No matter how much due diligence you attempt, making a decision on contracting with an onshore or offshore IT service provider is much like buying promises. To some extent you are going to have to trust in your selected partner to be committed to providing your company with the high quality services that they have promised. Your lawyers will surely not agree but offshore contracts are only worth the integrity of the company that you are contracting with. Dun & Bradstreet does not include this metric (integrity) in corporate profiles yet and it is not on a credit report either. One of my partners in Brazil would often tell me “Henry we are highly motivated for this opportunity”, but I did not fully understand the value of that statement until we got into the trenches together.
Here are a few of the promises you are accepting or questions you may have doubts about when signing that offshore IT staff augmentation or support contract:
