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Offshore readiness assessment

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Is your business offshore ready?

So, you're interested in outsourcing and considering setting up an offshore team. How do you know if your business is ready? How can you identify areas to improve that will directly impact the success of your offshore investment? We've created a simple assessment to help you get started.

Systems and processes

Are you in the cloud? Can you get access to cloud-based tools and platforms?

Cloud-based computing means you can store, manage and process the data in your organization through the internet. It is a lot more cost-effective as it eliminates the need to build a server and have physical IT infrastructure in place. Cloud-based computing allows organizations to move their business processes offshore easily without having to move any hardware offshore. You can also do this with your training library and your client management system - where you store and manage all your customer details. Your team, both onshore and offshore, will be able to access the data they need across the business, as well as the software they need to complete their tasks at any time.

Systems and processes

Are your internal processes clearly documented to make it easy to train new employees, or could you create some?

You need to train and communicate your expectations to your offshore team, and to do so, you need to make sure you have documentation on how to carry out tasks related to your core business functions. Begin by creating a list of your business functions and then detail all the processes relative to those functions. Having a good understanding of what you do and how you do it is extremely helpful when working out which teams or roles to build offshore versus what you would like to keep onshore. Document everything you do in your business - and how you do it. Documenting your processes will help you see which tasks can be offshored and which ones can’t (the ones that are difficult to systemize and predict). Here are some typical examples of starting points for documentation:

  • The customer journey (from initial inquiry to final purchase)
  • How to deliver products and services (from purchase to final delivery)
  • How to submit documents to relevant regulatory bodies
  • Payroll, accounting and finance processes
  • The customer complaint-resolution procedure
  • How to guide on handling IT support issues
  • Marketing and communication across all channels.

The next step is to map out your business processes. Organize this information so it makes sense to someone new to your business - they will know explicitly what you do, when you do it and how you do it. You might use the following formats to organize your information:

Create flowcharts and diagrams
Create flowcharts and diagrams
Make lists
Make lists
Record screencast videos using a tool like Loom
Record screencast videos using a tool like Loom
Record videos of you addressing the camera directly
Record videos of you addressing the camera directly
Write tutorials and step-by-step instructions.
Write tutorials and step-by-step instructions.
Now that you have a good understanding of your business functions and have documented all the business processes involved, it becomes easier to reference these processes for training. By having all the information stored in a database or library everyone in the organization has access to, you have created a quick reference for training.

Are your CRM and business systems accessible remotely?

How do you ensure your offshore employees have the right information readily available for them to do jobs effectively? The key is to make your CRM/s and business systems universally accessible. Once you’ve put in the hard yards implementing the steps above, you need to ensure that you have reliable systems in place to support your business processes. A system can be as simple as ensuring that your training library or client management database is updated regularly. Here are some examples of systems used to ensure the information your team has access to is the most accurate and all documented business processes are up-to-date.

Communication Task & Project Management CRMs Human Resource Information Systems
  • Skype
  • Zoom
  • Hangouts
  • Slack.
  • Asana
  • Basecamp
  • Podio
  • Atlassian
  • JIRA
  • Wrike
  • Monday.
  • Salesforce
  • HubSpot
  • Apptivo.
  • SAP SuccessFactors
  • BambooHR
  • Workday
  • Natural HR
  • Optimum HRIS
  • Namely
  • Gusto
  • Eddy
  • Zenefits
  • Rippling.
Finance Accounting Tech & Help Desk Support Customer Service
  • Salesforce Financial Services
  • Wealthbox CRM
  • Junxure (Advisor Engine)
  • Redtail
  • Envestnet Tamarac CRM
  • Zoho CRM for Financial Services
  • DebtPayPro.
  • Xero
  • MYOB
  • QuickBooks
  • ReckonOne
  • Sage Business Cloud Accounting
  • Saasu
  • Rounded.
  • Freshdesk
  • HaloITSM
  • HappyFox
  • Vivantio
  • Zoho Desk
  • Agiloft Service Desk.
  • Zendesk
  • Sprout Social
  • Hootsuite
  • MailChimp
  • Apple Business Chat
  • Facebook
  • SurveyMonkey
  • Slack.
Make sure you do your research to find the tools that work best for your team. The main thing is that you’re using the technology to help your team easily and securely access the information they need, and do what they need to do, no matter where they’re located.

Are your data security policies up-to-date?

It’s important to know whether you have the licenses, permissions and certifications to outsource specific tasks or confidential information offshore and online. This can come down to the very nature of your business. Suppose you are going to have to share confidential client data with an offshore provider. In that case, it’s important to understand the legal implications of this and whether your clients will agree to have their information exported offshore. A great way to instill confidence in those who may not have heard of offshoring before is to ensure that your data security systems, policies and processes are up-to-date.

While offshore providers are experts at ensuring data security for their clients, you must research the licenses you may need to send information to a third party and get permission from relevant internal parties.
Are your data security policies up-to-date?

Human resources and operations

1. Is your offshore strategy ready?

A clear offshore strategy and plan is important to help your offshore provider identify how they can amplify and improve your business efficiencies from their side. It’s okay if you haven’t got a clear idea of what you want to achieve for your offshore journey. Your offshore provider should be able to provide detailed guidance and advice to support you in creating your one. These include points on:

Vision

Vision

Where do you see your company in one year, three years or five years?
Goals

Goals

How will offshoring support this vision and what do you hope to achieve in the short term and long term?

Then, it’s as simple as answering the following:

  • Who: who in your company will be responsible for driving this project - your onshore champion?
  • What: what roles can your offshore teams support?
  • When: when do you want to schedule your company’s transition to offshore?
  • How: how are you going to measure whether your offshore team is successful?
  • How: how are you going to measure whether your offshore team is successful?

2. Is your onshore team ready?

Your approach to communicating your outsourcing plans to your onshore team will depend on their position in your business and their openness to change. Here are a few suggestions for how you can help them feel comfortable about adding an offshore team:

  • Explain what’s in it for them: they might not have to do as many manual tasks, like data entry, because those types of tasks are ideal for offshoring
  • Tell them about the benefits for the business and customers: this might include providing better customer service, delivering results faster, being more competitive or generally boosting profits
  • Reassure them: let them know that their jobs are safe and that you’re not trying to replace them. You’re simply trying to scale your business in a way that’s efficient and more profitable. A sustainable business will keep their jobs secure, long-term
  • Let them know you’ll need their help: with the coming changes, you’ll all need to work together on systemizing as much of your business as possible, so you can welcome and train your new employees
  • Show them what it will look like and educate them: remove some of the mystery around offshoring by sharing behind-the-scenes tour videos of potential offshore providers, interviews and articles that explain what’s involved and the benefits.
Is your onshore team ready?

Above all, try to be transparent with your team. A common reason organizations fail when attempting to outsource is not making key stakeholders and staff feel involved with the outsourcing process. Try to look at things from their perspective. They might have heard negative things about offshoring, and they’ll need your reassurance.

So talk to them, listen to their concerns and perspectives and be prepared to answer their questions. Once they see the benefits and understand exactly what’s involved, they’ll likely be keen to get involved and help out.

3. Do you know what roles you want to offshore?

Collaborate with your onshore team to understand what roles you want to send offshore. Go through existing job descriptions, if you have them, to make sure that tasks can be outsourced. You may need to reallocate a few tasks that aren’t suited to outsourcing to onshore employees, so really take the time to do this thoroughly. If you don’t have job descriptions, your offshore provider can help guide you in creating ones that will attract the best talent for the position(s) you want.

You can even liaise with your offshore provider for guidance and advice, when talking about your offshore strategy, to understand which roles you should consider offshoring.

Examples of popular roles to offshore include, but are not limited to:

  • Call center agent
  • Clinical coder
  • Copywriter
  • Creative designer
  • Data processor
  • Finance professional
  • Human resources professional
  • Industrial designer or engineer
  • IT engineer
  • Online marketer
  • Operations specialist
  • Virtual assistant
  • Web developer.

Want to build a dedicated team in the Philippines?

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