How Do I Find an Outsourcing Company?

SourceSeek Founder, Dave Hecker, originally answered this question on Quora.com. The original answer has been modified slightly for this blog post.

When you’re ready to find an outsourcing company it can be hard to know where to start. You will probably get solicitations and recommendations from various companies, and some of those may be great leads. But, it’s very important to start at the beginning and figure out what your true needs are.

find outsourcing team

For example, why do need to find an outsourcing company? The term ‘software development’ is so broad it’s necessary to drill down a bit and clear up the profile of the type of company you need. You might refine it and get something like this:

“We are an established software company with our own processes in place. We have the ability to manage and test the application on our own. The app is documented very well and have a stack/design in mind. What we mostly need is a couple of very strong developers who can interface without team and get this thing built”

Or you might come up with something like:

“We are a marketing company who has a new product idea and the funds to get it done. We have a good understanding of the application but are not that experienced with UI/UX design or application design. So, we’d be looking for a team with a solid project manager who can work with us through the process and help the product definition get refined along the way. We would also be interested in a team with a strong process in place with things like workflow tools and source control, etc.”

For more on understanding what type of client you are, check out this post. 

If two clients came to me with the above project needs, I would match them with totally different vendors. A ‘high touch’ fully managed team is going to be totally different than a company that can provide staff-lease services to plug developers into your existing team – differing pricing, too!

Imagine how much easier it will be to find an outsourcing company once you create a profile for the company that you are actually looking for. By narrowing your scope, then evaluating vendors it will also help with things like price comparisons as you’ll be doing more of an apples-to-apples comparison in a noisy marketplace.

Good luck, and if you’re ready to get matched with a top outsourcing team, click here. 

Originally published as SourceSeek’s answer to the Quora question: How do I find an outsourcing company for a $50K software development contract? See Original Post

Dave Hecker

Co-Founder at SourceSeek at SourceSeek
Dave is a seasoned technology executive focused software delivery, quality, process, and helping clients succeed at international software outsourcing.