In the last years I came across several quite competent managers at customer’s side. One team impressed me with a quite in-depth analysis what a typical user has to do in order to start a successful offshore project from scratch.

Typical steps as defined by them and where one might the necessary input were

  1. Typical experiences, best practices concerning offshore/nearshore services utilisation
  2. Definition of potentials and risk, calculation of business case
  3. Service provider identification and evaluation, tender process
  4. Implementation planning
  5. Legal due diligence and contract negotiation
  6. Internal preparation of Global Sourcing and change management
  7. Project and team set up, transition
  8. Continuous improvements, including benchmarking

 

Per step, those managers saw different bodies where one might get realistic and trustworthy information, e.g. offshore vendor associations, analysts, consultants etc.
Whatever topic, I personally see the best source of information actual users who are willing to share their experiences openly with other users, if need be in a very close circle or even one-to-ones.
I hereby encourage everyone to comment on his experiences how to best obtain useful insights and real help to ensure a success in Global Sourcing projects!