Your website designed for a few dollars a page. On the face of it, that sounds pretty tempting, doesn't it? Cheaply outsourcing web design overseas (sometimes known as offshoring) has become a much more common practice in recent years. But the question remains, do the financial benefits outweigh the drawbacks?
What is offshoring?
The internet has internationalised the service industry. Many agencies or freelancers offer services from India, China, South America or Eastern Europe (although six of the top eight outsourcing cities in the world are in India.) Overheads, cost of living and consequently rates tend to be much lower.
On project bidding sites (such as Guru, eLance and ScriptLance) freelancers and companies offer coding, design and copywriting for pennies. Of course, many of these lack the experience and skills to offer a worthwhile service.
This is not to say that an Indian
web design company is necessarily inferior. Far from it. As with every business sector, there are some good and some bad organisations. The problem is that even working with the good designers can present problems.
Project management and control...
If your website is critical to your sales, then you'll know how essential it is to get reliable, user-friendly design and optimisation. You'll also know that communication and good project management are key to successful delivery.
In the UK, web design agencies tend to project manage the whole design and build process. However, in many cases outsourcing your design overseas means you'll get the
web site development and code but not the project management.
You may also face problems in the following areas:
- Language and communication. Many workers in the international marketplace speak very good English. However, there are often issues with communication particularly with complex projects. It's also important to be able to meet face to face, if the need arises. With an overseas company this becomes more expensive and time consuming.
- Time zone. If you're working on an important project (and sending all the associated documents, and requesting adjustments) it helps to be able to work to the same clock. If your designer is working to a different schedule, it may pose a problem for last minute and emergency changes.
- Cultural factors. If the outsourcing company is involved in creating content or designing your company look, then they may miss cultural details specific to the UK. You may also have different national holidays and breaks from work.
The aim of this article is not to suggest that all foreign web design agencies offer inferior services. However, it's important to understand the potential pitfalls of offshoring before you make your decision. The price may appear impressive at first, but when you consider how crucial your website is to your business success, the added benefits of a UK based agency could save you much more in the long run.
