Going Oversees for Web Development

rcavezza

Does anyone use developers from overseas to program their websites?  I currently am employing taskseveryday.com - an Indian company to program my database for my new website and code the html as well. 
Anyone have any experiences with them?
Thanks in advance.
Robert M. Cavezza

Rich

we`ve tried it. and failed at it. too far away and too much "extra" management required... also note, if the people you`re working with on the other side are not managed well at their company, you`re going to get very frustrated. accountability can be a huge issue.

rcavezza

I got the idea from reading 4 hour work week by tim ferriss, anyone else read that one lately?                    

rcavezza

For me though, a college student over the Summer months with a great idea and not the complete technical expertise, but enough to throw down the bare bones and know what I want, I think this would work.  Any thoughts?

vwebworld

For me though, a college student over the Summer months with a great idea and not the complete technical expertise, but enough to throw down the bare bones and know what I want, I think this would work.  Any thoughts?

Sounds like you already made your decision.
 
I only have heard about problems people have outsourcing to India. One of my web clients had to keep repeating instructions and re-checking their work. Yes, it may be less per hour.. but you may also have to spend more hours getting it done correctly.
 
~Roland

Nuevolution

If you ever decide to our source your web development to India or any other country, make sure you don`t out source everything.
First of all, let me say as a business owner it`s always good to "find out for yourself" what works for your company and what doesn`t. Especially if you`re going to be offering Web Design and development.
From my previous experiences if you decide to out source your projects to India or any other country, make sure you don`t out source the whole project. You can still have total control of your customer`s project if you stay in the picture.
For example: You can do all the Design (XHTML) and if you need serious Database Programming, you can have them develop that side of the work for you. But again you have to stay in the picture just as if you they were working for you in the USA as if they were in your office. "YOUR THE BOSS"
By staying in the picture and of course knowing how to read code can help you move things around and make any edits if needed [grammar and spelling]. You can benefit from it.
Now if you decide to out source the whole project, then good "LUCK". I have heard some horror stories out there about them not giving you the source code or files after you paid in full.
But then again, out sourcing can be as good as how involved you stay in your projects.

kazoos

This is a concept we`ve considered for our new startup, but as yet have not tried looking for an overseas company. 
I have worked for a large company that contracts out overseas programmers, with limited success.  The cost factor is lower but you need to have, or hire, a local expert on business/software analysis.  Defining your project in every detail is the missing step between most companies looking to outsource overseas to save time and money.
We do have these skills with our startup as I am a programmer with formal business analysis training and my partner is a DBA with extended project management training so am definitely interested in the outcome of your search.
If you find a dependable, affordable source please post your findings.

january

I am currently using a web developer for my company`s website. I got a referral to hire a developer from Odesk.com It took me some few weeks to hire a web developer from Bangladesh. The major reason why we had to outsource this was due to our tight budget. Overall, it has not been that bad but could be better. Communication is also very important to ensure job clarity and expectations from both parties. We`re not yet through with development cos it is actually going to take more than two weeks for our site to be up and running, but hopefully, we`ll launch by month end. So, yes you can use them.
 
 
January
MemoryEvergreen
 
january8/5/2008 2:56 PM

Nuevolution

Odesk, Is a good place to find developers... and also to get referrals.... But your web site / web development will only be as good as the people you hire over seas. I once used a developer in India to be exact and the Gentleman had good communication skills and not to mention, very polite that it made me sick.... He would call me... Mind you.... He would call me.... IN THE STATES... to assure that we were meeting my scope of the project. Would I ever use him again... ANY TIME.... Not to mention his work is out-standing... we never had any communication problems... "Since he spoke perfect English [english accent].. but never the less.... I got my moneys worth.... And we met the customer`s budget.

quickthinker

I think it varies with the people and management of overseas outsourcing companies, why dont you give this website a try, and this might just handle your affairs better.
Good luck!

Nuevolution

Hey MTC, Im with you on the Pizza and Beer... Although, I hate Pizza, so I will settle for some Wing Stop Hot Wings... and a cold... Slushy Corona...
I totally agree with you on teens and college students with an OLD copy of Front Page... developing web sites... Have you taken a look at the Myspace classifieds.... 16 and 18 year old`s with lack of Experience posting "Affordable Web Design - $299.00 for a full site.
Last month, I posted a Classified on MYSPACE just to see what type response I would get..
To my surprise... I was being contacted by Kids...KIDS PEOPLE!!! what made me laugh was one kid left me a message telling me how he owned a reputable web design company, and as he continued to rant about how he`s reputable, I can hear in his voice cracking... [I guess puverty was kicking in]... But I did check his portfolio and to my surprise.... he had about 60 clients.... I guess one can build 60 clients if you`re charging $299.00. After checking his work... 56 out of all 60 web sites didn`t validate nor they had the proper meta tags for search engines to even consider indexing the web sites... BUT IN HIS SITE HE OFFERED "SEO"...
Reality Check! What`s wrong with Businesses? Cheap is not always Good. But again, people fall into the "Just Slap something quick for me, and lets call it a day".... They treat their online presence as if it doesn`t matter... But yet they want to spend 1,000 dollars on a Neon Sign that says "We are open" ?

Jippidy

I`ve built my entire website jippidy.com from developers over seas. There`s a little bit of a language barrier and I have to be very technical and concise in my communications but in my opinion for a start up it`s worth it. The quotes I`ve gotten from US programmers are 4 times more than what i currently pay. One piece of advice, make sure you speak to them over the phone first, just to make sure you guys can understand each other. Most communications will probably be via email but for the occassional phone calls. For a start up with financial constraints I think it`s totally worth it.

FreshUpT

Hey Neuvo and MT I can understand that you dislike foreign/kiddy developers because the customers don`t really know what they want or what they`re in for.Firstly, you need to calm down, you know clients that want to pay $300 for a website isn`t worth your time.  So you don`t have to worry about them.Secondly, age doesn`t make someone a good or a bad designer, that`s just ageism.  After this, being an indian doesn`t make you a bad designer, if you ask $12 an hour because you`re in india doesn`t make you a bad designer.  Sorry but this is just naive.One comment for neuvo, having meta tags doesn`t mean that you`ll get indexed.  Search engines don`t crawl your site, see that you don`t have tags, and pass over.  That`s just insanity.  "56 out of all 60 web sites didn`t validate nor they had the proper meta
tags for search engines to even consider indexing the web sites.".Search engines don`t "consider a site to index it", they index.And guess what, most sites don`t validate, that still doesn`t make someone a "bad" designer, just maybe a subpar designer.Sorry to be all serious, but you guys need to chillax.  Don`t worry about the people going for $300 websites.  You know what you can deliver and you do.  I know it`s hard to live around uneducated (about web development) people, but it`s what we have to do!FreshUpT2008-9-10 6:36:23

Nuevolution

FreshUP T,
From the tone of your writing , the repetitiveness, and the "Hey" breaking statement" just makes me believe that you`re one of the kiddies that I was talking about. It seems as if this positing hit the wrong spot. I want to say that you felt like we were putting you down. But let me explain to you why I would never let a 15 or 19 year old touch any of my projects.
1. How much of an expert can a 15 year old have? when they can even get a drivers license? They might have an insight on how links work, and how to upload a web site to FTP.
2. What is their credibility? What if I want to meet with him in 1 hour? Do I have to wait for him to get out of High School? What if he has soccer or football practice? or decides he wants to hang out with his buddies at star bucks after school? Now what? do I sit just sit around and wait till 6:00 pm? or is he going to ditch me till 9:00 after he is done with his homework (if he`s even responsible to turn it in on time)
FreshTup, please understand that everyone on this forum was a youngster too. To me it seems like it was yesturday, and to be honest with you! At 16 years old, the least I was worried about was starting a business or looking for an after school job. I was more concerned about hanging out with my buddies, with girls, and playing Super Mario 3 [It took me 4 months of trial and errors to go through all the worlds].
So my outlook on this is" Kids will do Kid things, and they are all age accordingly" Adults on the other hand know best to act like adults "its called maturity" and this is who I prefer to do business with.

FreshUpT

Hey Neuvo,You didn`t really offend me as I`m not in this category.  Sorry if I`m being `casual` in a business forum, I don`t like to pretend to be something I`m not, that`s called `honesty`..Firstly, if you want to box people in by their age then that`s your choice, I can`t make your choices for you.  But there are a lot of young people who are very successful in what they do because they are driven and disciplined.Just because you weren`t like that when you were in high school or the ages that you specify doesn`t mean that others can`t be.Your examples are assuming that the person that you`re dealing with is not disciplined even before you have done any business with them.I would suggest that you do some introspection about how open-minded you are.And I wouldn`t start talking about "maturity" if I was you, looking at the last post you made.If you`d like to have a logical and mature debate about what you feel then you need to come up with a good defense, stereotyping and looking back on your own life isn`t a good defense.

Nuevolution

FreshUpT,
I am aware that there are teenagers out there that are very successful, No doubt about it. If I used myself to describe how teenagers are, it`s because that`s how I wish I would have been when I was growing up. But! I come from a family of Entrepreneurs and my first business venture was at 15 years old. I founded my father`s Interior Designer Business. I am 35 and his business is strong as ever he caters to all the movie stars since the business is established 6 blocks away from Santa Monica Blvd [, Beverly Hills area].
Secondly, Fresh: After reading your posting it shows me your level of understanding. This is the first time I`ve ever seen the word "firstly" to begin a sentence... most adults wouldn`t use the word "firstly" to start a sentence, and adult would have used something like " first of all" .... And most of all, it doesn`t have to do with being casual, I think all of us here in the forum are very casual people... it has to do with your level of understanding of the language [not that the word firstly doesn`t exsist, I personally wouldn`t use it to open a statement especially when I am trying to act mature and discredit someone ].
Finally, I am a very open minded person ...  I have children myself, and understand that children will be children and you have to treat them appropiately to their age. I wouldn`t treat my 4  year old daughter as an adult, just like I wouldn`t give you the benefit of the doubt that you are a mature adult.