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Ask HN: Outsourcing support for small companies
My company has had to miss out on a couple of juicy government tenders lately because we're unable to provide support 7 days a week. Hiring people to sit idly by a phone seems silly, and obviously expensive.
Does anyone have any (positive..) experiences with outsourcing support? What caveats should we look out for? Thanks!
- iagovar 10y agoYou mean hiring overseas?
- brudgers 10y agoMy random internet advice: 1. Add the expensive price of people sitting by the phone to the proposal. After marking it up with a healthy profit, of course. 2. Move on to the next proposal. Whatever the potential client says they want should be included in the proposed fee. With a nice profitable markup,of course. The alternative is to buy the job at a loss and make up for it on volume...which, isn't exactly the snarky response it seems to be if the staffing cost of 24/7 support can be amortized over several projects in parallel. An alternative is to have regular staff on call to perform tech support as a collateral responsibility. But in the end, a requirement to provide 24/7 tech support may indicate contracts that are a poor match for your firm and ought not to be pursued so that work that meets your firm's capabilities can be pursued. Good luck.