Outsourcing has truly become a mega trend of the twenty-first century. The factors that motivate outsourcing can be many and varied. Outsourcing can be tactical or strategic. Outsourcing can be driven by cost considerations or by the need to access scarce/specialist resources. Irrespective of the current status of your operations, globalisation and the competitive landscape is such that outsourcing is an option that should be reviewed; ignoring it is not an option. Some outsourcing projects have been an outstanding success, others have been less than successful and there have been a few spectacular failures!!

At Insight we have developed a comprehensive service offering that addresses the totality of the outsourcing opportunity and challenge - we call it Rightsourcing. Insight's rightsourcing model can be applied to all outsourcing situations, in particular to the two most common outsourcing practices, i.e. outsourcing to a sister company in a farshore lower cost location and outsourcing to an independent vendor. We don't take a narrow "testing-in" view of quality and we seek to address the total product development lifecycle to ensure that the final deliverable fully meets requirements. We focus on best practice development and testing processes, rather than the actual software development. Our Managed Service offering provides hands-on testing resources, expertise and management.

Analysis

Strategic Evaluation and Readiness Review

Successful projects typically start with a thorough analysis of the current situation and future goals and objectives, followed by a realistic review of the current capability and readiness of the organisation to undertake the proposed project.

Insight offers a three-day strategic evaluation of your outsourcing opportunities and your readiness to take advantage of the benefits of outsourcing. The evaluation uses a structured methodology to assess your current software development/testing approach, and the suitability/readiness of your processes, tools and organisation to deploy an outsourcing model. The objective is to identify outsourcing opportunities that will support your business goals. Our independent experts define a "right" sourcing mix that will work for you, and deliver a significant return on investment in the context of your core business. This service is the starting point for many of our most successful clients.

Vendor Quality Evaluation and Audit

Having identified suitable outsourcing projects, either nearshore or farshore, the next step in the process is to select a vendor who has the capability to deliver a service that fully meets your short and long term business goals.

The Insight Vendor Quality Evaluation and Audit is designed to support you in the selection of vendors or application software providers or to evaluate their performance in relation to quality of software deliverables to your organisation.

The scope of our standard offering allows for the evaluation or audit of a single vendor and activities can be conducted at your site or the vendor site, as appropriate. However, we can tailor the scope to include multiple vendors.

Strategic & Tactical Planning

Many of the less that successful outsourcing projects can be traced back to inadequate strategic or tactical planning. At Insight, our experienced consultants work closely with our customers to ensure that they "get it right first time". We ensure that all processes are clean, well documented and are "ready - to - travel". We work diligently to identify an appropriate pilot project that adequately addresses the challenges inherent in outsourcing while at the same time is not high risk or have serious repercussions if it takes longer than planned. We also put a strategic framework in place that looks beyond the pilot and can be scaled up quickly. We ensure that the whole process is underpinned by a comprehensive Service Level Agreement (SLA) that provides a clear and unambiguous definition of roles and responsibilities of customer and vendor. Our approach is to seek to move to fully scaled-up outsourcing as soon as possible while minimising risk. This frequently involves a phased approach of due diligence, followed by set up, transition and ramp up in the context of commencing on-site, transferring to nearshore, and subsequently transitioning to farshore.

Competence Development

Training

Investment in competence development is an important indicator of high performance organisations. At Insight we offer a range of competence development options. Our training portfolio consists of over 30 courses on all aspects of software quality and software vendor management. Our popular Outsourcing Software Testing course helps participants to understand the challenges of outsourced software testing and types of software testing best suited to outsourcing or farshoring. The Supplier Quality Management course takes the participants through the major steps of vendor/subcontract management, through planning, selection, monitoring and control though to acceptance and maintenance. Practical techniques and methods are used by the participants in the "hands-on" sessions. It combines presentations with exercises/workshops in best practices for the typical supplier management lifecycle.

User Acceptance Testing (UAT), normally the last stage before the system moves into production, is the stage at which the users decide if the outsourcing vendor really delivered what they paid for. We provide a comprehensive two-day UAT training course to empower customers using external vendors to fully test the final deliverable against their stated business requirements. We also provide short half-day workshops for management and those not directly involved in, but impact by, outsourcing.

Mentoring

Our training and education activities are supported by a comprehensive mentoring programme. Our typical mentoring approach involves regular reviews of the Action Plan to identify implementation issues and concerns. Changes in priorities and/or resources are suggested where status reviews indicate that corrective action is required.

Implementation

Farshore

Farshore operations can deliver a range of benefits and at Insight, through our partners, we can offer a choice of locations from Eastern Europe to India. In short, you can derive the cost benefits of engaging a farshore vendor while dealing with a highly respected local supplier with an impeccable reputation for delivering the highest level of customer service and satisfaction. Not all projects, or indeed all elements of a project, are suitable for farshore deployment.

We can offer a blended solution comprising of on-site, nearshore and farshore components from a single local specialised vendor.

Nearshore

At Insight, with two facilities in Ireland, we are ideally positioned to provide comprehensive near -shore solutions, with the benefits of operating in the same time zone, an EU intellectual property legal regime, a high skilled workforce, and a lower cost base. This offering is particularly attractive to UK customers because of the euro to sterling cost differential. Our exclusive focus on testing and quality assurance also means that we can deliver substantial productivity gains over existing in-house operations. Our nearshore offering is very attractive in its own right, but may also be a phase of a plan to ultimately move to a full farshore deployment.

When it comes to implementation there is no "one-size-fits-all" solution. At Insight we recognise this and offer a range of solutions to suit most needs. Customers have different motivations for choosing to outsource and have different risk profiles. For those who are driven by relentless cost pressures, farshore outsourcing is usually the preferred solution. While those who are motivated by the desire to concentrate on their core business or reduce costs through specialisation and efficiency a nearshore solution in the same time zone and business culture may be most appropriate.

A nearshore solution may also be most suitable for customers who are risk averse.

Managed Service

Through our Managed Service offering, in effect, we become your software testing department and manage the quality interface with a range of onshore and offshore vendors. This offering is particularly attractive to those organisations who want to outsource their software development activities. Farshore development centres in Eastern Europe, India and China offer particularly appealing pricing and access to a very large base of specialist skills. However, the logistics of dealing with such far-flung suppliers, operating in a different time zone and in an environment where there can be significant cultural differences and language barriers, can be daunting. Though our Managed Service offering you can enjoy the benefits, while our specialists handle the day-to-day operations and audit and monitor the quality of the work being delivered. When the time comes to take delivery of the final product our specialists work with your business users to plan, manage and implement a comprehensive UAT program.

Call us to find the "rightsourcing" blended solution for your specific business environment and risk profile.