company

You’re a small company with a killer idea that’s going to change the world. You’ve decided to work with an offshore vendor but don’t know where to start. One client we worked with found an excellent vendor to do his core product development in India. Things were great for two years until the Indian vendor started growing. All of a sudden, the client became a small fish in a big pond; quality slipped, he didn’t get the attention he needed to keep his company thriving and the rest was history.

When looking for an offshore vendor, look for someone you can grow with. With an insatiable appetite for “mega-deals”, most of the large vendors will shy away from SMB’s seeking to outsource. Work with a firm for whom you represent a significant portion of the business. This will ensure that your project doesn’t fall through the cracks in favor of bigger clients. Make sure that their growth strategy falls in line with your own as well. For example, with the incredible growth of the Indian IT market, companies are growing organically and via acquisitions. A vendor with a growth strategy focused on acquisition might lose track of the subtleties of your particular projects.

Your best bet is to look for a company that matches your corporate culture and is looking to grow with you. The real value in offshore software development is nurturing a team that can handle your core development challenges, allowing you to focus on gaining market share and coming out with great new products.

Lesson # 2: “What did he just say?”

“I’ve been burned by offshore firms and have the scars to prove it.” CEO of Government Software Vendor

Unfortunately many offshore engagements result in failure. This is a result of unrealistic expectations and mismanaged communication. One client hired an Indian vendor and later pulled the project in favor of a Chinese one. The result was a team of engineers who hardly spoke English; a real project killer.

The most important thing in an offshore relationship is to dedicate someone at yours and the vendors end to keep track of project progress. A native language speaking person who also

speaks fluent English managing the operation from abroad is indispensable to distributed software development. You can’t hire Chinese engineers who speak marginal English and expect the project to go well unless you have a fluent Chinese person on the ground or in the United States with tight relationships with the engineers.

It all depends on the scope of the project; if you’re just doing a simple web site, sure, hire someone in China with no supervision. If you’re outsourcing an entire engineering team for a software product that will be built over the course of a year, you need to be much more careful. Make the decision to dedicate someone on your side to keep the offshore team on track and demand the same from them. Like any relationship, a little investment and communication from both sides will lead to long-term success.

Lesson 3: Execution is key

“Finding technical resources is easy, finding people who are committed is key” CEO of Global Consulting Company

One thing you’ll learn in your search for the right offshore vendor is that there are hundreds of very good offshore vendors in countries like Brazil, China, Russia, Ukraine, India, the Phillipines, Pakistan, and Vietnam. With some of the best engineering schools in the world, these countries churn out hordes of extremely technical graduates with a passion for technology. The governments of many of these countries understand the value of courting Western business; specifically how it will transform their nations into world-class economies. Consequently, they spearhead programs to support their flourishing software industry and attract foreign business.

In an offshore engagement, technical talent is not enough. Firms looking for offshore partners need to closely evaluate the software development process of their vendors. Does the vendor have an established development methodology (RUP, Agile, etc.)? How strictly does the firm adhere to deadlines? Is the vendor oriented towards long-term relationships with the client or do they prefer transaction-based projects? These questions are important to ask because they reveal the underlying culture and beliefs that govern the vendor’s development process. In offshore development, as with anything, unanticipated problems appear, but at the moment of truth, your vendor should be mature enough to roll with the punches and get the job done.

You should look for a vendor that is focused on business principles and development methodology rather than technical skills. You want an offshore partner that understands your business and how their development process enhances it. The value in offshore software development does not lie in cheap labor. The value lies in finding a company that understands what you’re trying to do, identifies your main challenges, and has a solid process to execute. Looking for vendors based on principles will help you qualify out those firms that sell solely on low price.

Lesson #4: The Relationship Makes Everything Worthwhile

“We’re looking for a firm focused on a relationship and longevity.” CEO of Canadian Web Development Company

The operative word here is “chemistry”. Make sure that both you and your potential vendor are looking for a long relationship. A solid offshore team is an indispensable part of building a sustainable company; good offshore vendors know that and introduce new ideas, propose alternative solutions, and foreshadow problems so you can focus on building your enterprise.

Many offshore firms will be happy to take over your QA work, but what if you have a new product release coming up and your lead developer quits and takes some of his buddies with him? Ideally you should have such a tight relationship with your offshore vendor that they can pick up with no problem. We had a prospective client with the same situation. He was working with two vendors in India, but apparently he didn’t have the type of relationship with them where he could have them take ownership of the work. He contacted us and was looking for us to help get his product out on time. We had another similar scenario where a firm had a development team in Bulgaria but still needed our help to create a web-based version of an existing desktop application. Although these firms had an offshore strategy, they couldn’t fully benefit from their relationships and had to look for support elsewhere.

Although this point seems similar to Lesson #1, it is worth stating that looking for a vendor that is focused on a relationship and becoming a valuable partner is critical when looking for offshore vendors. Vendors focused on finite tasks rather than the health of the relationship will never understand your business challenges and won’t fully adopt your interests as their own. If you’re going to hire developers 10,000 miles away, you better make sure that they’re in it for the long haul.

Lesson #5: Be Realistic

“Cost, quality, and speed, you can only have two.” CTO of California-based software firm

Of course you’ll be realistic, but will the vendor? This quote really sums up the attitude you need to take when going offshore because it gives you leverage. “Yes-men” vendors that promise the world will be careful not to promise too much if you display a healthy dose of skepticism. Gone are the days of expecting 60% in savings and drastically reduced development cycles when sending work over the pond. That’s not to say that you won’t save a significant amount of time and money; it’s just important to view outsourcing as a modern-day necessity to remain competitive, not a panacea.

Mature offshore vendors understand that their value is to help you “see around corners” and build a sustainable business, not act as cheap labor. Today’s outsourcing buyers have to be more aware of offshore development trends and have realistic expectations. Although the cost savings can be tremendous when sending software development offshore, it’s important to understand that it requires an investment at your end. In most cases, offshore failure is a result of both sides not being clear about what the other wants, assuming expectations are aligned. It’s wise to start with an attitude of caution until the vendors prove themselves by meeting incremental milestones. This will allow you objectively evaluate their process and absorb the consequences of unexpected issues as you nurture the relationship. By approaching the offshore engagement with a realistic attitude, you’re seeking progress, not perfection.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/offshore-outsourcing-257438.html

About the Author:

Raza Imam is Managing Partner of Chicago-based offshore software engineering firm Adaptive Solutions, Inc. and the author of the tongue-in-cheek blog about outsourcing Software Sweatshop ( www.software-sweatshop.com)

The blog intends to provide sobering advice on offshore outsourcing. As more small-medium sized businesses consider going offshore, ‘software sweatshops’ are springing up all over the place… large companies that paved the offshore trail haven’t done so without failed engagements, breached contracts, and a little bit of resentment on both sides. As SMB’s prepare to make the offshore leap, it’s wise to learn from the mistakes of the big boys
The blog is designed to poke fun at the outsourcing industry and identify practices that lead to offshore failures. Visit the blog at http://www.software-sweatshop.com

Does it make sense for your company to outsource payroll administration?

Author: Daljeet Sidhu

Outsourcing particular business tasks can enable you to free up resources and energy to focus on your core competencies. Payroll is an important function and in all likelihood it makes sense to outsource payroll administration rather than hire resources in-house and dedicate them solely to the function. Payroll companies help you organize your payroll, adhere to policies and procedures, and get employees paid on time.

To stay on top of your tax obligations is reason enough for your company to consider using a payroll provider. Payroll administration warrants attention to detail and even the smallest indiscretion can attract heavy penalties from the tax authority of your country. In the US, the IRS has a history of levying heavy fines on small businesses for even the smallest transgression. Recently released statistics show that one out of every three small businesses is penalized in some way for not complying with tax laws.

Why should you outsource payroll processing?

If you company is large enough, you may choose to conduct payroll functions in-house but be prepared to hire at least a couple of employees dedicated to this function. You will also have to allocate resources to continuously train your payroll staff in use of accounting software and to keep up with the frequently shifting state and federal tax laws. Also if you are a growing company that is continuously adding new employees, teams and locations, managing payroll is going to be quite a challenge. Do you really want to get distracted from the core-functions of your business by administering payroll yourself?

Payroll service providers are experts in what they do and have economies of scale since they administer payroll for many other companies. More than likely, they will deliver payroll services to your company cheaper and more efficiently that what you can do yourself.

What Services Do Payroll Companies Provide?

Payroll companies provide various services. The following are the most common:

• Calculating pay checks for each employee

• Addressing tax obligations on a local, state, and federal level

• Printing and delivering checks

• Providing management reports

• Tracking employee benefits information

• Automatic check signatures

• Providing direct deposit

• Processing W-2 forms

• Processing 401k and mutual fund plans

• Addressing tax needs for your company and providing tax preparation

How to choose a Payroll Service?

Ask for quotes from several companies before making a final decision. An easy way to request quotes from multiple providers is to go to a B2B networking portal like TradeSeam. Keep the following in mind as you decide on the provider.

• Can they provide accurate payroll service without any mistakes in employee’s pay or providing tax information to the government? Ask for history of efficiency.

• An occasional mistake is acceptable but how quickly can they correct it. If the payroll service provider is overstretched, they may not have the resources to quickly provide the remedy.

• Is the payroll providers system and software compatible with your own operating systems? Would it be possible to transfer data to and from your business easily?

• Are the references flawless? Excellent customer service to business owners and its employees is important.

• How many clients is the payroll provider serving? Large number of clients may indicate a successful service but attrition in the past few months may indicate deteriorating quality. Does the provider have adequate resources to serve your business?

• Is the pricing competitive? Some companies may bait you with low basic fees and charge heavily for extras. Ask for an all inclusive package to compare prices.

Once you decide on a payroll provider, scrutinize the contract very carefully for any hidden fees or charges that may kick in after a few months of service.

Check the first few pay checks very carefully for any mistakes. It is better to uncover the issues early enough before they get compounded and more difficult to fix.

Hiring a payroll provider is an important decision for your business. It is tough to easily switch a payroll provider if you make the wrong decision. Make sure you adequately research all possibilities before making a final decision.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/outsourcing-articles/does-it-make-sense-for-your-company-to-outsource-payroll-administration-1133353.html

About the Author:

Daljeet Sidhu is a serial entrepreneur and founding partner at TradeSeam TradeSeam.com is the world’s first small business network, connecting customers, suppliers and service providers; all who have an interest in accelerating the growth of their business.

Reasons For Outsourcing

Author: Anna Zelenskaya

Based on our experience, we have comprised a list of specific business objectives to pass some the project to an external service provider; and a number of reasons for an international collaboration.

Factors to change in-house software development for IT Outsourcing.

• IT department restructuring. For particular activities there may be no responsible persons assigned; or there may be no person in-house, that is suitable for such role. Such activities can be outsourced – therefore, structure of IT department will be more rational and optimal, all the duties will be strictly assigned;

• Software- and Hardware cost reduction. The company can essentially cut costs spent on software and hardware updates; as well as other costs for infrastructure and facilities – these costs are beared by service provider;

• Retention of skilled workforce. This could be an issue when performing IT activities internally. First, salary increase can cause dissatisfaction for other workers. Second, experts need space for professional growth – which is also not always possible. Outsourcing frees from retention problems;

• Experience of outsourcing partner. Service provider already has experience with similar projects, this experience can be put to use.

Reasons for international outsourcing instead of regional outsourcing.

• International expansion. Offshore/nearshore outsourcing could be a great idea for a first step to international market. Outsourcing partner can first help with the development of new product, and then also with marketing and sales. He can use his knowledge of language and his country to develop effective marketing strategy;

• Time difference. One can use the time shift – for example, to perform software development and testing in terms;

• International experience of outsourcing partner. Service provider has already gained valuable experience with partners worldwide;

• Useful expert knowledge for managing staff. Qualification of management is increased through the international outsourcing negotiations.

This is a base for an outsourcing strategy. However, every leader has his specific reasons to enter into outsourcing relationships. Not only considering current situation is essential, it is also important to specify the project scope, budget and deadline, and select an appropriate service provider.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/outsourcing-articles/reasons-for-outsourcing-1140209.html

About the Author:

Anna Zelenskaya
Resource Manager
Ainstainer Group Co Ltd.
http://www.ainstainer.com

How to Choose a Service, Lead Generation Telemarketing B2C

Author: James Mcguire

The telemarketing involves calling customers or other businesses to promote or sell products or services. In B2C telemarketing, potential customers are contacted via telephone by trained persons.
There are several ways to generate lead First one is, Company may employ telemarketers.

Telemarketing which is also known as tele sales is a method of direct marketing in which a salesperson contact to the prospective customers to buy products or services, Salespersons contact the customers either over the phone or through a face to face appointment .

Telemarketing service can also include recorded sales pitches programmed to be played over the phone via automatic dialing. In the recent time, Telemarketing is the increasingly demand of any successful business.

Job of tele sales person will be in contact with prospects and qualify leads, so your sales agents can take control. Going this route costs money, you may need to pay benefits, have a supervisor with the generation of lead, and pay employees if they are generating leads or not. Second possibility is to outsource their work lead to the generation of a call center. The contractor will be paid only for the leads generated.

One factor to keep in mind is to make sure the service generation of lead you are considering specializing in a wide variety of lead generation. It is the best way if you can adjust quoted outsource, leaflet, or anything you need the middle of the call. Once you know you can solve your expectations, you will not have to worry about looking for a different company service whenever you need to change campaigns.

A second factor to remember is to research on quality assurance. Make sure the company has a lead generation tool in place to verify that all the leads are quality leads. All information must be verified before going to their sales team. This way, your employees will not loose sales while calling leads that contact information may be incorrect or may not be interested in the product.

It is to your advantage if the service of lead generation has the bilingual representatives on your computer. This way you can draw from the various business segments of the population. It is also important that the system is using user-friendly. You may request to see or test the system yourself. An user-friendly system that allows telemarketers to incorporate all the required information without confusion. The result will be of high quality leads for your sales.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/outsourcing-articles/how-to-choose-a-service-lead-generation-telemarketing-b2c-1103236.html

About the Author:

James McGuire is associated with call centers in india since a long time, Call Center India Management team has over 25 years of combined call center experience and providing call center services and inbound call centre services, technical support services, back office services and etc.