Anyone have issues working with offshore resources? I literally gave a resource stuff to do 2 weeks ago and the work is horrible and now he’s throwing me under the bus... good thing I got receipts!

Well sorry to break your bubble but big four firms are considered mediocre in Indian market for the salaries they pay . They attract average talent so spoon feeding is required. You are getting paid 10 times so you need to consider doing 10 times the work

Not sure what technologies you guys are in, but in oracle ERP I have fantastic offshore resources and they are a pleasure to work with

I’ve had nothing but bad deliverables from offshore. One of the most frustrating things for me is that when I ask offshore resources if they understand the work or if they have any questions I also get silence. I think it is a cultural thing but many offshore resources have a tough time admitting they don’t understand something.

On the bright side, a few of my best clients hired me to cleanup the mess that offshore resources made.

My question is, when will upper management learn that offshoring work never saves money in the long run?

Recently seen many business cases showing the waste with offshore for the following reasons
1) At most firms the productivity multiplier for offshore is around 2-3x but estimations ignore this difference leading to massive time, cost, quality over runs
2) The war for talent is intense with Big 4- forget offshoring companies. The best are already onshore followed by US Tech, EU tech, Chinese and Russian and other tech, non tech companies, local tech / start ups before offshoring companies. With the quality curve being sharp, IT outsourcers get the absolute short end of that stick (I saw a sign at a university that said “trespassers will be recruited” on campus day for an offshore company)
3) There is an old article that an engineer from
Bangalore when transported to San Francisco goes up 45 IQ Points. The point is business adjacency improves productivity.
4) It’s frustrating to control a rover on Mars with 4-40 minute latency when all a Rover does is follow a very narrow set of pre designed instructions. Now think about 13 hour latency for very complex instructions that are open to interpretation with little room to clarify . The latency and lack of business adjacency almost alone guarantees a s@@@ show.
5) Offshore was designed originally for BPO/ Support type projects where formal rigid processes and procedures were documented and followed where latency was not an issue. It sort of worked for packaged applications where any variation was called customization and often not done. With the advent of more flexible application where customization is configuration and custom programming, this has totally broken down.
5.2) Strict waterfall projects where requirements were written and followed had limited success but in the age of agile, people are moving fast but we have seen onshore leads spend all day and night explaining the changing requirements and priorities with little execution time so more of a s@@@ show
5.3) Given quality, managing offshore producers require significant overhead from client managers to onshore managers to onshore leads to offshore managers and offshore leads before the producer gets the passed down message. One client claimed that he needed 5 managers across the globe before he got to a producer
6) The commute situation in most offshore locations is terrible. I was auditing one and I’ve heard of 2.5-3.5 hour commute times being the norm with the median over 2 hours EACH WAY. This commute is frustrating with tons of road rage. Now add in the coffee and tea and smoke breaks and sleep deprivation and there is little time for productive work let alone productivity when when or able. Many call in sick frequently
7) Procurement has squeezed most companies so dry on unit cost optimization that quality is a distant second. Some companies don’t even give their people computers when they are not working for a client.

A study for an F50 showed the disadvantaged situation of offshore but in most cases it’s very hard to change because
1) Procurement rarely knows how to work out TCO in tech. They continue with unit cost optimization
2) Very few companies have good talent onshore in volume

and I have met lot of onsite resources who are really dumb. we can't generalize ..dumbness is not restricted to any geography

Didn’t you post this same thing last week?

Maybe thinking if them as people rather than "resources" can help?

I receive great quality from offshore team members, but I also spend time upfront building rapport and ensuring they understand the request and the level of quality I will be expecting.

It’s a structural issue, not a function of the individuals. Exactly the type of problem Americans refuse to admit even exists in the first place.

Yeah tell me about that. Really bad quality. Have to spoonfeed everything

Yeah it’s a bs business model that looks good on paper.

I think you should revisit your management style with regular check-in sessions, think about how you articulate your ask and offer more support to the resource. Let this be a lesson to you.

Depends on the firm. Like everything else, you get what you pay for..

You need to keep a close eye on them and give them the right task.

Same boring thing 200 times and hour? Yes.
Anything creative that will require polish? No: they won’t polish it, and it won’t be that creative. This differential is why any of us in high cost countries have jobs at all.