Author Archives: Hugo Messer

How to Overcome Cultural differences when Managing Offshore or Nearshore teams?Hoe Culturele verschillen te overkomen bij het managen van Offshore of Nearshore teams?

We recently launched our new eBook about offshoring and nearshoring : How to Overcome Cultural differences when Managing Offshore or Nearshore teams

In the world of offshoring and global collaboration, there is no topic that is more widely discussed that cultural differences. Or maybe there is one: communication. People with experience in managing remote teams often cite communication as their biggest challenge. But what is communication? And if communication is the problem, where do we start the solution? In most cases, one of the best starting point is ‘culture’ (the others being people and process, which we describe in our other books).

Positive effects of Offshoring on innovation of FirmsPositieve effecten van Offshoring op innovatie van bedrijven

I speak to many people about offshoring and nearshoring. One of the central themes that come up is the move from ‘providing people’ to ‘R&D offshoring’ and ‘collaborative innovation’. Instead of providing people for specific customer projects, companies look at joint innovation.

Products that are developed for a customer, can be sold in the local market of the offshore provider. Software that is developed by the offshore provider for the local market or another customer in another country, can be sold in the country of the customer.

Feedback needed for a new platformFeedback dat nodig is voor een nieuw platform

The past year we’ve been working on an online platform, Bridge Teams. I have done a lot of research on outsourcing/recruitment/hiring platforms and would like to get your feedback on the use of this type of services.

Bridge Teams enables companies to select (a team of) A-player developers. Users can find detailed profiles and can request an interview. Many programmers are screened by us and get the label ‘guaranteed’. Once the teams is selected, the team (all employees of a company) will work from our (or one of our partner’s) office. A process manager will be assigned to facilitate the communication between the team and the customer. We’ll manage and improve the team step by step (using a structured personal development process, team activities, training).

Work is what you do, not where you goWerk is wat u doet, niet waar u heen gaat

I saw the following diagram spread in social media several times in the past weeks. Although the changes go slow, organisation moves in this direction. One element I believe needs to be added to the picture is from ‘office’ to ‘anyplace’. This has a very big impact on the way work is organised. In the 20th century work was where you went. Now work is what you do. Work moves to the people instead of the other way around.

3 pitfalls in offshoring and nearshoring3 valkuilen in offshoring ennearshoring

Few weeks ago, I gave a presentation on our company’s event. The visitors were both experienced offshorers and people planning to offshore their software development. One of the questions that arose was ‘what are the pitfalls in offshoring’. While I could write a book about this (and I actually did), I have a top three: