Offshore development

There is a time and a place for everything– even project offshore activities. Unfortunately, in the quest to save money, the wrong approach can sound good on paper but cost you far more than the sales pitches would lead you to believe.

The offshore sales pitch uses enticing rates, such as receiving an offshore developer for about 15-20% the rate of an onshore resource (about 1/5 to 1/7 the price). The initial reaction to all of the sales pitches is “Wow, that will save us a bundle!” However, the truth is sometimes it does, and sometimes it does not. In many cases, an offshore developer can cost you far more in hidden costs than local (higher-priced) developers.

This is the first in a three-part series on SAP offshore projects:

  • Part 1 – SAP Offshore Project Development Experience (this post)
  • Part 2 – Hidden SAP Offshore Development Costs
  • Part 3 – Where Does SAP Offshore Development Make Sense?

I have worked on three projects where the initial project used offshore resources and two other projects that used offshore resources for an upgrade. This is the inside scoop from my experience:

The Real Reason Offshore Development Seems So Cheap

Let's set the record straight on one thing immediately: Those rates are that cheap for a reason. In the global SAP world, it has less to do with the wages of the host country than you may realize. The SAP space still has demand for strong SAP skills globally, so market forces plainly dictate that real experience will pay market rate no matter what country it is from. Work Visa requirements for many countries with high SAP skill demand will allow the importing of actual skills. After all, some of the developers offered Visas are frauds, so real experience makes it easy to move out of these host countries for far higher wages.

When Off-Shoring Might Cost You More Than Local Resources

When your depends on large amounts of custom development work, you may be in for reverse “sticker shock” at the actual hidden costs. Think about if you received a car for 25% of what you thought you would have to pay, but you find out the tires, battery, seats, steering wheel, and all of the key components of the car are “required” add-ons that you have to pay for separately. However, they only show you the nice, finished, new car with all of the “extras.” The actual cost for a huge portion of the offshore development is hidden, so that rate you were quoted is likely not accurate.

Your offshore resources may have very little if any actual SAP development experience, no matter what kind of a sales pitch you are given. What you are hiring out is some smart college kid who is learning on your dime, but maybe under the supervision of an experienced developer. Yes, the rates are lower, but in today's economic climate, you could probably find some aggressive local college kids who would do as well or better, for the same wage, and without any language barriers. Maybe you should consider that and bring in one of those expensive local resources to train, shepherd, supervise, and teach them. At least then you have the skills in house.

Some of the huge costs that are buried for a new project are in the whole development process itself. SAP functional consultants, who are typically higher priced than technical or development resources, end up taking two to three times the effort spelling out requirement details. That extra effort translates into hidden cost that creates a great target for the offshore resources to blame for why they are struggling. “I'm waiting on the functional consultant,” or “the spec had to be re-written,” or “it didn't have enough detail.” A truly experienced local resource already knows and understands the table structures, data sources, and actual requirements. They have probably done similar SAP development work or reporting. With a higher-level spec in plain English, rather than detailed design with pseudo-code required for offshore work, local SAP resources can churn out a polished first-pass development effort which needs only minor tweaks, takes less time to test and adjust, and has better performance.

In some situations, offshore development is ideal for your . Just don't be surprised if the overall project “savings” you expect don't materialize on a new project or one with complex development requirements.

How Can You Tell If You Are Being Bitten by Huge Hidden Offshore SAP Costs?

The one simple metric that will clearly illustrate if you are a victim of hidden offshore development costs is the total calendar timeline for all development work. In other words, after you get past the excuses, the finger pointing, the supposedly finished items that are always being reworked, etc., the calendar timeline tells all.

No matter how many times the offshore development tries to suggest they are having problems getting complete functional specs, or how often they say they are done but have defect after defect to resolve, or whatever the excuse is, the simple calendar test will tell you the true project impact. If it takes ninety calendar days to complete development to the point that it can be used (defects corrected, tested, and ready for production), then it doesn't matter if they estimate and then claim completion at three weeks. The other nine weeks to actual completion is project time that is taken from SAP functional resources, reworked development, business resources, etc.