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  European Multi National Organization - 2/3  Kaytek Offshore Outsourcing Experiences |
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Offshoring Lessons N Learnings - 1/2/3
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European Multi National Organization - 2/3 Kaytek Offshore Outsourcing Experiences |
This is Part 2 of a 3 Part Article that highlights some Lessons and Learnings from Kaytek's experience of an Offshore Outsourcing Project executed by us for a European Multi national Organization for their multiple locations in the Asia Pacific region.
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Global IT Projects IT Technologies from USA + Requirements from Europe+ Software Skills from India= Solutions for the High Growth Asia Pacific Region. Previous Part - 1 Time Zone Differences :To handle the Time Zone differences with India, Kaytek had collected the information as regards the Customer's Work Days and Timings from their 15 offices in 10 different countries. During critical occasions in the project, Kaytek Personnel would work in multiple shifts - mainly early mornings since the other APAC countries were ahead of India by a range of 1.50 to 4.50 hours. Different User Expectations :Even though it was one global customer, for each country the local challenges and country specific requirements were different. Kaytek conducted an email questionnaire survey from the users in different countries as regards their feedback to the software features as well as their expectations of support from Kaytek. The same was collated and presented to the Customer's Head Office in Paris for their approval and subsequent action. |
Handling Cultural Differences : English was the language of communication for all project documentation. Email was the primary medium of clarifying project issues, supplemented by Telephonic Discussions as a Back up Medium. Beyond email and phone, additional clarity on contentious issues was taken from the customer's office in Mumbai. Remote Testing By Customers : To allow the customer's representatives from the different countries to test the software IVR (Interactive Voice Response) functionality remotely from their offices, Kaytek provided testing time period windows on a periodic basis. The same proved quite successful as the customer data entered by them via telephone would be emailed back to them by Kaytek as proof of the success of the software functioning. Challenge - New Customer Process, Minimal Software Requirements. Kaytek follows a documented Process Methodology for all Software Design and Development. For this project, Kaytek had to completely build the User Requirements on our own based on our domain knowledge and earlier experiences of having worked with this customer domain earlier. The Kaytek software team also drew upon our Abstract Generic Practices. Challenge - Complex Software Design Due to The multiple language (English, French, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Thai, Cantonese ) and multi device system (both Telephone and Computer) capabilities. Kaytek handled this via the following : Simple and easy to understand English Voice Prompts Kaytek
ensured that the voice prompts and time gaps were designed keeping
in mind the needs of the busy telephone caller - customer's
business environment in these countries. Helping the customer's Translation Efforts Kaytek provided
detailed prompt translation document templates for each
language to help them correctly translate English prompts into
the respective six different languages. Kaytek also checked the different language voice prompts received from the overseas offices of the customer for correct sound, minimal noise and professional recording and playback quality. |
Challenge - Mainly Internet Based On line Project Interactions The Internet was used both as a Medium for Exchange of Information and for the delivery of the Prototype Software and Project Documentation at different stages. Kaytek gave an average response time of less than 4 working hours for any email query asked by the customer over the complete timespan of the project. There were more than 750 + email messages exchanged between Kaytek and the customer. Without the Internet, this project would have never been possible. There were only about half a dozen face to face formal project demonstration / milestone review / signoff meetings between Kaytek and the customer representatives over the complete project. Change of Project Scope / Specifications over long calendar period This project's completion got delayed to first the customer's pre occupation with Year 2000 (Y2K) efforts and then due to the overall industry downturn due to the September 11 2001 Tragedy. Also, people changed both at our and the customer's end during the project. (Continued in Next Part 3)... Next - 3
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