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Continued...
3. Provide clear
Scope, Schedule, and Deliverables
Clearly define the scope,
schedule, and deliverables for your project. It is
recommended that you give service providers as much
information as you can in order to allow them to submit
realistic proposals with reasonable rates.
4. Evaluate Proposals
Evaluate service
providers’ proposals against your evaluation criteria.
An evaluation criterion is a measure that you will use
to evaluate proposals, e.g., experience in similar
projects, approach and methodology, price, etc. Always
find the key differentiators between all competitive
proposals. Feel free to ask them any questions to learn
more about them. One of the important questions can be
about what kind of support will be available during and
after the project is finished.
5. Review
Portfolios/Sample Work and Feedback from Previous
Clients
Short-list the service
providers whose proposals satisfy your evaluation
criteria (cost, approach, etc). Check their references
and get feedback from their clients. View their samples
and completed projects or portfolios to understand their
quality standards and work capability. Do not choose a
service provider based solely on price: you need to take
overall quality apart from price into consideration.
6. Choose a Service
Provider
Finally, compare the
competitive bids to make the right decision.
What next after you
have chosen a Service Provider
1. Service-Level
Agreement
It’s good practice to
get everything in writing from the service provider, who
will provide the agreement and project plan. The
agreement must have the project plan attached which
outlines a project's scope, deliverables, timeline, and
payment terms. This will help in avoiding disputes
during the project. You should also ask the service
provider to give you a list of deliverables/milestones
with tentative dates of completion. Ownership of work
must be stated and included in the agreement.
2. Releasing Payment
Service providers always
demand advance payment. This should be 20–30 percent.
The rest of the payment should be dependent on agreed
deliverables. Only release payment when a
deliverable/milestone is met.
Tips on Managing your
Project
1.When a project starts,
introduce yourself or your team members to the
development team. Specify meeting, reporting, and
feedback timings.
2.Project scope,
deliverables, and price can change during the course of
a project: it is highly recommended that all these
changes be agreed upon, documented, and signed by both
the service provider and you.
3.If your service
provider is located offshore, the greatest challenges of
successfully managing offshore projects are overcoming
differences of language, culture, and geography. All the
processes must be well documented to avoid any
confusion. These processes may include: resolution of
problems, reports, feedback, discussion timings, etc.
4.Depending on your
flexibility, ask the service provider to submit daily or
weekly progress reports to see the actual performance in
comparison to the plan initially submitted.
5.Make sure the service
provider understands how you intend to use the
deliverables that they are agreeing to provide. It must
be clear about who owns the final work.
6.Save all information
from the chats, emails, messages and discussions between
you and your service provider. It may be helpful in
resolving disputes.
Parveen Panwar is
founder of http://www.Go4outsourcing.com,
an online freelance outsourcing marketplace to find
freelancers/outsourcing companies. Freelance web
developer, freelance software coders, freelance software
developers,freelance web designer register at
Go4outsourcing.com to showcase their services.
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Tips
For Successfully Outsourcing Services To Freelancers Or
Outsourcing Service Providers
