Overcoming Cultural Borders in Small Business Outsourcing by Mani M
More than 50% of businesses houses have reported that cultural differences are the biggest problems they face when outsourcing their projects to offshore client. Business is moving in a great pace. Today international business resembles to a global village where office spaces are no longer restricted by geographical boundaries. At Present, you cannot effort to stop outsourcing for this problem. You must find out a solution for yourself. We agree that every situation is unique in its own way. But you must identify the problems and take some positive steps. We have identified some general cultural issues that small business houses generally face while working with offshore service providers.
Communication Issues Communication may be hampered due to cultural differences, for instance people in US and other western countries may say "yes" to confirm a contract while outsource providers from India may say "yes" to acknowledge that they had understood the client's point of view, even if they didn't agree with it. Research studies have shown that inefficient communication result in almost 10% increase in project time. The advances in Internet and other communication make it possible for people across the globe to be in contact for most of their working day. Some BPO providers also work night shifts to ensure that they are working in real time with their clients across the continents. Furthermore if required on site visits may be organized to facilitate better communication and interaction.
Training In a typical BPO project, small businesses may need to change its internal working process to accommodate the external outsource service provider. It is necessary for both small businesses and the outsource service provider to train their employees to understand the changes in their business processes so that both teams can have a realistic expectation from each other. In most cases, the training can be accommodated remotely using latest tools and technologies.
Service Provider communication It is important to encourage the service provider to speak up freely and voice their opinions. BPO vendors from India for instance have a tendency of agreeing easily to the proposals made by the small businesses and may not give a realistic view of the situation and thus the small businesses may want to consider this and ask for practical and realistic deadlines that can be met under normal circumstances.
Superior-subordinate relationship Generally service provider's employees in India follow centralized decision structure; they typically follow the decisions made by their supervisors without raising any questions about the decision. Employees in western countries have more decentralized decision structure where each employee will question the decisions made by their managers. Small businesses should take this issue in to consideration while coordinating the project plan between its own employees and with offshore service provider's employees.
Data privacy and culture There is a strong connection between culture and data privacy. In India their history is not concerned with privacy laws and regulations. Problems like Identity theft, stolen credit card numbers are not a major issue. So what small businesses considered invasion of privacy may not even be an issue with the outsource service provider. It is the responsibility of small businesses to consider this to make sure their business data is safe and secure with the outsource provider.
In this growing global economy, cultural differences are fading out. We know each other better than ever before. However, many cultural differences do exist among people living in different parts of the world. Accepting these differences and respecting them, will let small businesses grow smoothly. It is all about growing mutual understanding and faith.
About the Author
Mani M. is cofounder of Cybelink, a company specializes in small business financial and accounting outsourcing like Bookkeeping, Tax, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, etc. For more info visit www.cybelink.com
More than 50% of businesses houses have reported that cultural differences are the biggest problems they face when outsourcing their projects to offshore client. Business is moving in a great pace. Today international business resembles to a global village where office spaces are no longer restricted by geographical boundaries. At Present, you cannot effort to stop outsourcing for this problem. You must find out a solution for yourself. We agree that every situation is unique in its own way. But you must identify the problems and take some positive steps. We have identified some general cultural issues that small business houses generally face while working with offshore service providers.
Communication Issues Communication may be hampered due to cultural differences, for instance people in US and other western countries may say "yes" to confirm a contract while outsource providers from India may say "yes" to acknowledge that they had understood the client's point of view, even if they didn't agree with it. Research studies have shown that inefficient communication result in almost 10% increase in project time. The advances in Internet and other communication make it possible for people across the globe to be in contact for most of their working day. Some BPO providers also work night shifts to ensure that they are working in real time with their clients across the continents. Furthermore if required on site visits may be organized to facilitate better communication and interaction.
Training In a typical BPO project, small businesses may need to change its internal working process to accommodate the external outsource service provider. It is necessary for both small businesses and the outsource service provider to train their employees to understand the changes in their business processes so that both teams can have a realistic expectation from each other. In most cases, the training can be accommodated remotely using latest tools and technologies.
Service Provider communication It is important to encourage the service provider to speak up freely and voice their opinions. BPO vendors from India for instance have a tendency of agreeing easily to the proposals made by the small businesses and may not give a realistic view of the situation and thus the small businesses may want to consider this and ask for practical and realistic deadlines that can be met under normal circumstances.
Superior-subordinate relationship Generally service provider's employees in India follow centralized decision structure; they typically follow the decisions made by their supervisors without raising any questions about the decision. Employees in western countries have more decentralized decision structure where each employee will question the decisions made by their managers. Small businesses should take this issue in to consideration while coordinating the project plan between its own employees and with offshore service provider's employees.
Data privacy and culture There is a strong connection between culture and data privacy. In India their history is not concerned with privacy laws and regulations. Problems like Identity theft, stolen credit card numbers are not a major issue. So what small businesses considered invasion of privacy may not even be an issue with the outsource service provider. It is the responsibility of small businesses to consider this to make sure their business data is safe and secure with the outsource provider.
In this growing global economy, cultural differences are fading out. We know each other better than ever before. However, many cultural differences do exist among people living in different parts of the world. Accepting these differences and respecting them, will let small businesses grow smoothly. It is all about growing mutual understanding and faith.
About the Author
Mani M. is cofounder of Cybelink, a company specializes in small business financial and accounting outsourcing like Bookkeeping, Tax, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, etc. For more info visit www.cybelink.com
Labels: back office, chat support, data entry, email support, IT outsourcing, outsource, outsourcing, web support
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