In recent times we have come a couple new project leads where we are bidding on a web development project where we were the local and more experience design shop and the competing bids were from another local development shop that outsourced the work to India (not to single them out, we have seen Vietnam & Russia).

In this situation we actually pulled our firm out of the bidding process.  We felt that it was not in our best interest to devalue our services to compete against a firm that was using talent that was under-experienced and qualified compared to our firm that has team members that hold degrees to show their commitment to their craft.  Not to say that in this fast moving web world you need a degree to produce quality work but it does help when you are looking for that quality work.

We felt if we lowered our quote to be competitive with the other firm it would actually do more harm to us and other professionals out their that work very hard to charge the rates they charge.  It is my personal opinion that I would rather support local professionals and economy than ship our money over seas just to make a profit.

My view is that you get what you pay for in these situations.  There is a place for outsourcing in the web development world but there are trade-offs you make when going that route.  Here is list of items you should think about when making the choice.

Items to consider when Outsourcing:

1. Do you need to meet face to face?

2. Do you need a designer or developer that speaks “Web Design English”?

3. Do you need someone formally trained in the fine arts for creativity?

4. Do you need to get feedback during normal business hours?

5. Are you looking to build a long term relationship with a local firm?

6. Is quality and attention to detail your biggest concern?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions then you should really consider a local (Made in America) design and development firm.  Yes, I agree you will pay more for local talent but in the end you will usually get a higher quality product in the end.  The situation were outsourcing IMHO works the best is when you know exactly what you want and you have diagrammed it to the last detail so there is not decisions that will need to be make by the outsourcing firm.

Dal

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