IT coordinators and their functions in IT outsourcing

Challenges of IT outsourcing to India

Whether outsourcing to remote IT professionals, distributed teams or IT service providers – companies that decide to outsource and offshore IT services to India face a variety of cultural differences. Indian IT professionals are more specialized than Western professionals, who take a generalist view of a company’s IT due to their training. It is important to distribute tasks in teams in a way that takes into account the strengths and weaknesses of individual IT professionals. A lack of English skills can lead to serious communication difficulties and unintentional misunderstandings, with high subsequent costs as a result of acceptance and quality problems. Companies that have no experience of the technological side of an outsourced IT project run the risk of realizing undesirable developments too late and jeopardizing project completion within specified deadlines. In this article, we look at the functions of IT coordinators.

Recipe for success – create a bridge of mentality through IT coordinators

To ensure that these problems do not occur and that outsourcing and offshoring to India become economically successful ventures for companies, an IT coordinator acts as a mentality bridge. The IT coordinator, who is native to Western and Indian cultures, is available as a fixed and reliable contact person.

What does an IT coordinator do in his role as a mentality bridge?

An IT coordinator acts as a mentality bridge between the principals and the remote IT professionals in India. His or her tasks include:

In the exploratory phase

• Examination of requirement profiles
• Resume screening and pre-selection of suitable IT professionals
• Organization, coordination and debriefing of job interviews
• Organization and coordination of testing tasks

Before the start of cooperation

• Presentation of our best practice methods proven over many years
• Organization, coordination and support of a joint kick-off meeting

During the collaboration

• Organization and monitoring of daily meetings after the project start
• Conducting and analyzing regular customer feedback
• Ensuring the daily working hours of the IT experts
• Timely anticipation of the need for additional IT experts
• Professional solution finding in case of possible escalations

How do companies benefit from an IT coordinator?

Many outsourcing and offshoring projects in India fail due to the lack of a qualified IT coordinator who is familiar with both the Western and Indian cultures and thus creates a mentality bridge. The coordinator takes on demanding translation work and knows which questions to ask and when it is necessary to follow up. As a consulting partner, he is a contact person at eye level for all parties involved – regardless of hierarchical level.

This serves to ensure trusting cooperation between the customer as well as the outsourcing service provider and the IT experts in India. If serious complications arise, the IT coordinator takes over escalation management and offers amicable solutions.

Conclusion – successful outsourcing with mentality bridge

An IT coordinator takes on an advisory role in outsourcing and offshoring projects and ensures that companies work exclusively with qualified IT professionals in India. Any difficulties that arise are immediately identified and resolved on the basis of daily meetings and the collection of feedback. This ensures that all agreed services are provided and that the collaboration runs smoothly from an organizational point of view.