So you sitting watching the world falling apart with the headlines like this everywhere. I bet if you are using outsourcing or intend to do so the question pops up in your head: which destination is stable and will not get hurt by the crisis or blown away by the next financial storm.

Here is the comment on risks (no risks actually) if you choose Belarus. Much of our force is located there so we have have our homework on this one done. Belarus is not affected by the world crisis b/c it doesn’t actually have mature stock market and not much of a foreign investment in the country. The loan system including subprime is not popular much also – so we won’t have any foreclosures happening destabilizing the financial system. The local currency is fixed towards the dollar and stays on the same level for about 4 years now (with slight rise of ruble against dollar recently). At the same time the was a gradual inflation happening which resulted in lesser purchasing power of the dollar. Worth case scenario for crisis is that devaluation of the belarussian ruble will occur which will be a hit for the country but not the outsourcing industry. In fact it will win in this case (consider employees being able to purchase more for the same salary). Which makes the choice of Belarus as your offshore outsourcing destination right and bold!

Tags: offshore outsourcing, outsourcing industry, power of the dollar, recession
Posted in management, outsourcing | 2 Comments »

In those hard time for virtually any industry the interesting question for outsourcing professionals or companies using outsourcing is the following: Will the offshore outsourcing industry grow or decline? Is this the end of offshore outsourcing golden times or the beginning of the new wave?

From our prospective it’s both. Here is why: about 20-40% of the revenue of traditional outsourcing houses goes from financial institutions. With the collapse companies have been forced to enter into different vertical markets. Typically that would be a good measure to compensate the losses. But the current problem is that everyone is in the same boat – industries, markets, countries. For example travel verticals seeing the rise in cancellation of reservations and tickets, automotive sells dramatically less cars then usual, the list goes on. At the same time in the reality of the crisis companies facing difficulties try to search for the way to stay competitive and make the ends meet. And outsourcing is a cost effective solution which was invented long time ago. It’s a matter of applying it now effectively. During the last two weeks our marketing department sees the increased number of leads coming in. Fact! It’s interesting times because it’s mix of positive and negative happenings for offshore outsourcing companies and the managers need to be creative to make sure that the business drives true value to the customer they need to work on differentiation factors. Price is important too this time! I’m sure that the ineffective players will sink and leave and those with the strategy will become more powerful then ever. They are helping companies to stay competitive in those difficult times anyway.

Tags: offshore outsourcing, outsourcing companies, outsourcing industry, recession
Posted in outsourcing | No Comments »

Have useless web site? If it has PR3+ and Alexa ranking of at least 1.000.000 we are ready to buy it for a small cash. Those will be used for SEO purposes only and will serve as additional power for 3 way link exchange. We are not interested in any ‘business’ which might exist behind the web site. We will consider any topics since we have customers using our SEO services operating in many vertical industries. We will also consider to credit you with our services. Drop a line to seo (at) moveyourweb.net

Tags: link exchange, SEO, seo services
Posted in outsourcing | No Comments »

We are in a exciting business of powering web startup companies. Given the fact that most web startups are about certain idea/product/service that is implemented online it turns out we support a critical part of our customers’ business. Being in the web development outsourcing business since 2001 we’ve accumulated great knowledge about the majority of online industries. We have perfect understanding of online business and solid development/animation/online marketing talents in place. With this said we are fully equipped to be a development partner/active member of online ventures.

In June 2008 we officially launched Early Stage Startups Funding program which provides the opportunity to startups to use our services in exchange for equity in the company. Typically we are talking about $$5,000-25,000 worth of our services in exchange for 5-15% of the company. Ideally we would prefer to know the CEO or other management folks or at least have the ability to track the previous accomplishments and success as well as share the vision. In addition to that we need to understand the business concept, see the business plan and all other supportive documents (no formal requirements to these documents).

The number of companies accepted into this program is limited for many reasons (resources availability, industries of an interest etc). We do not do any marketing for this program and already have strong demand from entrepreneurs that have a proven track record. So if at any given point of time we are not available to work in exchange for equity we are still happy to provide our services on a regular customer/vendor basis (this is still the core business of MoveYourWeb).

Update: MYW acts as a vendor according to the terms of this program. The management of a startup is doing the actual management of the company and business development. We do not interfere with that. However MYW has separate internal funding program when employee’s idea can be developed into a startup. Typically the employee will not be able to act as a true CEO of the new business so MYW allows to utilize the existing infrastructure and is helping/taking care of all administrative/business/legal/business development/marketing/sales matters.

Tags: funding, startup companies, startups, web startups
Posted in management, outsourcing | 5 Comments »

Keeping a web site updated is something that a lot of companies fail to do. Each 10th web site on the web seem to have outdated copyright string – without mentioning the actual web site content. The other interesting tendency is that a lot of web development companies are busy and consider updating their web site the last priority which puts their web site into ‘frozen’ status for years (they don’t eat their own cookies, hah?).

Here at MoveYourWeb we consider our web site to be a powerful marketing and sales tool. In fact this is our virtual front-end which customers see instead of our offices (you need to take the plane to visit us, which is not always quick and easy) so we need to make sure that we are displaying the updated and relevant information helping potential and existing customers explore our company and service offerings better.

Here goes the list of front end updates which happened during the first part of 2008:

• We added Case Studies section on the web site featuring the accomplished projects. You can browse and select case studies by service, solution, platform and industry. The old-styled web design portfolio section is not here any more (we evolved from being offshore web design studio 5-6 years ago into a reputable outsourcing company which handles sophisticated web development, animation and online marketing);
• Our home page became more interactive by displaying featured case studies, recent blog posts and even audio presentation of the company (JustMyVoice does perfect audio recordings). Our conversion rate increased by 2.1% after that step alone;
• Services page was sorted to display the most relevant information about over offerings;
• Partners page features our new Early stage startup funding program as well as Build-Operate-Transfer offering;
• 50% of the pages were updated to display latest information (e.g. seo page now proudly displays Google Certified label).

More updates are coming as this is typically an ongoing process. Stay tuned.

Tags: audio recordings, case studies section, portfolio section, web site maintenance, web site updates
Posted in general thoughts, management, outsourcing | No Comments »

Every other day I’m getting a ‘partnership offer’ from another ‘outsourcing company’ which started their operations (or I shall say ending).

The shortest example of an unsolicited junk that I have to clean out from my inbox daily:

We are a company in China, and we could provide you with any web related services for only $12 per hour, either PHP, ASP, Net programming or any flash development, web site designing, etc. You can have a whole group of experts, AND you don’t need to pay until the project is completed (only available for those projects are below $2000).

Not only the those ‘marketers’ are not able to understand that they are emailing to the VP of outsourcing company (why would we need to outsource the work when it’s outsourced to us), their spam emails are not wanted (I never subscribed to their mailings) and no one is interested in their cheap and unreliable services.

Anyway this post is not a rant about confusing marketing techniques but about the fact that people cannot think deeper than just following their desire to replicate the success of established big vendors. This so called ‘companies’ fail to recognize that offshore outsourcing market is over-saturated already. There will not be another Wipro, Infosys or Satyam or as a more local example there won’t be another MoveYourWeb, Itransition or Aitoc. Big fish which is swimming in this pond is able to keep with market saturation and keep well. They are able to employ administrative personnel needed for effective functioning of the company (executives, marketing, sales, hr, attorneys, office managers, system and networks admins, representatives). They are able to compete on price easily because there is no need to earn high profits on every employee to maintain the functioning of the company. They are able to provide solid offices and work space to the employees and motivate those. They have millions of other advantages that the similar small company doesn’t have.

Don’t take me wrong – there are and will be successful outsourcing companies starting (few -providing services, many – developing proprietary product) but founding another outsourcing service provider trying to emulate the model of an established successful company located next block is just a FAILURE. A lot of times this new ‘CEOs’ of such ‘companies’ think: ‘We know everything about technology and outsourcing. We’ve been working in outsourcing company for years. Why not to start our own company. We will compete for the customer by lowering prices, offering a additional compensation advantage to employees and claiming that we have a more personalized clients approach and earn some decent buck for it, right?’ WRONG. Optimizing competitive advantages by 10% will not do the trick of competing with big names established long ago! That is simply not enough to brake though. You will end up in spending years of your life, face debt, bad image and other bad karmas. The business model should be different to compete and succeed.

Types of offshore outsourcing companies that can get successful:

1. Companies providing UNIQUE set of services. Take a look at this company providing online tutoring services. Finding the unique niche which is not saturated is the key for companies giving a stake on this business model.
2. Companies leveraging relatively cheap offshore resources to develop unique web properties. Those are generally called Product companies. This is a concept of the future, the only downsize aspect of this is that you will need funding to support the operations. But that’s the different story.
3. Companies which act as an office of established software companies or big outsourcing houses employing AT LEAST 100 full-time people in other countries. Partners that have small ventures don’t qualify (you don’t want to become the company with the 1 customer). In 99.95% of cases this is the dead road since the ‘partner’ will not be able to grow the company big due to the same reasons mentioned plus additional like multi-focus on different businesses that are being run (in 90% the ‘partner’ will be just trying out this outsourcing venture). Only big established companies. Full stop.
4. Companies located in rising outsourcing destinations. Vietnam, Egypt, Argentina and others – outsourcing is just starting there that’s why you can compete on price on the global market and grow because there is not much fight on the local labor markets yet. The disadvantage is lack of strong experience and sometimes communication of the employees so that’s valid to specific types of outsourcing only.

So you are located in a third world country and willing to start your own company or already running it (small one). Does the business model qualify as one of described in 4 types? NO? Then keep building the career at the company you work for, gaining additional experience and skills, leveraging the expertise you have for your success, the success of the company you work for and the ultimate success of the customer. You future is stable and planned and stable in this case. In case the answer is YES – you are at a spot where it might be worth trying. Go for it if you are really confident about it! Just remember that in case everything goes wrong sending out the cry for help if the form of SPAM emails begging for a project will not be the way out.

Tags: it outsourcing, offshore outsourcing, outsourcing, outsourcing business, outsourcing company, web development
Posted in management, outsourcing, web development | 5 Comments »

When it comes to the selection of outsourcing provider for the creation of innovative web project (anything from social network to widget creations) the company shall make sure that the provider has the actual expertise of developing similar innovative projects. In the majority of cases the customer might end in selecting reliable web development company with a long track of experience creating web projects, employing experienced developers but without the experience of creating the relevant innovative web properties. Chances are high that this project will be a failure because the provider is simply not there yet from a relevant experience prospective. They haven’t work with this types of web properties and do not invest much in R&D and stepping into powering startups (usually those are the first adopters of innovative technologies).

We’ve seen customers that engaged established software houses into the creation of a media streaming web sites ending in a failure to deliver the project after half a year!!! of work. The vendor experienced in this type of projects can roll out the similar solution developed from scratch during 2 months (assuming that the customer doesn’t want another clone of YouTube but has a more-or-less unique concept).

Now not only starts ups but big media companies need to innovate. Consider this example: an average American citizen spends 28 hours a week watching TV (sounds unbelievable, right) however for the young people that’s much less because they take this time and move it to their computer. So media companies, like MTW, suddenly say: Ooops, how do I get into computer? How do I reach this audience? What technologies do I use to engage the audience? In the majority of cases the answer can not be found internally. In the old days such companies were innovating internally but now when the web is evolving so fast the internal senior executives might not even how to use an RSS reader. Same issue with the internal IT folks – it’s most likely that they do their job instead of doing the research on new technologies and happenings on the web. So where is this innovation going to come from?

We see that more and more companies are relying on the outsourcing providers to come up with this innovation or support it. It’s important to understand for the customer and the vendor that to success in outsourcing innovating not only the technology aspects should be in place but the provider should understand the business of the customer and take themselves more of a consultant just as a provider of development services. This is the aim of the MoveYourWeb development departments and that’s where we are at partly and where we are going to. Not only we are proud to develop innovative web properties for our customers but support big names dealing with innovation, such as MixerCast – one of the best widget distribution companies out there.

Here at MoveYourWeb we understand this principle and develop a lot of innovating web projects and try to share the critical knowledge as much as possible among the employees engaged into production. Innovative web technologies and latest happenings on the web are under our radar and we are really pacionate about it because clearly this is the model that will be very popular in the future.

Tags: management, web 2.0, web development
Posted in management, outsourcing, web 2.0, web development | 1 Comment »

India has been dominating offshore outsourcing market since its opening. Despite the cultural differences the majority of American companies considered India the best place to outsource jobs to, mainly because of the cost benefits. However, the decline of the U.S. dollar against other currencies including the Euro, Yen and the Indian Rupee makes most countries such as India, China, Russia and number of European countries less competitive in offshore development. The currency exchange trends give Belarus a competitive advantage in terms of its outsourcing potential. In addition to other benefits that Belarus has to offer, exchange rate factor gains momentum: BRB/USD exchange rates are fixed and the value of the Belorussian ruble follows that of the dollar.

Since the rupee has appreciated by 8.9 percent against the US dollar in 2007-2008, Indian outsourcing companies now have to compete with the countries that have more favorable dollar exchange rates. The following graph shows the recent dynamics of INR/USD exchange rates.

(source www.exchange-rates.org)

The rising appreciation of rupee against dollar and West Asian currencies is not the only challenge for Indian outsourcing providers. Indian economy is overheating with excessive demand pushing prices even higher. Considering the current account deficit the U.S. has got with China future looks very promising for Belorussian outsourcing companies. But the favorable situation on the currency exchange markets is not the only advantage Belarus has got.

(source www.exchange-rates.org)

Considering the future we see the Belarus keeps BRB on the same exchange rate to the USD thus maintaining this advantage to other outsourcing destinations.

Tags: offshore web development, outsourcing
Posted in outsourcing | 3 Comments »

We all know that competition is a crucial business law, and that if there were no competition, there would not have been progress. In the case of most businesses, competition is comprised by a big or small number of other companies involved in the same business but mostly in the same country. In the case of outsourcing, offshore outsourcing companies have to compete not only with other companies in their home country, but also with other countries of the world, which makes the competition tougher, but also stimulates and encourages for better and better results.

According to A.T. Kearney Global Services Location Index, 2007 (below is the cut down version of the Kearney’s research. The original version is available at http://www.atkearney.com/res/shared/pdf/GSLI_2007.pdf), Russia is rated in top 50 locations worldwide that provide the best remote functions, including IT services and support, contact centers and back-office support.

Table 1

Note: The weight distribution for the three categories is 40:30:30. Financial attractiveness is rated on a scale of 0 to 4, and the categories for people and skills availability, and business environment are on a scale of 0 to 3.

Source: A.T. Kearney

If we look into the summary of Gartner Outsourcing Summit in Dallas in March, for example, we will see that Russia is mentioned in the trinity of IT outsourcing global leaders. It is not a surprise. The total value of Russian IT market grew 25 times over the last 7 years, and it means that outsourcing in Eastern Europe is speeding up the pace. Below you will see the table demonstrating the marks for quality of workforce in a number of countries involved in outsourcing:

Table 2

Source: PRTM (Pittiglio Rabin Todd McGrath), Ernst & Young

It is evident that India’s progress has become an example of how people can gain profits offering developed countries the services that they strongly need but at lower rates. As a result, the 90-s have brought the world a number of offshore outsourcing companies in Eastern Europe, which have been making a tough competition to Asian countries for about 10 years already. However, it is quite challenging to change the people’s established opinion of India as the best country to outsource jobs. On the other hand, if we think where this common belief takes its roots, we will understand that only from the fact that India is the first on the outsourcing market.

So, now, why is it a common belief among Americans that India is the best place for outsourcing? Is it a stereotype? A mistaken view? Or maybe there is something at the bottom. Let’s speculate. Below is a table with a comparison analysis of Belarus and India as two potential countries that an American company would think of contracting for outsourcing.

Table 3

According to the table, Belarusian outsourcing promises to be a smoother process than Indian outsourcing with its communication gaps and quality breaches. However, since the Indians were the first to offer outsourcing services to American and European companies India transformed into a ‘brand’ or synonym to outsourcing. That doesn’t necessarily mean that this is number 1 choice of an outsourcing destination nowadays – the Indian outsourcing market is overheated already.

What conclusions can we make from the mentioned above?

First of all, Belarus has a more favorable geographical location than India. Located almost in the heart of Europe, Belarus borders on countries-members of EU, which makes it incorporation into the European culture quicker. Besides, Minsk, the capital, is within a two and a half hour flight from Frankfurt, which means that it will be possible to build business relationships not only on a virtual level, but also personally. It is critical that customers visit the office or delivery center of their outsourcing partners, establishing thus personal contact with management, get acquainted with the company’s workflow, facilities, etc.

Secondly, the Belarusian time-zone allows Belarusian and American working hours overlap, while Indian and American working hours do not overlap at all. Some of the businesses even offer almost full business-hours time overlap with the USA. There is not that much difference in the price, but there is some clear difference in the quality of the services provided. Belarus is known for performing all outsourced tasks promptly and effectively with the business relationships based on trust, teamwork, and effective use technology.

Third, Belarus is offering the same set of services as India. BPO is a niche, which still requires some intellectual investment, but this is only a matter of time. Lack of experience in BPO is fully compensated by a high level of expertise in software development.

Fourth, the Belarusian education is one of the strongest growth supporting elements. In fact, when it comes to experience with complex software development tasks, Belarusian developers tend to outrank all others.

Add to this the absence of vivid cultural differences and a good command of the English language, and you will see why Belarus is so much better than India. Plus ambitious plans of the Belarusian government for the future of the Belarusian IT. In 2004, the government announced an initiative
to create a high tech park that would unite the leading IT outsourcing companies under one roof and promote their services. Apart from that, the government has announced an ambitious goal to boost the country’s IT services export to 4 percent of that of India by 2008! All that makes us believe that Belarus is a true outsourcing hotspot in Eastern Europe.

Tags: outsource India, outsource-to-Belarus, outsourcing, outsourcing jobs to Belarus, outsourcing offshoring
Posted in outsourcing | 8 Comments »

As a Director of Marketing here at MoveYourWeb it falls under my radar to update and maintain our own corporate web site. The shame thing is that our portfolio section was really outdated (yeah in bold). We do have the set of customers that we work with for many years so they are perfectly aware of our technology expertise as well as solutions that we’ve created. We also have enough management at different levels who are always ready to suggest on the work in specific technology or industry that we’ve accomplished. A big percentage are contacting us thru WOMM so a lot of our new prospects are already educated about our company’s services and past work.

Anyway there is a still put of prospects coming from sources other than WOMM and it takes our Sales Dpt additional time to compile the list of projects accomplished for specific industry, especially when the same work should be done again and again on a daily basis. So here I go – researching the ways to organize and structure Case Studies section for offshore outsourcing company. 30 companies located in TOP50 Google under a relevant search quarries were reviewed. Find the results of the research below:

1. Downloadable Case Studies – a prospect is able to select the case study of interest and download the pdf by filling out a short form. Service Provider can use this data for further promotions, prospect education by sending relevant promo info to the subscribers thus trying to convert the prospect into a customer with time. The negative aspect of this model is that it takes time to fill the form/check email/open the pdf. The other negative thing is that the Case Studies published are generally presented in a A-Z list rather being structured by industry/technology/etc.

2. Client List – list of customers is published on the web site with additional description of their business. This model is relevant for companies handling small projects (their prospect is luckily to see similar company at the Client List and sign up).

3. Portfolio – list of finished projects, normally provided with the screenshots. The services providers should really choose this model if they are in creative business only. So web design studios and companies should choose it because it allows to reflect the style of the finished work, not the technical details which is critical for complicated projects focused on back-end rather the UI.

4. Case Studies grouped by Services – e.g. web development, software development, emended programming. The prospect is able to quickly find the relevant projects finished by a service provider and estimate the level of vendor’s proficiency. The question that arises is why service providers put Offshore Dedicated Center as a separate service. One customer may hire a team of web developers and another of software guys, the third will be hiring SEO Consultants. Shouldn’t that fall into the Service grouping directly? I think so. Ask me what to do with the Case Studies for Offshore Dedicated Center – don’t include this ‘service’ in a case studies structure at all! From a sales/marketing prospective Offshore Dedicated Center is an engagement model not a standalone service (well unless an ODC is of 20+ full-time people or ‘Build Operate Transfer’ model which is a different story).

5. Case Studies structured by Industry – e.g. banking, real estate, financial. No comments on that – clear for everyone

6. Case Studies by Solution – e.g. CMS, ERP, ecommerce.

7. Case Studies by Platform – e.g. .net, java enterprise. That one speaks for itself as well.

Our choice is to show case studies sorted by 1. Services (the most important and demanded), 2. Industry, 3. Platform and 4. Solution. The ‘Portfolio’ section that we’ve used before will fall under ‘web site design’ and ‘web site development’ services. Coming to production and will be reflected on the web site soon!

Tags: internet marketing, management
Posted in internet marketing, management, outsourcing | No Comments »