Offshore Partnership
Case Study: Establishment of an efficient offshore development center (ODC)
Problem Statement
A major Silicon Valley Hi-tech company sought for an efficient offshore development center (ODC) would compliment their other offshoring facilities in India. China is a logical target location because of the lower cost skilled labor pool with rigorous higher degree education and experience.
Business Benefits
- Substantially de-risked overall venture
- Gained business advantages with local governments, incentives and regulations
- Avoided common pitfalls of foreign business
- Provided quick access to large talent pools and significant labor savings
- Provided a trustworthy local partner with headquarters in US and China
Challenges
China poses both opportunities and challenges to many companies. Many companies fail due to unfamiliarity with local customs and business practices. Western companies can be easily tripped by legal or cultural issues without local assistance. Finding a local expert to navigate through both business and technical issues is difficult and has risks. The local expert must be aligned with the client's interests and must possess western business knowledge and familiarity with local business practices.
How we Helped
Facilitated all necessary steps to fulfill business and legal requirements, and established a complete infrastructure to support a group of technical and administrative personnel.
Disciplines
Business development, human resource, training and technical support. Technical support included network consulting and setup, establishing infrastructure including software and site security, and technical and soft skill training.
Case Study: Technology Partner and consultant with a large bank entering the Chinese market
Problem Statement
Our client was a major bank entering the Chinese financial market and partnering with Chinese government and local financial companies providing business banking services in various Chinese provinces. From the technology point of view, they had choices of local software and service providers, but they did not have the experience and know-how's to implement a system that could be integrated with their western operations, and provide the necessary governance and processes between the different continents.
Business Benefits
- Dramatically reduced risks and time
- Provided business process and integration expertise
- Instilled quality and high level expectation of software specifications and functionalities
- De-risked overall project with improved communications and high level of expectations for vendors
- Provided governance on project management and delivery
Challenges
Finding Chinese software and/or service providers can be a treacherous and time consuming exercise. Many Chinese software packages do not meet the western software quality standard, and requires rigorous evaluation, testing and inspection of the application make-ups. Buying software from large western software companies such as Oracle could also be problematic and costly.
Integration posed additional challenges as business processes are vastly different in China, and the notion of process integration is non-existent. Creating a governance infrastructure requires training and disciplines of the staff holding critical positions.
How we Helped
As a technology partner, we jointly found and evaluated software based on specific requirements. Software typically does not fit well within a company, and in China, many software services are hosted which can pose additional challenges. We worked with our partners to create the infrastructure to host and to operate the applications. Business process integration work was a key part of the project to integrate different systems.
Disciplines
Business and technology expertise in all phases of the project; Business process and services integration are based on open source and commercial platforms; SOA/BPM; Java/.Net/Web Services; Project Governance; Software architect and design
Case Study: Chinese representative of a software company
Problem Statement
This engagement involved a software company that was expanding its market into China but did not have Chinese presence and familiarity.
Business Benefits
- Helped to gain a deeper understanding of the market potential and fit
- Provided a sound and practical business plans with realistic projections
- Provided immediate access to channels, network operators government officials and partners
- Provided technical support with localization and development capabilities
- Provided architecture and business analysis to fit software to business needs
- Performed business negotiations with local knowledge and expertise
Challenges
To market software requires commitment to fit the software into the marketplace, and Chinese marketplace is vastly different. There are hundreds of thousands of SMB's (Small Medium Business) in China that could use some level of automation. The tricky part is to match the different requirements with the capabilities of software to determine gaps and potentials. Additionally there is a language issue.
How we Helped
Served as their local representative and technical support. Performed business development, marketing, sales and technical support services to launch and market software.
Disciplines
Localization; Pre-sales setup; Local marketing and sales programs; SOA/ BPM, SAAS and Cloud computing; .Net/Java;