Reason 1: Winning New Accounts
Onsite travel for serving a prospect adds highest value in a person's professional profile.
A typical large outsourcing deal takes 3-9 months before it finalizes. Vendor selection is the most exhaustive task during this phase. Most organizations typically follow multi-level shortlisting process, starting from the vendor selection due-diligence, understanding vendor's capabilities, service offerings, past experience, costing, productivity, utilization, and the overall total cost of ownership. Once the probable vendors are shortlisted, the organization assign them a small project to evaluate their delivery. Such projects are called 'pilot projects'.
The vendor who shocases best performance in the pilot project wins the account. It is during these pilot projects, the vendor sends the skilled resources to the onsite location for showcasing the skills, understand requirements and more importantly build cotarie with the client organization.
Resources traveling onsite for such assignments are usually smart enough to understand the client requirements, power centers of the organization, assess the unquoted factors of the evaluation. These resources are often expected to take the spot decisions after aptly judging the situation. Vendor's chances of winning or losing the account directly depend upon these resources.
Selecting the resources for pilot project onsite visit:
Since the chances of winning the account depend upon the technical competency, delivery excellence and smartness of the onsite resource, due care must be taken in selecting the right resource for such purposes.
1. Resource's technical capabilities must exceed the project demands.
2. Besides technical skills, the soft skills play a larger role in winning the deals. Hence, the person must have great interpersonal skills.
3. Capability to judge the organization's way of working, its needs and actual requirements must exist in the person.
4. The person should be articulative enough to hide the vendor's weaknesses/ negative aspects. However, the capability to understand where to draw the line between ethical non-disclosure of vendor's weaknesses or honest confession must be made by this person. So high level of maturity is involved. (It is always prudent to take time and include opinion from vendor's senior management before giving important commitments).
5. Outsourcing decision is usually painful for the client organization's employees (due to fear of losing job). Hence, the person should be smart to obtain best utilization of client's current staff and gather all valuable details.
6. Person should be strong to handle extreme pressure, especially when the stakes are high; multiple vendors are involved and the evaluation is taking place centrally.
More to come on this...
Friday, June 05, 2009
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Traveling Onsite: Reasons
Being in outsourcing industry you get to travel a lot. People find it valuable to quote such travel experiences in their professional resume. There is a great 'demand' for skilled resources having international exposure- at least in India. Prospective employees with 'onsite experience' are valued more as compared to equally qualified people with no onsite exposure. This trend is more prominent in India.
I got several chances to travel various locations of US and Europe for serving client organizations. The most common reason for such travel is to gather knowledge, get training from onsite resources and then come back to your offshore location and carry out the work (and extend the training to other offshore resources). When I visited abroad for the first time, this was the very reason for my travel. However, over a period of time, I have seen more pervasive reasons for such onsite travels. These reasons are rarely known to most of the people and lesser understood by the recruiting agencies.
The reasons are (in their order of value addition):
1. Winning new accounts by showcasing skills to (still a prospective) client.
2. Establishing the building blocks of a long term outsourcing relationship.
3. Providing consultancy to clients
4. Knowledge gathering for new project (to be executed at offshore)
5. Visits under staff exchange program as a strategic step for long term relationships (between vendor and client).
Watch this space for interesting findings about the nature of onsite visit, and the recruitment perspective attached with them...
I got several chances to travel various locations of US and Europe for serving client organizations. The most common reason for such travel is to gather knowledge, get training from onsite resources and then come back to your offshore location and carry out the work (and extend the training to other offshore resources). When I visited abroad for the first time, this was the very reason for my travel. However, over a period of time, I have seen more pervasive reasons for such onsite travels. These reasons are rarely known to most of the people and lesser understood by the recruiting agencies.
The reasons are (in their order of value addition):
1. Winning new accounts by showcasing skills to (still a prospective) client.
2. Establishing the building blocks of a long term outsourcing relationship.
3. Providing consultancy to clients
4. Knowledge gathering for new project (to be executed at offshore)
5. Visits under staff exchange program as a strategic step for long term relationships (between vendor and client).
Watch this space for interesting findings about the nature of onsite visit, and the recruitment perspective attached with them...
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
First Disconnenct-27 March 2007 to 2 June 2009
On 28 March 2007 it was not thought of. Till 2 June 2009 it was seemingly unintentional disconnect. Today on 2 June 2009 it seems that the enlightenment has come. The Disconnect must fade away.
I am talking about the disconnect I imposed upon myself from the digital world by not blogging. Forgot password? Nope, I didn't. Shifted priorities? Somewhat, not exactly. Then what?
'The First Attempt' is the place where I tell you about whatever I attempt for the first time. However, during this period of disconnect, I slid myself into the cocoon just to explore my inner self. Exploring inner self by becoming a monk is common- several saints have done it, many more are doing it. I explored myself but did not disconnect from the outside world including friends & family.
Did you see the disconnect in my disconnect from the digital world and the outside world? Does that mean that the digital world is not the outside world for me? I don't know exactly, but digital world is the one which helps me to stay with myself more freely. Outside world imposes restrictions.
Enough about disconnect, lets us see what all I explored about myself and how I looked at the various facets of life, world, nature, business, people and economy et al.
I am talking about the disconnect I imposed upon myself from the digital world by not blogging. Forgot password? Nope, I didn't. Shifted priorities? Somewhat, not exactly. Then what?
'The First Attempt' is the place where I tell you about whatever I attempt for the first time. However, during this period of disconnect, I slid myself into the cocoon just to explore my inner self. Exploring inner self by becoming a monk is common- several saints have done it, many more are doing it. I explored myself but did not disconnect from the outside world including friends & family.
Did you see the disconnect in my disconnect from the digital world and the outside world? Does that mean that the digital world is not the outside world for me? I don't know exactly, but digital world is the one which helps me to stay with myself more freely. Outside world imposes restrictions.
Enough about disconnect, lets us see what all I explored about myself and how I looked at the various facets of life, world, nature, business, people and economy et al.
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