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The domestic firms to which you outsource typically don't want #1 to happen. They want to build a long-term relationship and hold your repeat business. They w
by hapless 16y ago
The domestic firms to which you outsource typically don't want #1 to happen. They want to build a long-term relationship and hold your repeat business. They want to become such experts on your software that it's not cost effective for you to pay their competitors to work on it.
The way they can stay less expensive than in-house development is simple. They can use time division multiplexing to put an entire team of workers on your project. Each worker may have six or seven customers he works on across the year, six or seven codebases with which he is intimately familiar.
You may have the budget for one developer on salary, full-time. Instead of hiring that one guy to alternate between overwork and sitting on his ass, you could pay an entire team of people for three months of work every couple years. Additionally, you get the skills and experience of that entire team. You're not limited to what one contributor is comfortable with.
- jpdugan 16y agoI'm sure that's true for many, many firms. But, in my experience running a domestic product development firm, the single best way to acquire repeat business is to exit completely and gracefully. Doing so builds a trusted relationship not only with the business managers who authorize our work but also with the technical resources who have to live with our code. When we give both groups reasons to trust our integrity, I find that I'm able to negotiate better, longer-term maintenance agreements (when those make sense) AND that I'm presented with opportunities to bid on future projects. Clearly, many HNers have had poor experiences with outsourcing (whether domestic or overseas). But there are good guys out there, I promise.
- gte910h 16y ago>But, in my experience running a domestic product development firm, the single best way to acquire repeat business is to exit completely and gracefully. Very much so the truth. Additionally, giving great business advice to go with your software works well too. The business of software is unfamiliar to most of the people hiring software developers.
- wdewind 16y agoI would love for that to be the truth, though I've yet to see any scenario that works out anything like that.