Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

We`re considering outsourcing our data entry process to India. Anyone have any suggestions or warnings?

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We currently do not outsource and most of our competitors do in my business.  I have yet to see the advantage for us.  I have heard others claim to have cheaper labor costs, fewer taxes and lower health care costs, but I have not heard much on the increase sales side.  I will say that we have received a lot of business lately switching from our competitors because our customers like dealing directly with us and not a third party.  Personally, I know I do not like working with our bank since they have outsource customer service to overseas so I can appreciate their point of view.  It appears to me there are a lot of things that need to be considered other than just cost savings before you make such a large jump.  I am sure it has been good for many because we all seem to keep doing it…

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Bert at Harvey Software, Inc.
Multi-Carrier Shipping Software and Supply Chain Solutions for Internet Retailers

Also a provider of free shipping information and resources at Harvey Software`s Parcel Shipping Blog along with free tracking solutions at TrackingPage.com...

Obviously, every business owner is going to make decisions that suite his or her business.  Outsourcing can be done well or it can be done horribly.  I`ve seen the horrible side of it, and it involved a company from India.

Why wouldn`t you consider outsourcing to a business in your own community?  I`m sure you could find reasonable rates locally, and it will help keep your local economy going, instead of India`s.

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Scott Watson.::.

Acme Data Online Backup Service     

Don`t Wait Until It Is Too Late To Recover Your Data

Thanks for the input.

Well when I was at Ford we had some applications outsourced and the programming was decent (you better have excellent documentation) however the English documentation for the application was written extremely poor....like the person didn`t really know English, maybe they could speak it but not write it. It all depends on who does it over there, again at Ford I worked with people from India and most were good at both speaking and writing but all of them said you have to be careful who does it. I would think you could find someone for min. wage to do the job and be done with it.

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He who gets greedy like a pig, gets slaughtered like a hog!

Depending upon the nature and type of data being provided to the outsourcer, you may have certain data security and privacy issues.  Some of this data is regulated (depending upon your industry), so there are certain rules and guidelines to which any outsourcer must adhere.  Remember, at the end of the day, if the outsourcer can`t comply, YOU are responsible.

From a business perspective, you lose close project management ability when you outsource, so the ability to quickly make changes and updates to systems or projects decreases significantly. 

At the end of the day, you need a very comprehensive and detailed agreement with the outsourcer to handle these, and other matters.


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