Outsourcing and Offshoring, Hints & Tips - especially                         for the entrepreneur making that leap!

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    Contents

    I. Sources - Hints

        A. Registering Domain Names

        B. Project Websites

   II. Posting a Project - Tips

   

I. Sources - Hints

            A.  Registering domain names 

 

    1) NameCheap.com is recommended. The prices are reasonable and the on-line help desk very good. One downside is that it does not offer domains with an Umlaut. You could not use, for instance “München,” in your name, and would have to write “muenchen.” 

    Bridges also likes Namecheap because of its support of "Save the Elephant!" 2

 

    2) DirectNic.com also has a good reputation.

 

    3) Godaddy is not recommended. A leading U.S. Internet guru, Mike Filsaime, warns:"They are the only service I know that will take ownership of your domain if you get a spam complaint. . . If this happens, they own the domain, lock out your account and will not allow you to move it. You are dead in the water and if you are lucky to get it back, it could take 3-4 weeks3. . . "


4 4) 1und1 - careful! It charges (2012) 17 € for a domain that NameCheap charges $9.00 for. As an Euro is worth more than a dollar, the price difference is more than double. 1und1 also tries to lock you into an automatic renewal contract, from which it is extremely difficult to free oneself. 

 

            B. Projects

    1) Local technical university: this is often a good point of departure. Either the work can be done there directly or you can find a good quarterback for your project.

 

    2) DesignOutpost.com:  You submit your graphics design project with the price you wish to pay. You will then receive responses from five designers, from which you make your choice.

 

    3) Elance.com  is a source for written work: writers, editors and proofreaders. There you can also submit projects for website design and graphics, and also data entry. However prices can be easily be double or triple to even twenty times  (!) as high as other sites, e.g. Rent-a-Coder or Scriptlance.

 

    4) Eufreelance.com

 

    5) Getafreelancer.com

 

    6) Guru.com offers the same services as Elance.com above and is similarly expensive.

 

    7) Odesk.com has an excellent feature in its Virtual Office. There you can monitor the work that has been done at any given time, so that are on top of your project.

 

    8) Rent-a-Coder has some significant pluses and minuses. A real minus is that the site is difficult to navigate. On the plus side are (a) the ability to get a major software project done quickly and (b) good escrow provisions and (c) a fair dispute resolution system. Typically one pays one third as a commitment fee, one third for the beta version and one third upon project completion.

 

    9) Scriptlance  - the minus is that the quality of its freelancers is not consistent, although some of them are excellent. The site is favored for work on setting up services such as InstantBuzz or Pay.com

 

II. Posting a Project - Tips

    1) Control For a major task consider using project management software. A good point of departure is the Wikipedia article on comparison of PM software, with about 120 products listed. (This list is by no means complete.)  One can make a graph similar to the one at Wikipedia listing the features important for one's own project.

    Microsoft Project is the benchmark against which other such software is measured. Its first version, for DOS, was released in 1984. Microsoft Project '98 was reasonably priced and had straightforward features. Both the features and the price have steadily escalated. In 2010 Version 14.0 had a price tag of about $1500.

    The most conspicuous absence from the Wikipedia list (2011) is SPIDER, arguably the most sophisticated project management currently available. In any case, it is considerably more powerful than Microsoft Project, although not nearly as widespread. SPIDER has been used in 28 countries; the ubiquitous Microsoft offer has probably been used in a 100.

   SPIDER is used for virtually all major projects in Russia, including the planning of the 2014 Olympics. The English version of the website is well-done, cf. www.spiderproject.ru.

    Even for a small project at the least an outline is recommended. An example of  useful software for this simpler task is www.MindJet.com.

 

    2) Timing: Post a project for a fortnight. If you do not like what surfaces, consider re-writing your proposal or extending your search to other sites.

 

    3) Description - keep it simple. Send in depth information in a follow-up Word doc. Do not include any confidential details in the basic description. Consider posting a budget to encourage people of the right level to bid.

5  Tip: Write a sentence towards the end of the subscription with a code word in it, such as "elephant." State that only bids beginning with the code word will be considered. Doing this enables you to screen out people who have not read carefully (or at all) the project description.

 

    4) Referrals - Take the trouble to get in touch with the customer, especially with the relevant webmasters.

 

    5) The follow-up word doc: This information needs to be thorough, complete, and crystal clear, from color schemes to navigation buttons. Otherwise you are going to be faced with never-ending corrections. These can easily lead to escelating costs.

 

    6) Ratings - do not agree to any kind of scoring before the project has been completed. A maximum rating will be delivered only after on-time, on-budget delivery of quality work.

 

    7) No third-party outsourcing: Insist on seeing the CVs of the actual people doing the work. In other words you want senior programmers assigned to your project.

 

    8) Code:  Mike Filisam, quoted above, states that one should always request template-based scripts using fully commented codes. You do not want the source code to be only on the freelancer’s server.

    “In general, a script is composed of the data and the layout. . . If the script is template based, you can simply add header graphics, cut and paste text, and place it in the templates folder. The code remains as a separate PHP code. This means that you can cut and paste text into the script without accidentally stripping out the code needed to make it work. The data includes the coding required to make things work.”6

 

______________________________

1 Computer Image © Yuri Aircurs, dreamstime.com ID 2183500

 

2 The paragraph below is from the April 2011 newsletter Namecheap sends its customers.
    "At the end of last month, it was brought to our attention that our elephant friends were being hunted and killed for sport. As you know, we´re champions of environmental causes and consequently launched our own $4.99 (domain) transfer promotion. We´re delighted to inform you that you helped us raise over $20,000 for Save the Elephants, an internationally recognized conservation group -- and on top of that, Namecheap will donate another $10,000. A big thank you to all of our customers for joining us and recommending us to friends and family."

 

3 Mike Filsaime is an American entrepreneur who is a pioneer for "pyramid" marketing on the Internet, cf. www.ButterflyMarketing.com The quote comes from one of his publications "The 7 Figures Secrets."

 

4 Angry elephant © Cory Thoman, dreamstime.com ID 6690830

 

5 Elephant © Cory Thoman, dreamstime.com ID 6702364

 

6 Mike Filsaime, Ibid.

 

Gayan Web Design 2010