After completing in-depth interviews with about 50 creative and digital directors, brand managers, and mobile development executives during a study I did for Info-Tech Research Group, two qualities emerged as important correlates of a branded app’s marketing effectiveness:

• Usefulness, the quality of an app that enables users to complete a practical task in a way that is significantly easier than their conventional approach to task completion. For example, a store locator feature is useful because with a single touch you can find the nearest store of interest, while on the Web you’d need to type in your location or skim over a list of store locations.
• Socialness, the quality of an app that enables users to interact with others in a way that is emotionally rewarding or useful; for example, sharing family photos or asking for help from a peer group.

Of course other qualities such as entertainment value and usability are also important, but this post focuses on usefulness and socialness as they apply to the branded mobile apps developed by pharmaceutical companies for the baby care and baby development market, a global market worth over $44B US annually [1].

In a study that measured physiological changes during the use of branded mobile apps [2], Dr. Potter concluded that a useful app "increases the general interest in the product category that you're trying to sell, and the app also improves the attitude that you have toward the sponsoring brand ... and the purchase intention that you have towards the product". With some carefully controlled research suggesting that useful apps increase marketing effectiveness, it’s safe to conclude that baby care apps will be more effective if they are more useful.

It doesn’t take much persuasion to convince a brand manager that social access is important. The hype level on the subject is close to deafening. But while a Facebook or Twitter share button provide a superficial social component, deep socialness require that social features are directly integrated into an app’s functionality. For example, if an app allows you to post data it has collected and a related question to an interactive Web forum or Facebook wall, it will facilitate meaningful conversations and raise an app’s social value. If the conversation takes place within the app, it will also drive app adoption because the users have to download the app to participate in the discussion.

This year’s Advertising Week in New York was full of presentations on mobile and social marketing. I attended one of these by Laura Simpson, Global Director of McCann Truth Central in which she shared some fascinating research results from their online quantitative study of 6,800 moms in developed and developing countries [3]. The research suggest moms leverage their social network to solve the practical "mom" problems they face daily and paints a picture of the "mom economy" as an ecosystem in which switched-on moms exchange information and support and are socially rewarded for sharing.

In her day-to-day activities, each mom accumulates a wide range of information, from food for their family, cleaning methods, party entertainment, child education and care, as well as shopping and accounting. The job, in other words, is a serious multi-tasking challenge. Not everyone can be good at everything, so most moms specialize in a few areas. Figure 1 below shows the percentage of moms surveyed that regarded themselves as an expert in a particular area.

Fig 1. Moms see themselves as experts in some but not all required areas.

Moms bridge the expertise gap by getting together with other moms for advice, ideas, favors, and empathy. This creates a culture of community and sharing. Moms love to share: 88% of respondents said they want to share any interesting piece of information they come across and 37% said they would like to share it with as many people as possible.

How are moms communicating to their community and conducting their tasks? Technology is increasingly being used as the medium for communication and data gathering: 84% of moms said that technology simplifies their life. In fact, so strong is their attachment to technology that 49% of married mothers preferred to save their communication tool, whether mobile phone or computer, over their engagement ring!

Given that socialness will enhance the marketing effectiveness of any app, and the mom economy makes socialness even more important, designing deep socialness into an app should be a design priority.

Apps that focus on baby care and baby development are rapidly becoming a popular category in mobile app stores. They are usually designed to address one or several daily baby concerns. Let’s look at the usefulness of the feature set and socialness of the design of five popular branded baby apps.

This iPhone and iTouch app was built by the makers of Similac baby formula. It primarily focuses on tracking baby feeding, sleeping, diaper changes, and growth. Tips and advice are thrown in as well.

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Fig 2. Similac Baby Journal: Tracking, displaying, and sharing baby care data.

The app helps moms track their baby’s sleep patterns, breast feeding, bottle feeding, and diaper changes and displays the data graphically, which allows moms to improve their baby care routines. Moms can also email the information to their pediatricians, family, or friends.

• Usefulness: Moms inclined to track baby care data will find the app useful for data capture and data review.
• Socialness: The email sharing function facilitates social sharing. Socialness could be improved by allowing data to be shared app to app. For example, a Web or tablet-based app for pediatricians could receive data from the Baby Journal app, and further manipulate and display it in ways that would stimulate doctor-mom dialogue.

Similac Baby Journal on Apple’s App Store

[pharma-ad]

AmazingBaby is an iOS and Android app built by pediatric nutrition product maker Enfamil. The app focuses on child development and provides ways to monitor and structure play time and bath time. The app tracks motor, cognitive, communication, and social milestones.

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Fig 3. AmazingBaby Enfamil: Activity monitoring, capturing, and sharing child development app.

The app features are organized by "moment," defined as play time, fresh air, bath time, and quiet time. In all, 17 pre-programmed activities are designed to be fun and beneficial for a baby’s development. There are descriptions for each activity and the skills associated. You can snap pictures as you play and share them with friends and family over email and Facebook. There is also a "memories" timeline, organized by date, where you can see all activities played, milestones reached, and moments that could be interesting to re-visit when enough time passes.

• Usefulness: Moms inclined to track baby development data will find the app useful for data capture and review. Moms looking for new ideas of how they can interact with their baby to simulate development may also find the pre-programmed activities of value.
• Socialness: The social aspect of this app focuses on communications to family and friends over email and Facebook, mostly focused on photo sharing. The app adds some socialness value because these photos can be tied to a specific aspect of the baby’s development or developmental milestone, rather than generic photo sharing.

AmazingBaby on Apple’s App Store | AmazingBaby on Google Play

Built by Pfizer, I-Nanny is an iPhone app designed to provide expert baby care advice. The app covers warm care (growth tips and tracking), baby care information, and expert Q & A. Figure 4 below shows some screens for the Chinese market.

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Fig 4. Illuma I-Nanny: Chinese informational and advice app.

Illuma I-Nanny is primarily a reference app even if it provides some baby care tools. One very useful feature built into this app is that it provides opportunities for moms to interact directly with qualified medical and child care experts, but this is mostly a one-to-one communication. Moms can ask a doctor advice on different health issues relating to their baby.

• Usefulness: Having reference material close at hand is useful, but only marginally better than a reference book or computer. The build in advisory function is useful but presumably expensive to deliver.
• Socialness: The user-to-expert communication is a type of social interaction, but this app's socialness could be enhanced if it also provided tools to access mom’s peer group.

Illuma I-Nanny on Apple’s App Store

SMA Baby Know How is an English-language iPhone app built by Pfizer that focuses on baby care. It has features that center on practical advice, as well as pregnancy and baby care tracking tools. For pregnant women the app provides tools to countdown due dates, week by week guide to your baby’s development, a kick counter to monitor baby movement, and a timer to record length and intervals of contractions.

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Fig 5. SMA Baby Know How: Baby care and video sharing app.

For newly delivered mothers the app provides a baby age counter, week-by-week guide to baby growth and development, a daily feeds and needs tool (including breast or bottle feeds, nappy changes and sleep), and a Baby First milestone tool, that track moments like first smiles, first steps, and sleep. The app also features practical advice and videos.

Sharing again is limited to emails to mom’s friends and family, but this is a good way to make a baby’s development more social.

• Usefulness: The app is packed with features, many of which moms will likely find useful.
• Socialness: The email sharing function facilitates social interaction. Socialness could be improved by allowing data to be shared app to app.

SMA Baby Know How on Apple’s App Store

Bedtime Baby Sleep is an iPhone app built by Johnson & Johnson as a tool to help the 25-30% of babies that have trouble sleeping. I’m sure their sleep deprived parents are also grateful. There is a personal touch from the start, requiring parents to register online and create an account and baby profile. The app integrates the company’s three-step nighttime routine that helps babies fall asleep easier and sleep through the night better.

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Fig 6. Johnsons Bedtime: Sleep logging, habit, forum, and lullaby functions.

The app provides parents access to the advice of sleep analysts, including Dr. Jodi Mindell, who are ready to provide expert advice on sleep-related questions. Johnson & Johnson claims to have a clinically proven method for babies to fall asleep easily and sleep through the night. App features include a sleep log, a three-step nighttime routine with instructive videos, and step-by-step advice, access to sleep analysts, lullabies and ambient sounds to help soothe babies to sleep. The app links to a forum for moms.

• Usefulness: The app has a well-integrated set of features with a core focus on sleep, which moms will likely find useful.
• Socialness: Social aspects of this app are more diverse than the others surveyed here. In addition to one-to-one contact with a specialist, it has an integrated forum, which leverages peer-to-peer communication.

Johnson's Bedtime Baby Sleep on Apple’s App Store

Baby care and development apps are a great branding opportunity for pharmaceutical companies and other brands interested in accessing the mom economy. They can enhance a brand’s relationship with mom, the primary decision maker, gatekeeper, and brand ambassador to the market. Most of the apps outlined above accomplish this with high usefulness. They are packed with what are likely useful features.

Unfortunately, most of the apps I looked at only scratch the socialness surface with basic features like email and Facebook sharing. Their marketing effectiveness could be greatly enhanced if app features facilitated sharing of rich information and easy dialogue in the robust mom economy, whether over the Web, Facebook, and Twitter, or within an app itself. Sharing over existing social networks like Facebook leverages their existing user base and infrastructure. In-app sharing drives app downloads and keeps customers fully focused on the brand message within the app. Given the importance of the sharing to the mom economy, this kind of deep socialness can make the difference between a somewhat effective branded app and a highly effective branded app.

1. Baby Care Products Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth and Forecast 2007 – 2017, Transparency Market Research, April 2012
2. The Effectiveness of Branded Mobile Phone Apps, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Steven Bellman and Robert F. Potter et al, November 2011
3. The Truth About Moms, McCann’s Thought Leadership Unit, July 2012

I recently led an Info-Tech Research Group study that reviewed the key low-cost Asian destinations of China, India, and the Philippines for IT Outsourcing services like helpdesk and application/Web development and maintenance. The study included in-depth interviews with clients and vendors, site inspections, and analysis of published data. My intention was to take the guesswork out of choosing the most suitable offshore outsourcing destination. This post pinpoints some the key findings of one report based on the study, entitled China for Outsourced IT Services [1]. Philippines and India are covered in other posts.

We put together eight evaluation criteria: (1) affordability, (2) language, (3) cultural affinity, (4) resource availability, (5) government support, (6) geopolitical stability, (7) infrastructure, and (8) data security. Here is how China stacked up:

1. Affordability: China offers affordable labor, with average IT salaries in China at approximately $10,000 US per year, lower than India [2]. China also has low real estate and power costs compared to other outsourcing destinations. However, a shortage of qualified English-speaking IT professionals allows these workers to command a higher salary. Costs also tend to be higher in special economic zones, as these locations often have a large number of qualified staff who can demand higher wages. A shortage of experienced managers means that these employees can also command higher pay. External factors, such as inefficiencies from poor language skills and inexperienced project management can also lead to an increase in the total cost of projects outsourced to China.
2. Language: Censorship and isolation from other countries have contributed to a lack of English proficiency in China. Chinese providers tend to leave project communication requirements in the hands of a project manager responsible for the initiative, since individual team members do not often have the English language skills to communicate effectively. Written English skills of Chinese providers are generally adequate for e-mail communication; however in most cases, verbal skills are not adequate for helpdesk services. The Chinese government is attempting to improve English proficiency in the country; however, at present many organizations struggle with English language issues with Chinese providers. This lack of English language proficiency can lead to other issues such as inefficiency and poor quality, and also means that the customer must be vigilant when it comes to requirements gathering and other project communications.
3. Cultural Affinity: In general, China does not have a strong affinity towards Western cultures. Censorship and a general isolation of the country have led to a lack of influence from and knowledge about western countries. The 2008 Beijing Olympics helped China to increase its ties to other nations; however it will take a long time to fully rectify the years of isolation that China has experienced from other countries.
4. Resource Availability: China has a large labor pool, with graduates from 1,300 colleges and universities, and around 15.6 million students enrolled in post-secondary education. The number of graduates located in cities with technology parks is between 10,000 and 100,000 per city per year [2]. Despite this large labor pool, there tends to be a shortage of qualified individuals for middle management positions. Staffing demands often outstrip supply, which can cause hiring and retention problems. The primary experience of many Chinese outsourcers is with small projects. Thus, Chinese providers might lack the ability to handle large application development or maintenance initiatives. For example, leading Chinese outsourcing providers have an average of 1,000 to 3,000 full-time equivalent employees, which is equivalent to a Tier 3 Indian outsourcing provider [3]. However, small to mid-sized organizations can sometimes benefit from this situation, as they might be able to get more attention from Chinese providers due to their smaller size. It can be difficult to fire workers in China, as most terminations require communication with local labor bureaus and unions. These requirements vary depending on location, making it important to check in with providers about termination regulations.
5. Government Support: The Chinese government has been making strides in increasing its support for the IT outsourcing industry. Due to this increased government support, China has begun to establish technology parks with solid infrastructure and technological capabilities. Many of these technology parks have completed at least Phase 1 of their build-out plans. China’s technology parks are designated Special Economic Zones. Providers in these areas are eligible for tax incentives. Suzhou technology park for example, allows providers to pay an income tax rate of 15 percent as compared to the rate of 25 percent found elsewhere in China [4]. Outsourcing providers are also eligible for favorable tax policies in 20 Chinese cities, and providers based in central and western China have been given favorable policies for loans to get IT outsourcing projects up and running.
6. Geopolitical Stability: China is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, which is an autocratic but highly stable government. The Chinese government tends to be business-oriented and has contributed to China’s growing wealth, with an expected GDP growth of 8% in 2011 [2]. China’s political and economic environment does pose some risks, with a tendency for inflation, a decline in the rate of GDP growth, and strong control of apparently private organizations by the government. In general, China’s political and economic landscape provides a bit of a mixed bag for organizations interested in outsourcing to this destination. China’s economy is expected to remain strong, and so far the Communist government has not hindered the country’s ability to increase its wealth.
7. Infrastructure: China has very strong infrastructure in its Tier 1 cities, and major efforts have also been introduced to develop the infrastructure of Tier 2 cities. The country also has a strong internal transportation system, with 1,870,661 kilometers of roadways, 74,408 kilometers of rail transport, and 123,964 kilometers of water transport [2]. Infrastructure is particularly strong in the technology parks, which are all within 20 to 40 minutes of the airport and are able to meet the technological needs of providers in these areas. Long-term energy demands are somewhat of a concern; however, China currently has a solid infrastructure to meet its customers' demands.
8. Data Security: China has historically had issues with Intellectual Property (IP) and data security. For example, the Business Software Alliance estimates that up to 80% of business software used in China is pirated [5]. IP rights infringements tend to go unpunished by the government. China also continues to lack comprehensive data privacy laws. Despite these problems, Chinese providers are making strides to improve their IP and data security. For example, Chinese providers are increasingly implementing IT governance standards and process controls such as ISO and CMM. Chinese companies are also increasingly training their employees about IP protection and data security. China’s membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO) also brought with it a commitment to comply with the WTO’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).

While not uncommon for offshore destinations to have weak IP laws or law enforcement, there is evidence to suggest that the Chinese government is behind cyber-attacks intended to access private data and steal IP from Western companies like Google and Adobe [6] [7]. Although companies with high-value intellectual property could be targeted regardless of the location of their development activities, locating activities within China could serve to increase an organization’s vulnerability to industrial espionage. Companies with highly valued IP must carefully weigh these risks against potential benefits.

Additionally, organizations interested in outsourcing to China should assess potential providers’ security controls and monitor their providers closely. Organizations also need to include appropriate IP protection clauses in their outsourcing contracts and insist on no subcontracting. A SAS 70 audit is one way to mitigate intellectual property and privacy risks, but rigorous due diligence with auditors is required since graft is possible. Also, consider consulting with firms that specialize in Chinese IP laws before inking an outsourcing contract with a Chinese provider.

[offshoredev-ad]

China’s Strengths

There are several factors that make China a strong offshoring location:

1. Large labor pool. China has a large workforce with many post-secondary graduates every year. However, organizations should be prepared to pay more for workers with high quality English speaking skills.
2. Strong infrastructure. China has invested heavily in its infrastructure, particularly in designated technology parks. It is also very easy to get from place to place in major areas.
3. Low cost. Salaries for IT employees in China are comparable to India, and are quite low compared to what an organization would pay for the same services onshore.
China’s Weaknesses

China also has several weaknesses that need to be taken into consideration:

• Poor intellectual property and data security. China is taking steps to improve its IT governance standards and process controls; however, IP laws are not often enforced and organizations must often create their own data security laws contractually.
• Lack of English language skills. A lack of English fluency can make it difficult for Western organizations to communicate with Chinese providers. The Chinese government has invested in English language education, but it could take years before these changes make a noticeable difference.
• Project management deficit. Many Chinese providers deal primarily with small outsourcing projects, and thus lack the project management maturity to handle large application development or maintenance initiatives.
• Asynchronous time zones. North American customers sometimes find that communicating with Chinese providers means meeting very early in the morning or late at night. This can strain resources in both the client and vendor organization when compared to near-shore locations. While some projects leverage the time zone difference with around the clock development - for example handing off changes at the end of the business day and getting them back first thing in the morning - only a minority of outsourcing clients we spoke to were able to get time zone differences to work in their favor.
Recommendations

Follow these recommendations when considering China as an offshore destination:

1. Shortlist vendors. In some respects vendors are more important than locations because a skilled provider can work around the limitations of their location, but a location cannot control all of its vendors. Find prospective vendors through a professional association like the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals, from colleagues, or thorough an advisory service. For outsourcer selection advice, refer to the ITA Premium research note "Selecting an Application Outsourcer: Eight Key Criteria."
2. Discuss weaknesses with prospective vendors. In addition to evaluating a vendor's general outsourcing strengths such as technical competency, governance, and project management, questions them about how they handle location specific limitations. Be prepared to walk away from a vendor if the answers are unconvincing. For China, include questions like:
• What level of English language proficiency can we expect from your managers and technical professionals?
• How do you ensure effective English language skills among your managers and technical professionals?
• How do you deal with cultural differences between onshore and offshore team members?
• How do you recruit and train middle managers?
• How do you ensure data security and protect intellectual property?
• How do you deal with time zone differences?
• How do you manage time zone stress in your staff?
3. Assess and monitor providers’ IP and data security. China’s security issues are far from resolved, making it important to audit prospective providers’ physical security, processes, and technical controls. If necessary, consult with a legal firm that specializes in Chinese IP laws, and create contractual terms to protect the organization.
4. Consider China for small, low-end projects. Due to a lack of project management experience and specialized expertise, much of the outsourcing work done in China is low-end, involving basic applications and software testing. Small to mid-sized organizations might actually benefit from the relatively smaller size of Chinese providers as these providers can devote more attention to the initiatives of smaller organizations.
5. Avoid China for helpdesk services. China’s low English speaking skills make it a poor candidate for helpdesk outsourcing. Other destinations, such as the Philippines or even India, have higher English proficiency and more experience in this area.
References
1. A copy of the full report is available from Infotech Research Group
2. Introduction to The Services Shift: Seizing the Ultimate Offshore Opportunity, FT Press, Ajay Sharma and Robert E. Kennedy, January 2009
3. Proceed With Caution When Considering Large-Scale ADM Outsourcing in China, Technology Partners International, Greg Blount and Paul Schmidt, 2011
4. China Approves Tax Breaks and Subsidies for Service Outsourcing Industry, China Briefing, February 2009
5. SIXTH Annual BSA-IDC Global Software - 08 PIRACY STUDY, Business Software Alliance, May 2009
6. Capability of the People’s Republic of China to Conduct Cyber Warfare and Computer Network Exploitation, Northrop Grumman Corporation, Bryan Krekel, October 2009
7. A new approach to China, Google, January 2010
]]> https://howardkiewe.com/china-for-it-outsourcing/feed/ 0 https://howardkiewe.com/india-for-outsourced-it-services/ https://howardkiewe.com/india-for-outsourced-it-services/#comments Wed, 04 Aug 2010 02:37:21 +0000 aaron http://howardkiewe.com/?p=1077

I recently led an Info-Tech Research Group study that reviewed the key low-cost Asian destinations of China, India, and the Philippines for IT Outsourcing services like helpdesk and application/Web development and maintenance. The study included in-depth interviews with clients and vendors, site inspections, and analysis of published data. My intention was to take the guesswork out of choosing the most suitable offshore outsourcing destination. This post pinpoints some the key findings of one report based on the study, entitled The Philippines for Outsourced IT Services [1]. China and the Philippines are covered in other posts.

Info-Tech’s Eight Location Criteria: How Does India Stack Up?

We put together eight evaluation criteria: (1) affordability, (2) language, (3) cultural affinity, (4) resource availability, (5) government support, (6) geopolitical stability, (7) infrastructure, and (8) data security. Here is how India stacked up:

1. Affordability: Rising wages for experienced workers make India no longer the cheapest offshore destination available. However, India still has offers a competitive cost advantage. The average IT/BPO salary in India was about $12,877 US per year in 2010 [2]. Typical fully loaded costs per technical resource is $18 to $32 US per hour.
   Recent economic conditions have helped slow rising wages among Indian service providers, with Infosys raising wages by 10% and others freezing wages [3]. Additionally, lower costs can be found in Tier 2 cities. In general, India has often been seen as the top offshore destination for organizations looking to cut costs. While this is no longer the case, India continues to offer relatively competitive pricing. Outsourcers can also leverage accumulated offshoring experience, which continues to make India a top choice as an offshore destination.
2. Language: English is the standard language for business across India. The popularity of English in India contributes to its large English speaking workforce, particularly in major cities. Heavy accents are not often an issue in Tier 1 cities such as Delhi and Bangalore, as many vendors give their staff accent neutralization training. English speaking skills might decrease in more remote Tier 2 cities, making it important to evaluate the English proficiency of vendors in these areas. English language proficiency in India is less of a problem than it used to be. However, it is still necessary to check into the English speaking abilities and training provided by Indian vendors, particularly for organizations interested in outsourcing helpdesk services and/or those organizations outsourcing to Tier 2 cities.
3. Cultural Affinity: India tends to show good cultural compatibility with the US and the UK. Many established vendors offer cultural training for employees. Understanding of cultural nuances may be less prevalent in remote locations. As Tier 2 cities become more developed, it will be important for Indian vendors to continue to provide cultural training in these areas. Factors like increased adoption of social networking, increased global tourism into India, and a growing interest in Indian culture will contribute to India’s cultural connectedness and improved work results.
   Non-English speaking markets, such as Japan and some countries in Western Europe, tend to have cultural compatibility problems with India. However, India has started to reach out to a broader range of locations as Indian vendors look to grow their organizations in other countries. Cultural issues that do arise with Indian vendors can often be mitigated by having face-to-face meetings, either through video conferencing or by having a few key personnel from the offshore team spend time onsite.
4. Resource Availability: India has a large technically proficient workforce, and adds over 3.5 million graduates and postgraduates to its talent base every year, with most students preferring technical careers [4]. Indian IT employees display particular strengths in application development and maintenance as well as help desk services. Attrition levels tend to be high in Indian companies, which result in reduced productivity as new staff ramp up on a particular project. Turnover rates have dropped due to the global economic slowdown, but are likely to increase as demand increases during the recovery. Attrition rates also tend to be lower in Tier 2 cities.
   India boasts a large workforce with many graduates coming from universities and institutes of technology; however, not all graduates are employable right out of school due to differences in educational quality across institutions. Associations such as National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) [5] and partnerships between IT and academia are currently trying to address this issue. Despite this, India stands out from other countries for its ability to draw on a large labor pool of technically proficient employees. In addition to a deep pool of technical talent, India has developed skilled middle and upper managers capable of managing technical resources.
5. Government Support: The Indian government is highly supportive of the outsourcing industry, with competitive tax breaks and designated technology parks for IT vendors.
   Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) [6] also helps to provide infrastructure in technology parks, and has the goal of making India one of the largest software exporters in the world. India also has a government body in charge of communications and information technology, which is involved in setting up policies and standards as well as advocating for the government use of IT. India also receives support from NASSCOM, which promotes the Indian offshoring industry.
6. Geopolitical Stability: India is a relatively stable country and represents the largest democracy in the world, with an expected GDP growth of 7.9% for 2011 [2]. Two events have recently called India’s stability into question: the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in December, 2008 and the Satyam scandal of 2009. Satyam founder Ramalinga Raju confessed to falsely reporting $1.02 billion in non-existent cash reserves. These have caused concern for organizations that are currently offshoring to India, with some companies looking for alternative vendors or scrutinizing their current vendors more closely. There is currently no indication that the Satyam scandal represents a systemic problem with India’s corporate governance, or that there are any additional terrorist threats looming on the horizon. However, it is always a good idea to evaluate disaster recovery capabilities, and to contemplate the option of diversifying risk by offshoring to more than one country or with a vendor that has locations in multiple countries.
7. Infrastructure: India’s popularity as an offshore destination is a blessing for the country’s economy, but a curse for its infrastructure. India’s infrastructure cannot keep up with high demand, with power supplies and both local and international connectivity straining under the load. Infrastructure reliability varies depending on location. For example, technology parks have redundant telecom and power as a standard; however, power and telecom are not as reliable outside of the technology parks, which can cause service disruptions.
   India is working to improve its infrastructure, results still pending. It is important to assess how often vendors experience disruptions due to poor infrastructure, and if things like application availability are a critical factor for the enterprise, then consider going with an Indian vendor located in a technology park. Ask prospective vendors how often they experience power disruptions, and whether or not they have redundant telecom and power.
8. Data Security: India does not have breach notification requirements or industry privacy legislation such as the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, and also lacks European Union style privacy legislation. Associations such as NASSCOM are lobbying the government to bring India’s security standards up to par on a national level. Individual IT vendors have also made strong efforts to protect their clients through compliance standards such as ISO 270001, SOX, and PCI. India has not shown a disproportionately large incidence of security violations as compared to global standards; however India’s gaps in data security and privacy legislation do need to be addressed.
India's Strengths

There are several factors that make India’s a strong offshoring location:

• Availability of qualified staff. India has a large, technically proficient workforce including strong management ranks.
• Supportive government. The Indian government is extremely supportive of the IT outsourcing industry, and does everything that it can to make the offshoring experience as easy as possible on the customer.
• Reasonable prices. Even though India is no longer the cheapest offshoring option on the market, its costs are still substantially lower than rates in Western countries. These prices, combined with India’s strengths in terms of staffing availability and process maturity, continue to make India the top offshoring choice of many customers.
• Accumulated experience. In a sense, India founded the offshore movement as it began to gain momentum 10 years ago. Many of the established Indian outsourcing vendors have had locations in India throughout this 10 year period and have instituted mature outsourcing processes.
India's Weaknesses

India also has several weaknesses that need to be taken into consideration:

• Overloaded infrastructure. The high demand for IT outsourcing in India has placed pressure on the country’s power supply and connectivity. Designated technology parks have solid infrastructure, however service levels might be disrupted in areas outside the technology parks.
• Staff turnover. Despite the fact that attrition rates have dropped in light of the economic downturn, turnover is still relatively high in India and may return to higher levels as the demand increases.
• Laggard security. Compared to its maturity in most other areas of offshoring, India’s security and privacy laws leave much to be desired. Individual providers often have controls in place to ensure their clients’ privacy, and associations such as NASSCOM are lobbying the government to beef up its security legislation, however these changes will take time.
• Asynchronous time zones. North American customers sometimes find that communicating with Indian providers means meeting very early in the morning or late at night. This can strain resources in both the client and vendor organization when compared to near-shore locations. While some projects leverage the time zone difference with around the clock development - for example, handing off changes at the end of the business day and getting them back first thing in the morning - only a minority of outsourcing clients we spoke to were able to get time zone differences to work in their favor.
Recommendations

Follow these recommendations when considering India as an offshore destination:

1. Shortlist vendors. In some respects vendors are more important than locations because a skilled provider can work around the limitations of their location, but a location cannot control all of its vendors. Find prospective vendors through a professional association like NASSCOM or thorough an advisory service.
2. Discuss weaknesses with prospective vendors. In addition to evaluating a vendor's general outsourcing strengths such as technical competency, governance, and project management, question them about how they handle location specific limitations. Be prepared to walk away from a vendor if the answers are unconvincing. For India, include questions like: How can you ensure continued electrical, telecom, and data connectivity? How does your organization respond to infrastructure failures? How do you retain your technical talent? How do you ramp up new hires? How do you deal with cultural differences between onshore and offshore team members? How do you ensure data security and protect intellectual property? How do you deal with time zone differences? How do you manage time zone stress in your staff?
3. Consider Tier 2 cities. India’s Tier 2 cities offer lower costs, smaller providers, and are particularly well-suited for less critical and/or short-term outsourcing initiatives. These cities are also receiving increased attention from the Indian government as options to support India’s weakening infrastructure.
Links
1. A copy of full report that this post is based on, India for Outsourced IT Services, is available from Info-Tech Research Group.
2. Introduction to The Services Shift: Seizing the Ultimate Offshore Opportunity, FT Press, Ajay Sharma and Robert E. Kennedy, January 2009
3. Talking Outsourcing, Lulu.com, Mark Kobayashi-Hillary, October 2010
4. NASSCOM Strategic Review, 2009
5. National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM)
6. Software Technology Parks of India
]]> https://howardkiewe.com/india-for-outsourced-it-services/feed/ 0 https://howardkiewe.com/how-is-an-ipod-similar-to-a-contact-center/ https://howardkiewe.com/how-is-an-ipod-similar-to-a-contact-center/#comments Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:50:14 +0000 aaron http://howardkiewe.com/?p=1228

During a field study that included a major financial institution’s contact center, a senior manager grabbed my attention with this nugget: “every second is a full-time employee in our world” [1].

He went on to describe how, if the average-call time increased by 20 seconds per call, his center must hire 20 new agents at a loaded cost of almost $1 million every year. His math was based on a contact center with about 240 agents who handle the average call in less than two minutes. Your math might be different, but the principle is the same: faster is cheaper.

Faster may be cheaper but it’s not always better. Rushed calls can result in poor customer satisfaction, lowered first-call resolution, missed cross-sell opportunities, increased agent stress, and higher agent turnover. The well-known challenge of contact center management is the challenge of managing these often-competing priorities.

Usability Matters

Faced with demands from head office to support a much more complex product offering while maintaining current call-handle times, the senior manager quoted above turned to the same process that Apple uses to develop its products, including the phenomenally successful iPod. The process is called usability engineering and is intended to enhance product usability, defined in ISO 9241 as “the extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction.” Usability engineering (also known as user-experience engineering [2] or user-centered design) is a best practice among the world’s leading high-tech companies including IBM, Motorola, Google, Amazon, and, yes, Apple.

Apple’s usability engineering process led to innovative features like the iPod’s signature Click Wheel and more recently its touch interface. Perhaps more importantly, the process helped Apple’s engineers get the details right, leading to a product that “just works.” If the iPod was as difficult to use as a typical VCR, Apple’s share price might still be around $8—where it was before the iPod’s introduction—instead of today’s $180.

How can a process used to design consumer technology be applied to a contact center? In other words, what does the iPod have in common with a contact center? The short answer is they both have a user interface with which users control their technology. In the contact center, the main user is the agent, and the main user interface is the agent-facing software. This could include the database front-end used to retrieve and enter customer data, the knowledgebase that contains product and policy information, and any other software the agents use to do their jobs. Unfortunately, agent-facing software is often as difficult to use as a poorly designed VCR.

For example, agents struggle with entering and retrieving data from several different applications or having to drill deep into an application to get what they need. An agent interviewed during a field study of agent-facing software put it this way:

Why do we have to go to all these places? Log here, look for here, oh I didn’t find it here, so I have to go to there. Why can’t they integrate everything in one place?

This is the problem that the unified agent desktop software attempts to solve. A unified desktop software can improve the usability of agent-facing software, but to maximize agent productivity gains, components of the desktop must be designed to integrate with the agent’s workflow.

Other productivity drains include poor text labels and obscure abbreviations. One agent complained:

It’s very, very convoluted. We’re basically looking for data in fields with names that are totally unrelated to what you’re actually looking for… It’s just not intuitive at all. Not intuitive. And the abbreviations don’t make sense at all.

These are only a few of the problems that impede agent productivity. Other issues are subtle and agents may not report them. For example, often user-interface text is presented in all uppercase. Unfortunately, uppercase text has been shown to take 13% longer to decode than mixed-case text. This will have an impact on agent productivity although agents are unlikely to notice it.

Improving the usability of agent-facing software has a direct and inverse relationship with call-handle time: the more usable the software the shorter the average call-handle time. But usable software provides other benefits: it reduces agent stress and agent training costs by simplifying the agent’s workflow, supports cross-selling efforts by putting sales information at the agent’s fingertips, and improves customer satisfaction by helping agents serve clients faster and better. Imagine what would happen if your agent-facing software “just worked” as easily and elegantly as an iPod? Even if you couldn’t make it that user friendly, making it more agent friendly is worth the effort. How can the usability engineering process make this happen?

Five Ways to Get Better Designs

Usability engineering is not about technology. You can apply it to any type of agent-facing software on any platform that can be custom configured. Usability engineering is about observing and listening to contact center agents and incorporating what is learned into the design of their user interface. It is highly iterative: data is collected, designs prototyped, prototypes tested, all in several cycles until a productive design is delivered.

Usability is engineered in five iterative phases:

1. Business objectives for the engineering effort are defined, for example, to reduce average call-handle time by 20% or to increase cross-sell rates by 10%.
2. User research is completed by watching agents work and noticing pain points and time wasters. Agents are also interviewed to more fully understand the thought processes and motivations that lead agents to interact with the software in a particular way.
3. User requirements are defined by identifying areas where business objectives and user research overlap. For example, if a business objective was to increase cross-sell rates and user research showed that agents took an average of ten seconds to find the appropriate pricing information, a user requirement would be to reduce average find time to not more than three seconds.
4. User interface design is completed by developing a series of increasingly detailed models or prototypes, iteratively evaluating and redesigning each type before moving to the next. These would begin with the information architecture in the form of a diagram showing how menus or data are to be structured, then progress to a sketch of the screen design, and end with an electronic prototype of the software. This iterative design process contains development costs because a mockup is much less expensive to redesign than a finished suite of agent-facing software.
5. Usability evaluations are implemented by testing models and prototypes with agents as they perform simulated tasks. These tests generate new design ideas and determine when user requirements have been met.


The Bottom Line: Better Usability = Better Performance

By following a usability engineering process, the financial institution described above dramatically improved the usability of their agent-facing software. In the words of one agent: “Everything is user friendly. After a couple of months you’re a pro.”

Because of this enhanced usability, the contact center was able to maintain its call-handle times despite a significant increase in the complexity of the product it supported. Had the agent facing software remained the same, call-handle times would have likely gone through the roof.

Of course, usability will not solve all your contact center problems. However, in most cases it will improve performance. Sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. And in a world where faster is cheaper, every second counts.

References & Links
1. How may I help you? An ethnographic view of contact center HCI, Howard Kiewe, International Journal of Usability Studies, February 2008
2. User Experience Engineering Essentials: Series Introduction, Howard Kiewe.com, August 2007
]]> https://howardkiewe.com/how-is-an-ipod-similar-to-a-contact-center/feed/ 0 https://howardkiewe.com/philippines-for-it-outsourcing/ https://howardkiewe.com/philippines-for-it-outsourcing/#comments Tue, 12 May 2009 02:36:15 +0000 aaron http://howardkiewe.com/?p=982

At the bottom of this post, there is an update for 2012, and a full version of the report on which this post is based is available as free download from this blog's sponsor [1].

I recently led an Info-Tech Research Group study that reviewed the key low-cost Asian destinations of China, India, and the Philippines for IT outsourcing services like helpdesk and application/Web development and maintenance. The study included in-depth interviews with clients and vendors, site inspections, and analysis of published data. My intention was to take the guesswork out of choosing the most suitable offshore outsourcing destination. This post pinpoints some the key findings of one report based on the study, entitled The Philippines for Outsourced IT Services [1]. China and India are covered in other posts.

Info-Tech’s Eight Location Criteria: How Do the Philippines Stack Up?

We put together eight evaluation criteria: (1) affordability, (2) language, (3) cultural affinity, (4) resource availability, (5) government support, (6) geopolitical stability, (7) infrastructure, and (8) data security. Here is how the Philippines stacked up:

1. Affordability: Salaries for technical professionals in the Philippines are among the world’s most competitive. Entry level positions average under $10,000 US annually. Real estate and telecommunications costs are also low, which results in fully loaded billing rates of $18 to $30 US per hour, depending on the skill set and experience of the resource. Wage inflation is lower than other locations like India.
2. Language: The Philippines was a US colony from 1899 to 1946. During this period American English became a medium of instruction in many schools. English is now an official language, and is widely used in business, education, and the media. The Filipino accent leans towards American English and the quality of spoken and written language is high. Service providers leveraged this competency to create a robust contact center outsourcing industry with revenues running a close second to India ($4.0 vs. $4.7B US; [2][3]). All major North American contact-center providers have a presence in the Philippines, including Convergys, ICT, Sitel, and Sykes. Most IT professionals in the Philippines are comfortable with English. This is ideal for helpdesk tasks but is also very useful in development and maintenance roles. Other language skills are also available in Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, German, and Japanese.
3. Cultural Affinity: While Filipinos have a distinct culture, they have absorbed many American cultural traits, and share similar interests to Americans. Basketball remains the most popular sport and shopping malls—a social hub for Philippine society - are filled with Western chains like Starbucks and The Gap. Many educated Filipinos have worked overseas and returned home to enrich the local culture with an orientation to Western perspectives. Still the Philippines maintains certain values that are more Asian, such as saving face. This can lead to behaviors that can be problematic, particularly for client organizations that have an open, collaborative management style. Team members (particularly junior staff) may be reluctant to challenge the proposals of other team members and this can reduce the effectiveness of collaborative brainstorming and review. Staff may commit to work deliveries that won’t work for them. Good outsourcing managers are aware of these cultural issues and have trained staff to become more comfortable with current Western behavioral styles.
4. Resource Availability: The Philippines has a population of 97 million, with a median age of 22, a 92% literacy rate [4], and a steady stream of college graduates entering the labor market ($2.4M US since 2006 [5]. The talent pool for service is reasonably deep and providers can draw from it, now and in the future. The only current weak point in the resource picture is a shortage of local, experienced middle and senior management.
   A tightening in the contact center sector, squeezed the number of available talent, which increased attrition, supply of the technical talent required by application outsourcers has been good. All service providers interviewed for this research reported very low attrition rates.
   Software development, maintenance, and helpdesk services account for $601 Million US of export revenue and employ 35,000 people full time in the Philippines [6]. These revenues are divided between about 400 players that vary in size and stability from large multinational outsourcers (e.g. Accenture), to established local firms (e.g. Point West Technologies with around 500 employees), to small niche players (e.g. ERP developer ASP with 40 employees).
5. Government Support: Government support for the outsourcing sector is significant and includes $24M US toward training and education, and, as part of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) program [7], a corporate income tax holiday, exemption from duties, simplified import and export procedures, and benefits are on par with other countries in the region.
   The Philippine government's Technical Education and Skills Development Authority started a scholarship program to subsidize training for the outsourcing industry. Subsidized topics include technical subjects like Oracle, Java, and RPG.
6. Geopolitical Stability: The rural region of the southern region of Mindanao is home to a secessionist movement that has erupted in occasional violence within that region. However, the violence has never extended to the Metro Manila and Cebu, and even Davao City (the capital of Mindanao) is well insulated from the movement, which does not engender the sympathies of the population at large. The scale of violence in the Philippines has been far below that of other developing nations like India, or even Western nations like the US and UK, security risk is likely in an acceptable range as long as appropriate precautions are taken by the outsourcing partner. Transparency International’s 2009 Global Corruption Barometer reported prevalent corruption in most developing nations and the Philippines are no exception, with 11% of respondents saying they had paid a bribe to receive a service, compared to 12% in India and 2% in the US. Interestingly, these figures are down significantly from the 2007 version of the same survey, which reported 32% for the Philippines and 25% for India.
7. Infrastructure: The Philippine telecommunications sector has been deregulated, resulting in a competitive industry that delivers low international transmission costs as well as redundant links to major centers. Fiber-optic backbones provide low-latency transmission (< 200 ms) that is adequate to support robust VoIP functionality, including hosted helpdesk technology. Air transport, telecommunications, utilities, and office space are good in the both cities of Manila and Cebu as well as cities of Clark, Subic, Baguio, Iloilo, and Davao.
   Additionally, the Philippine government has created the CyberServices Corridor, running over 600 miles from the North to the South of the country. It is supported by a $10B US high bandwidth fiber backbone and digital network, and is home to numerous service providers.
8. Data Security: The Philippines are compliant with WTO's Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement on intellectual property. An e-commerce act was passed in 2000 and additional computer crime legislation is planned. However, enforcement of legislation can be weak. There is a backlog of copyright infringement cases in the courts, which are generally ill equipped to handle them. Organizations with intellectual property or privacy concerns need to add contractual protections and evaluate the service provider's business and development processes for their ability to deliver these protections. A SAS 70 audit can cover intellectual property and privacy risks.

[phildev-ad]

Philippines’ Strengths

There are several factors that make the Philippines a strong offshoring location:

• Excellent communication skills. High levels of English fluency, neutral accents, and good cultural affinity make it easy for Filipinos to understand Westerners and to make themselves understood. This is particularly needed for helpdesk services, but it is very important software development, where a mutual understanding of requirements is essential to success.
• Low churn. Demand for IT services in the Philippines is strong and growing at a steady pace, but has not seen the hyperactivity of the Indian market. As a result, resources tend to stay with the same outsourcer for years, which results in greater project stability and lower ramp up expenses.
• Low cost. Salaries, real estate, and telecommunication costs are low. Wage inflation is modest, so the overall cost of business is reasonable and likely to remain so.
Philippines’ Weaknesses

The Philippines also has several weaknesses that need to be taken into consideration:

• Large scale projects. Few Philippine providers have more than 500 technical resources on staff, making large engagements difficult to resource.
• Poor data security. Enforcement of intellectual property and privacy legislation is weak. These are not common, but organizations must take steps anyway to prevent issues from coming up.
• Asynchronous time zones. North American customers sometimes find that communicating with Philippine providers means meeting very early in the morning or late at night. This can strain resources in both the client and vendor organization when compared to near-shore locations. While some projects leverage the time zone difference with around the clock development - for example handing off changes at the end of the business day and getting them back first thing in the morning - only a minority of outsourcing clients we spoke to were able to get time zone differences to work in their favor.
Recommendations

Follow these recommendations when considering the Philippines as an offshore destination:

1. Shortlist vendors. By themselves Locations come with their own obstacles and challenges. Well selected vendors can work around these limitations. Find prospective vendors through a professional association like the Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA)[6], the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPA/P)[2] or through an advisory service.
2. Discuss weaknesses with prospective vendors. Vendors' general outsourcing strengths can be evaluated, including technical competency, governance, and project management. However, question them about how they handle location-specific limitations. Be prepared to walk away from a vendor if the answers are unconvincing. For the Philippines, include questions like: How do you recruit and train middle managers? How do you deal with cultural differences between onshore and offshore team members? How do you ensure data security and protect intellectual property? How do you deal with time zone differences? How do you manage time zone stress in your staff?
3. Consider the Philippines for helpdesk services. High levels of English proficiency, cultural affinity, and an established contact center industry make this a natural fit.
4. Consider the Philippines for mainframe maintenance. The availability of resources with mainframe competencies makes mainframe maintenance and legacy conversion projects easier to resource in the Philippines than in other locations.
Update 2012

Since President Aquino took up his post on June 2010, he has pursued a selective anti-corruption agenda that led to the dismissal and replacement of the Supreme Court Chief Justice. He has also signed the Data Privacy Act 2011 and the CyberCrime Prevention Act in 2012, pending final arguments and voting.

Tax reforms, a balanced budget, disciplined fiscal measures (including modest economic stimulus and infrastructure expenditures) have worked together to raise the country’s reputation as an investment location. The country’s credit rating is on a 9-year high, and the Business Process Outsourcing industry is currently on-pace to exceed the annual growth goal of 15% for 2012.

There is also an emerging mobile development specialization. For example, Filipino app developers won two of three possible Google Apps Developer Challenge prizes for the South East Asian region in 2012 [8].

References & Links
1. A complimentary copy of the full report is now available from Code Crew > News & Downloads > Philippines for Outsourced IT Services.
2. Business Process Association of the Philippines (BPAP)
3. National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM)
4. CIA World Fact Book
5. Outsourced Work in Philippines BPO, International Labour Organization, Maragtas S.V. Amante, In press - January 2008
6. Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA)
7. Philippine Economic Zone Authority
8. Google Apps Developer Challenge 2012
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