Warning! Don’t do it! Some people think outsourcing means cutting down on your costs, which is true. However, another very important aspect of outsourcing is that you outsource a certain job to someone professional and more experienced in doing that thing. By this way you not only save money but you also happen to increase value of your business.

The people who are just looking at the cost factor and want to give work to the lowest costing company, must also know that they can not only spoil their money, but waste time & energies.

We have been in this business from more than a decade, and most of our customers came to us after having failure to get their websites developed by other offshore providers. They were not confident to work with us, until we showed them some progress.

So just don’t decide on money, also see if the offshore company has necessary experience and expertise.

Best wishes!

After a long time, we are getting back to our domestic Internet market and looking to perform for the betterment of our society. The company has decided to launch two .PK domains online.

First one is GENEX.PK
We will be launching a company site for Genex Business Solutions focused on Pakistan’s market. This domain will work to provide information to young IT & non-IT students to join the technology revolution. More also we will present our business plans for the local businessmen to adopt technology for the benefit. Current website will keep working on its domain www.genexbs.com .

Second one is JOIN.PK
We have bigger plans for this site. We have been discussing this website with our team and friends from sometime. We have many ideas about it and have started some initial brand and concept design work already. We would like to keep it a surprise that what this site will hold for you. However I would like to tell you that it’s about networking the nation and showcasing the talented people from our country at global scale.

So stay tuned and keep looking for what we have in box for you. Do send in some comments, we will appreciate.

Elections are going to be held tomorrow on 18th of February 2008, throughout Pakistan. The country is having public holidays to conduct the election, which was long awaited. After all the recent tragic events, may be, we really were not ready for an election. Especially when, all the participating candidates and parties are the same, who have been accused of large scale corruption and mismanagement. So what one can expect from this election?

While all of us hope for improvements in the country situation, people also expect clashes after election between the ruling and opposition parties. They seem to be gone crazy for power and getting another chance to perform. So we all are keeping our fingers crossed for the results and hope for peace and unity.

We do not want to stand between those who accuse others for the bad situation of the country. In our group we target to do something worth to help our nation and country in our power. Since our core power is technology we emphasis on trainings and development. We all should do, whatever we can, to help people around us. One does not need to be a prime minister or president, to do good work. Of course the presidency puts president into a lot more responsible situation and he must make the right decisions.

Whoever the new government is, we will continue to support the controlling authorities and perform our duties to help our national beings and humans in global.

Outsourcing does not mean you are surely going to save money and become more profitable. You can end up spending more money and getting poor results. To eliminate the risks involved with outsourcing IT services offshore. You need to clearly evaluate the goals and targets of the exercise. Having a clear understanding of the requirements, process and outcome will help complete the task under the estimation.

You can format different kinds of contracts with your offshore partners, depending on your needs. I am going to explain the different possibilities and contract styles.

Target Based Contracts
If your requirements are precise and you know the final outcomes of the project, you can contract the offshore partner on Project Basis. The general process and terms of such contracts are as follows.

Offshore provider after receiving your requirements responds with a proposal, highlighting their capabilities, ideas, and process to fulfill your demand. They may also ask you questions if requirements are unclear to them. Upon clarification of the project and requirement, offshore parties will provide quote and timeline. Payment terms for such projects are made in installments upon several phases. For example, 30% upon startup, 20% upon approval of prototype, 30% upon beta, 20% upon completion. You should not pay 100% upfront, as that will increase risk factors. Paying upon completion of phases, secures you.

Example of any such project could be, that you need a blog site designed. You have already selected an open source, b2evolution for that. Let’s say you like a few sites for their design, and you are pretty sure you want something like that. So this task is clear to you and final output.

Another example could be that you require a web based Shopping Cart. Your requirements are clear and you have references available. In other words, the project which does not involve any research or new work can be worked upon in this contract type.

On Going Contracts
At times the requirements are as such that you need on-going work process. Cases could be such as you need on-going web marketing services. Such as sending out emails, blogging, and posting on forums. Even in this case you should clearly write down your objectives and what kind of exercises you want to do. For outsourcing requirements like these you should contract the offshore provider on per-hour basis. The offshore providers to work on such kind of jobs are available from $1 per hour to $10 per hour depending on the quality of work.

You should go for the companies providing you reporting for the number of hours spent on your job. One good portal to outsource like that is www.odesk.com, you are able to track your offshore worker and how he is working.
Payment terms for such contracts are safer for you. You pay for some hours upfront and get the work started. You buy more working hours after seeing the performance of the offshore provider.

Research work and consultation jobs can also be contracted on per hour basis.

Sales Based Contracts
If you have ready products and want to use an offshore partner to boost your sales, you can contract them on a percentage of sales they make. You need to define and know the ways and process your offshore company will follow clearly and put that in the contract. You do not want to find yourself responsible for any illegal ways the offshore provider adopts to promote you. More also you need to make sure your client information is secure.

Partnership Contracts
If you plan to develop a large scale application, technology, website (portal), you can consider working with an offshore partner in a long term partnership basis. You can make the offshore partner a minor (less than 50%) partner in the project and develop a long term relationship. This is the most promising way for both parties. You will get better development rates, long term support of the same party who developed the technology. In this case you must work with an established company with good repute and development experience in your business sector. Having this kind of contract, you will put your offshore partner’s maximum interest in your project.

It may take from a month to a year to find a suitable provider for your job. You need to do hard work in evaluating the offshore companies’ responses to your RFP (request for proposal) and negotiating with them to format a contract. If the risk factor is greater in finding the right partner offshore, the profit margins are higher as well. If you find the right partner, it’s your game then!

There are more ways to format a contract with your offshore partner. We will be glad to know your experience and any ways you know of outsourcing to offshore providers.

Health risk factors are involved with the night shift working community in India, Pakistan and other places. Specifically in Indo-Pak where the time zone difference with USA is less or more to 12 hours. The fact is the time zone difference of Lahore and Silicon Valley in USA is of exact 12 hours. Means when there is 2:00 PM there, its 2:00 AM here. Night shift is a necessity for offshore centers providing live services such as IT support, and call centers.

Doing these regular night shifts, we have seen boys & girls having dark circles on eyes, facing sleeping problems and more. Stress from customers adds to the disturbed routine to bring up health issues.

I myself have been up at nights from last many years, as most of my communication work is in United States. With this experience I have learned to live a different life. It’s a requirement as well as an opportunity. Our Creator has made humans flexible. The fact is that our body is so adoptive that it can adopt any circumstances and situations as provided. A proven fact is that, there are many unique people on earth who can perform various unbelievable acts with their bodies. How do they do that? There is just one answer, practice! They keep on doing it until they are able to do it like nobody else can, so they make records.

All we need to do is get some fixed sleep and do not stay up even in the day and then definitely getting back to work will be a problem. Same for the day workers, do not stay up at nights. Following a fixed routine will help, and you need to put in a little more efforts to do that.

There are risks involved with every field of life, even if you are just driving on a road; you are at risk of an accident. We cannot step back or be afraid of working at nights. Honestly, I really enjoy being up at nights. There are logical reasons for that, firstly you will find roads of Lahore all empty and open to drive easily, rather than in the day getting stuck in traffic JAM. Secondly nights are much more peaceful with fewer or no phone calls, no loud traffic noise and disturbances. My vote is to go for it and be a part of the future business tycoons.

Lastly, I want to say that, life is all not about comforts and safeguarding your own self. That will be a greedy life. If we have got a profession, and we are supporting businesses round the clock, we need to understand the importance of our mission. When we are doing it for the betterment of humans then why not sacrifice our comforts a bit and do the job?

We can do it