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Culture Difference - A Challenge in Offshore Outsourcing

Offshore outsourcing has become a hottest and attractive practice these days. But off shoring is a mix blessing of gains as well as risks. Besides the cost benefits and easily accessible resources of other developing countries there is some apprehension in off shoring IT Services. And language difference is just one aspect of moving the IT operations offshore. Most of the apprehension in offshore outsourcing is due to cultural difference of software Development Company and the client. The integrated system of learned patterns of ideas, values, and behavior of a society is culture. And cultures differ greatly from one country to another. When a company decides to outsource a portion of their IT operation to an offshore provider , cultural differences is a major concern on their mind. Reason being off shore outsourcing is a phenomenon, which does not take place only on individual level but on cultural level as well. Cultural difference between client and software development team can lead to problems such as

• Confusion and lack of clarity

Cultural difference could create confusion and misunderstanding. One can get into cultural nuances where the offshore team is not always comfortable taking instructions from client and if the onsite manager might not know how to manage and motivate the team.

American usually says "yes" to confirm his acceptance of the statement, while an average Indian might say "yes" to confirm an understanding of what the speaker is saying, not necessarily his arguments or statements.

• Lack of trust

Lack of trust is the biggest impediment to cross-cultural enterprises. Trust can only be developed through continuous personalized interaction. However, in off shore outsourcing most meetings take place virtually or on the phone. Therefore, client cannot be sure of quality and on time delivery without knowing the offshore development party very well.

• An unclear or inadequate communication

Proper communication is the key to successful off shore outsource service model. Communication defines and clarifies requirements of parties involved. However, cultural differences can be a communicator barrier. . For example in the west people are not afraid to ask questions from their peers or their team leaders, but in the eastern culture they tend to be quiet and try to figure things out on their own. Accents and dialects vary greatly from one country, so negative reaction to accents sometimes results into different meaning. Americans may consider raised voices to be a sign that a fight of arguments is on, while Indians feel that an increase in pitch is a sign of an exciting conversation among friends. Email communication also can be ineffective at times.

Therefore, insufficient communication can create problems such as loss of valuable time and mismatch of deliverables and expectation.

• Less Productivity

Transferring knowledge to the vendor at different culture is costly and time-consuming affair. Moreover, Conflicts may arise due to miscommunication and unfamiliarity with local customs, which can result into less productivity.

• Different time zones

To deal with someone who is living at an eight- or nine-hour time difference offshore is very tough proposition. It could take one business day to receive response to an e-mail. Moreover, this problem could proliferate if the questions in the email are not answered correctly.

Advantage HyTech

How we mitigate cultural problems?

Outsourcing is like a marriage, the two sides have to match up culturally to provide customized offshore services and develop personal relationship.

Remote elicitation is costly and risky. Non-verbal communication is a key to elicitation, but phone, e-mail, and even video conferencing will never be as effective for such activities as a personal face-to-face interaction. HyTech is an Offshore Outsourcing IT services provider based in the US with an offshore development center in India . And we overcome cultural differences through our localized process

Our U.S office adds a multitude of value to our clients. They can directly talk to the project managers and engineers in the local office and in doing so they do not have to cross a language barrier or worry about accents and dialects. Our support system is in the U.S.

• Communication

Our high-speed communication tools such as e-mail, instant messenger, phone calls enable us to stay on top of things.

We have professionally qualified and highly motivated software professionals at our software development office in Noida , India who are well proficient in English language. Therefore, language is not a barrier for the whole team.

• Exploit the Time Zone Advantage and reap the benefits of 24-hour development cycle

We at HyTech Professionals provides the benefit of 24/7 services in a true globalize manner. We take advantage of time zone difference. It works as added advantage to teams at different geographical locations. For example, U.S. engineer can work out the design level details of the software being produced, and then pass it overnight to our developer in India who can write the code and pass it back for review the next morning.

• Confidence among client

Culture awareness helps us to develop and maintain trust among customers. Our continuous and personalized meetings give assurance of quality and on time delivery.

• Increase in Productivity

Our U.S team is well acquainted with the customs and beliefs of the American culture and this reduces the chances of conflicts & miscommunication. Less cost and less time involved in knowledge transfer results into more returns.

Brief account of benefits of local support

• Local accountability and in-person contact cannot be replaced by any other means.

• No accent/language problems, which lead to miscommunication.

• Personal relationships can be developed with customers that help to boost the trust and morale of the involved parties.

• Our customers can always be sure that there is someone who understands their beliefs and culture. They can be surer of quality and on time delivery.

• In case any issue crops up in future, customers can contact us easily.


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