offshore development center !!!

[matrixfive]

Hi ,

I'm a 29 year old Software Engineer from Sri Lanka who has 7+ years of industry experience. Don't know whether u guys know where Sri Lanka is. Well if u check the world map Sri Lanka is the small Island below India.

For more than one year I'm thinking of starting my own software development company. In Sri Lanka we have talented software engineers. therefore so many Software development companies in the world have set up their R & D centers in Sri Lanka. It's really cheap to hire engineers from Sri Lanka.

I'm looking to set up a software offshore development center and to do so I need people who can provide software development projects to it.

Pls advice me on how to find projects and partners.

[jabo]

Well, you can start off with forums like this and you can also post classified ads about what you need. if you need to work on projects, then advertise your services. it may be best to have some portfolios for people who tend to look for services needs some sort of examples.

[Krippe75]

What kind of software do you make? Do you have any references?
You need to set up a web page and have possible customers to first find you and then trust you.

I would outsource projects to cheaper parts of the world if I could find any company that I trusted.

[matrixfive]

Thnx Jabo for the advice.

well currently my web site is under development and I want to have it up as soon as possible.

My team of IT professionals comprise of Java , J2EE, .NET ,Oracle, PHP, Ruby on Rails,MySql experts. all of them on average have more than 5 years work experience and I have been in the industry for more than 7 years now. We undertake Web based development as well as desktop application development.

Krippe75 : I sent you a PM with some references of my team.

By selecting a Sri Lankan offshore development center you are sure to get a good ROI. I'm willing to send my references to anybody who wish to contact me. Please PM me if you need any further information.

Also I would appreciate more advice from you all. thnx.

[tke71709]

You can try sites like guru, elance, rentacoder to start out.

PM me with your references and the such as well.

[Pacifer]

Also I would appreciate more advice from you all. thnx.

Good attitude. So here is my advice:

In offshoring you usually don't meet the client face to face. So the client won't have so many ways for building an opinion about your professionalism. That makes your written communication super important.

English isn't my first language, so I could be mistaken, but it seems to me that you got a good grip on the language. However your written communication has a few elements that aren't so professional, like skipping capital first letter in a sentence and "thnx".

To be honest, it makes me think you're 16. Don't make a client think you're 16.

[Sagewing]

However your written communication has a few elements that aren't so professional, like skipping capital first letter in a sentence and "thnx".

To be honest, it makes me think you're 16. Don't make a client think you're 16.

That is great advice. Communications skills are EVERYTHING in the offshore game. I ran an outsourcing firm for 7 years and I can tell you, if your written English isn't very good, it makes clients very nervous.

Other advice:

1) Don't try to be a general vendor, offering a huge variety of skills. You'll get killed in the market by more mature vendors. Specialize and be great at 2 or 3 things and excel in your own market.

2) Seek high-value, long-term relationships with resellers. Try to avoid end-clients unless you want to plan the Elance/RAC game of high-volume project work. Expect burnout and low profits - it's an ugly game.

3) Don't price too LOW. Price fairly, make sure you make a good profit, and do great work all the time.

Good luck!

[matrixfive]

Hi All,

Thank you very much for all the advices you all have given.

Yes, I think there are things that I need to work on in my written English. English is not my main language. I'm a Sinhalese. As u said I need to put some attention in to it.Thank you very much for the advice.

1) Don't try to be a general vendor, offering a huge variety of skills. You'll get killed in the market by more mature vendors. Specialize and be great at 2 or 3 things and excel in your own market.

2) Seek high-value, long-term relationships with resellers. Try to avoid end-clients unless you want to plan the Elance/RAC game of high-volume project work. Expect burnout and low profits - it's an ugly game.

3) Don't price too LOW. Price fairly, make sure you make a good profit, and do great work all the time.

Do you think my team is more general? Please kindly advice me on this.

Yes, as you have said I'm thinking of long-term relationships with resellers. With time I'm hoping to reach the end-clients also. That's my long term goal

About the price, In Sri Lanka we have so many US and Europe companies who have set up their offshore development centers. So I can price according to their pricing structure.

I have been thinking of this venture for so long and within this month hopefully I might be able to get my web site up. That's my next target.

If I can get one long-term project now, I can get this venture off the ground.

How should I find customers after I get the web site up? Please kindly advice

[Sagewing]

Do you think my team is more general?

It sounds quite general to me. You mentioned 'Java , J2EE, .NET ,Oracle, PHP, Ruby on Rails,MySql' - can you really develop an expert development group in ALL of those?

I work with a company that just does Oracle, and another that is 100% focused on .Net. They are truly great at those skills - can you offer a specialty like that?

An offshore vendor that I like is focused on security/privacy matters and they are making lots of money doing work for the medical software industry in the US. I built a team that exclusively worked on Joomla - nothing else. We made lots of money and I sold the company at a large profit.

With so many specialists out there, why would I go to a company that does a bunch of different things but doesn't seem to be 'really great' at any of them? Specializing is important unless you think you can compete with huge companies that try to offer it all!

Yes, as you have said I'm thinking of long-term relationships with resellers. With time I'm hoping to reach the end-clients also. That's my long term goal

If you are starting a new company, you should focus on one thing at a time. Business is hard enough without trying to reach all clients. A small company can do very well with 2 or 3 strong resellers and once you are set up with them don't worry about sales as much. If you are going for end-clients, you need a constant flow of new clients. Think about who you want to advertise/market to and how you want to build the company and make a real plan with written goals.

About the price, In Sri Lanka we have so many US and Europe companies who have set up their offshore development centers. So I can price according to their pricing structure.

You could, but make sure the pricing model works for YOU. I have seen hundreds of vendors price themselves very low to compete with established companies that are doing high volume. They work themselves to death and go out of business. Perhaps they should have competed on quality and service rather than price. Think hard about how you want to do this, and make sure that your price is set at a point where you can make real profit - otherwise you are just setting yourself up for burnout.

I have been thinking of this venture for so long and within this month hopefully I might be able to get my web site up. That's my next target.

If I can get one long-term project now, I can get this venture off the ground.

How should I find customers after I get the web site up?

If you have been thinking about it for a while, you should be able to answer a few simple questions:

1) What kind of work are you going to offer? Why?
2) What will make your company attractive to clients?
3) What kind of clients will be looking for the services you offer?

If you can answer those questions, then your last question isn't so hard. Finding customers is easier when you know what you have to offer, who you are offering it to, and why they should choose you!

[matrixfive]

It sounds quite general to me. You mentioned 'Java , J2EE, .NET ,Oracle, PHP, Ruby on Rails,MySql' - can you really develop an expert development group in ALL of those?

I work with a company that just does Oracle, and another that is 100% focused on .Net. They are truly great at those skills - can you offer a specialty like that?

An offshore vendor that I like is focused on security/privacy matters and they are making lots of money doing work for the medical software industry in the US. I built a team that exclusively worked on Joomla - nothing else. We made lots of money and I sold the company at a large profit.

With so many specialists out there, why would I go to a company that does a bunch of different things but doesn't seem to be 'really great' at any of them? Specializing is important unless you think you can compete with huge companies that try to offer it all!

Yes I totally agree with your comment. Reason that I have a team like this because the idea of setting up a offshore development center was decided by me and few of my friends in my MBA batch. We all are from Software Industry but works in different technologies. It is kind of invested upon us.

Initially we thought by having a team like this we can cater clients with different needs. But I don't know whether what we were thinking was wrong.

Sagewing, I really appreciate your advice. Thank you very much. I know it will help me a lot.

One thing I want to know is what are the means of contacting or finding potential customers? Is it only by setting up a web site and searching in the Internet? or is there any other way ?

[Sagewing]

One thing I want to know is what are the means of contacting or finding potential customers? Is it only by setting up a web site and searching in the Internet? or is there any other way ?

I would really try to figure out what EXACTLY you are going to offer BEFORE you look for sales strategies. If you decide that you are going to offer 'everything' to 'everyone' then you should advertise everywhere. If you decide that you want to offer php/mysql services to small web companies who want to resell your services, then you should advertise in places where those specific people hang out (like here, for example). Every decision is easier when you start from the beginning - I would hold off on the website until you know what to say!

[ivanageorge26]

It doesn't matter from which country you are from, until you have good references to prove the credibility for your services!.

[matrixfive]

Well I have references which I can send to anybody who is interested.

[PerfectMoney]

rather then take your company offshore.you better check to look up at the easycorpltd.com ,build your company in USA and make some visibily with put your self with the competitions.it probably will bring you on the competitions and lose of pain ,however trust me.,it is worth of suffering kind of pain like that

[Sagewing]

Another piece of advice, don't blast forums with totally unsolicited ads for your offshore group! It makes you look unprofessional and annoying.

[matrixfive]

Another piece of advice, don't blast forums with totally unsolicited ads for your offshore group! It makes you look unprofessional and annoying.

Sir, Well to tell you the truth I'm not trying to promote my self from the forum. But this a
genuine attempt to get advice from the experts. If it looks like a attempt to promote my group I'm really sorry. because that was not my intention. I have posted my idea on several forums to get information regarding my dream. Again I'm really sorry if you feel that way. I really appreciate all your advice and thank you very much for that.

[Sagewing]

Sir, Well to tell you the truth I'm not trying to promote my self from the forum. But this a
genuine attempt to get advice from the experts. If it looks like a attempt to promote my group I'm really sorry. because that was not my intention. I have posted my idea on several forums to get information regarding my dream. Again I'm really sorry if you feel that way. I really appreciate all your advice and thank you very much for that.

This was directed at another poster who posted an ad about their offshore company, but it was removed! Not to you

[janice2009]

You can try sites like guru, elance, rentacoder to start out.

In addition to that, you could also try posting an advertisement of your services in digital point, and many other forums, just google it up.

More importantly, as in any type of business, starting the one in web design area, you must ask yourself general marketing questions:

1. Who will be your customers?

2. Why they will order the web design services exactly form you?

3. Where and how they will get to know about you?

Without having clear answers to these questions you shouldn't try to start anything IMO. So its better to come up with a definite answer about this first. Good luck buddy

[primoweb]

By far and away the most important thing to manage on freelance sites is your feedback / testimonials. Keep pleasing your customers and you will do very well